A half decade after the conclusion of the National Literacy Crusade, Deborah Brandt composed an analysis on the history of Sandinista education entitled, “Popular Education” in Nicaragua: The First Five Years (1985, edited by Thomas W. Walker). Brandt argued the symbiotic relationship between the militia members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front or the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) and the historically disenfranchised rural peasants through popular education programs, most notably the National Literacy Crusade. Like Arnove (1981) Brandt argued the interactions between urban and rural Nicaraguans as well as the egalitarian efforts to introduce women to authority positions as teachers provided by the Sandinistas
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Arnove and Torres noted the rapidness of the National Literacy Crusade. In comparison to Mexico’s “corporatist” and “incremental” approach to combating illiteracy Sandinista Nicaragua employed a “revolutionary” strategy akin to the grander Sandinista ideology. Arnove and Torres expanded upon the consistent threat of terrorism. They argued that not only did counter-revolutionary violence indirectly defunded Sandinista education programs, but that counter-revolutionary terrorism posed a significant threat to the safety of volunteer teachers as these teachers were often targeted by …show more content…
Freeland’s study of the Sandinista education in the Atlantic region offered an insight into several of the issues that the Sandinista government faced in planning education curriculums, training non-Spanish-speaking teachers, and respecting the fragile ecosystem of languages, which included English, Creole, Rama, and a multitude of indigenous tongues. Freeland’s article provides a narrow, but important assessment of the National Literacy Crusade and Sandinista education policy. In placing Sandinista education policy within the context of the education of non-Spanish speakers in Nicaragua, Freeland provides a distant angle of interpretation as compared to assessing Nicaragua through the history of Sandinista education
Arnove and Torres noted the rapidness of the National Literacy Crusade. In comparison to Mexico’s “corporatist” and “incremental” approach to combating illiteracy Sandinista Nicaragua employed a “revolutionary” strategy akin to the grander Sandinista ideology. Arnove and Torres expanded upon the consistent threat of terrorism. They argued that not only did counter-revolutionary violence indirectly defunded Sandinista education programs, but that counter-revolutionary terrorism posed a significant threat to the safety of volunteer teachers as these teachers were often targeted by …show more content…
Freeland’s study of the Sandinista education in the Atlantic region offered an insight into several of the issues that the Sandinista government faced in planning education curriculums, training non-Spanish-speaking teachers, and respecting the fragile ecosystem of languages, which included English, Creole, Rama, and a multitude of indigenous tongues. Freeland’s article provides a narrow, but important assessment of the National Literacy Crusade and Sandinista education policy. In placing Sandinista education policy within the context of the education of non-Spanish speakers in Nicaragua, Freeland provides a distant angle of interpretation as compared to assessing Nicaragua through the history of Sandinista education