University of Scranton students working with women of Taputsama Talakxtumit to build a natural water filtration system.
teacher-learner relationship as one of co-equality as opposed to one based on authority. These principles also value “connected knowing,” in which the learner is asked to evaluate new information and opinions on their own terms rather than through the lens of her own terms and opinions. As a result, all participants, whether University of Scranton students, Totonac men and women, non-indigenous Mexican community workers or University of Scranton faculty, learn to listen and learn from one another. We partner with a Mexican nongovernmental organization (NGO), Xasasti Yolistli, which is based in the city of Puebla and provides many indigenous women’s cooperatives in the state of Puebla with capacity-building support and microloans.3 At the end of the trip, we visit the offices of
Xasasti Yolistli, and the students therefore gain the chance to meet other indigenous women’s groups and learn how NGOs play central roles in international development efforts. Students were astonished to learn that some of the women who came to meet with us had traveled more than four hours by bus over rural roads and would be making the long journey home the same day. Not only do we and our students gain from our interactions with the women of Taputsama Talakxtumit, our brief one- to two-week class visit provides economic support for dozens of members in the community of Huehuetla that will last for months. Community members earn revenue both from our stay at the eco-tourism center and by providing us with guest talks and workshops in which they share Fall 2010 The University of Scranton
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