Opinion of the Community of Huajintlán, Morelos, About Linkage with Higher Education Students

Abstract

The presented study was conducted in the community of Huajintlán, Morelos, Mexico. Its presumed objective was to get to know the opinion of the involved individuals from the local community about the performed activities through linkage with students from the Sistema de Integración al Medio Rural (SIMR). A qualitative investigation was carried out with the application of the phenomenological method; the research sample was integrated by 30 people, male and female, whose ages ranged within 24 and 65 years old. An instrument of 17 items was used for data collection, and it was applied to the participants from the local community who took part in the development of activities along with the higher education students. The results show that the primary form of insertion into the community for the SIMR students turned out to be actions performed with elementary level students (84%). The main activities performed by the students with the community participants were the elaboration of jam, mazapán (a traditional peanut powder based candy) and ice cream (53%), which moreover represented an alternative income venue, contributed to family home expenses and propitiated and exchange of knowledge between the higher education students and the community inhabitants; furthermore, the community participants manifested their willingness to hire a student from the research group once he or she graduated. The linkage-interaction binomial is present within the contemplated activities of the SIMR learning unit from the Rural Development Bachelor Degree. Benefits and needs were generated through this process, which are considered as part of the methods that promote growth and development of the participants by contrasting, linking and applying the knowledge obtained in the classroom in opposition to a real life scenario.