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Conceptions of success and contextual influences in training for rural community development: A case study of the Training Center for Social Promoters (CAPS) in Guatemala
Abstract
This study reviews the literature on training and community development, and examines conceptions of success and contextual factors affecting it in the case of the Training Center for Social Promoters (CAPS) in Guatemala. It gives primary attention to views of the voluntary community promoters themselves in order to help remedy a prevailing neglect of participant perspectives on training or the development process in the literature. The case study is based on some program documents, observation of training, visits in 1989 to twenty-six rural villages in four regions of Guatemala and in-depth interviews with forty four volunteer community promoters on location. There also were supplementary interviews on the same issues with five extension workers and two core trainers of CAPS. The author presents findings in the form of descriptive narratives, quotations from interviews and comparative tables. It is seen, for instance, that promoters' views of success follow a pattern that reflects their position in society, their indigenous or non-indigenous background, and powerful economic, political and religious factors. Non-indigenous ladino promoters view success largely in terms of individual achievement and economic improvement, while indigenous promoters see it more as a process toward communal advancement, cultural survival and self-determination. There are also contrasts between promoter, extension worker and trainer perceptions of what success is, and what influences it. In conclusion the author draws out implications of this study for trainers, community developers and researchers, and makes recommendations for each. There are also specific recommendations for CAPS, a twenty-four year old non-governmental training and rural development organization that is facing internal changes and external challenges posed by hundreds of new NGOs in Guatemala.
Subject Area
Social work|Latin American history|Multicultural Education|Continuing education
Recommended Citation
Sanchez, Elmer Manolo, "Conceptions of success and contextual influences in training for rural community development: A case study of the Training Center for Social Promoters (CAPS) in Guatemala" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9219490.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9219490