Typical Ranch Scene from Grand Chaco Region

Purpose  and  Objectives

Antique Steam Engine in Service Until 2000

Purpose

If funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Environmental, Cultural, and Historical Outlooks (ECHO), will address: 1) interrelated historical, cultural, and environmental landscapes unique to Paraguay; and 2) that nation’s relationships with its neighbors and the United States.

Note: A substantial portion of the project will deal with the natural resources and environmental management of the Paraguay River and Parana River watersheds.  This focus makes necessary the inclusion the border areas of Brazil and Argentina if participants are to gain a more regional perspective of the environmental conditions and problems that have major significance in Paraguay.

Objectives

ECHO will look at Paraguay as an individual nation, examining: 1) environmental issues; and 2) internal social, economic, and political relationships during the past three hundred years.  It will also examine Paraguay’s historical and modern relationships with its neighbors and with the world community, including the USA.  In addition, participants will develop Internet-based curricula and materials (web guides) pertaining to Paraguay and Pan-Americanism and will share these items with local, regional, and national colleagues to improve teaching and learning about: 1) cultural similarities, differences, and interrelationships; 2) changing contexts and perspectives in the Western Hemisphere; and 3)  environmental concerns, problems, and practices.

    Long-Range Outcomes Sought

         1. Group members will gain improved understandings and sensitivities in regard to: a) Paraguay’s past, present, and future; b) cultural similarities, differences, and  interrelatedness the hemispheric and global communities; and 3) wise and prudent management of our shared global environment.

         2. Based on members' overseas experiences, each participant team will develop an Internet-based curricula and materials package (web guide) built around environmental, historical, and/or cultural themes.  Web guides will include a sequence of teaching objectives, learner activities, evaluation techniques, and such mediated instructional support materials as Internet links, pictures and graphics, journal articles, video tapes, artifacts, maps, and recommended reading lists. (Web guides will be based on the participants' experiences and observations in South America but will have a format that can be generalized and applied to the study of other areas and peoples.) Web guides will be disseminated nationally via the CEC web site.

    Intermediate Outcomes Sought

     During pre-travel and overseas phases, the following objectives will be pursued:

         * Participants will examine current “economy vs. ecology” conflicts in Paraguay and neighboring countries and make generalizations about how the same conditions have or have not been manifested in regions of the Western Hemisphere.

          *  Participants will: 1) recognize the examples of environmental abuse and identify environmental management concerns--- for example, ecological balance and biodiversity, species survival, and citizen involvement in environmental custodianship--- in Paraguay; and  2) make generalizations about how the same problems and issues have or have not surfaced in various parts of  the USA.

         *  Participants will understand how the evolution of Paraguay’s history and culture has been shaped by its geographic location, the varied people who comprise its population, South American political blocs, and worldwide influences.  Similarly, they will better understand how the  perspectives of small nations, such as Paraguay often differ from those of political and economic superpowers, particularly in terms of the "balancing act" often required of them.

        *  Participants will understand how multiethnic populations can overcome differences in traditions, customs, and language in a cooperative manner, thus strengthening the society by capitalizing on divergence and pluralism (or the opposite in some instances).

         *  Participants will understand the problems and issues that have been part of Paraguay's history (e.g. colonialism, cultural/ethnic cooperation and conflict, economic imbalance, political volatility, resource scarcity, etc.), and will make generalizations about how the same problems have confronted and influenced other nations and populations, especially those in South America.

         * Participants will better understand the differences in traditions, customs, and language which must be recognized and accommodated if cooperation and collaboration among nations is to become a viable determinant in the future of the Western Hemisphere.

         * Participants will become more knowledgeable about Paraguayan and South American culture(s) and will identify those threads of tradition which are shared  by peoples of the northern and southern continents of this hemisphere.

         * Participants will understand the common problems and issues (e.g., unemployment, famine, military invasion, political repression, religious persecution, resource depletion, etc.) which have prompted emigration to Paraguay and will make generalizations about how the same problems and issues have historically resulted in similar decisions by other world populations to resettling in the USA.

    Short-Range Outcomes Sought

    Specific goals for the in-country portion of the project are:

          * Participants will identify the various” waves” of political and economic influence or domination in Paraguay and understand the impact of these "waves" in the context of the continuum of its history.

         *  Participants will identify the post-World War II political/economic/geographic positions of Paraguay and, further, identify those factors which have had particularly telling influence on its relation relations with other members of the world community.

          *  Participants will identify the cultural/ethnic groups within the Paraguayan population and trace the pathways leading to cross-cultural understanding, cooperation, and amity (or lack thereof).

          *  Participants will identify the political and economic conditions that today exist in Paraguay and  further, will identify the domestic situations that are now undergoing dramatic change---restructuring the educational system, revamped political structure, attention to human rights and ecological issues, etc
.
          * Participants will identify the principal geographic regions of Paraguay and the environmental/ecological issues, problems, and practices characteristic to each.

         *  Participants will identify examples of cooperation (or lack thereof) between Paraguay and its neighboring nations in terms of how common environmental resource management concerns have been addressed (e.g., forests and wet lands, water resources and hydroelectricity, natural habitats and species maintenance, environmental education, citizen activism, etc.)

          *  Participants will develop clearer, more factual understandings of today's South American realities by means of person-to-person interactions with teachers, professors, students, and citizens of Paraguay and its closest neighboring countries; similarly, they will promote better understandings of the United States and its people by means of their daily ECHO contacts.