Exchange programs can be a critical turning point on the road from youthful ambitions to a rewarding professional life. Peruvian José Flores Barboza credits his Fulbright experience with enabling him to turn dreams into reality.
Flores was one of six children in a family in which neither of the parents had any secondary education. The family clearly thought knowledge was important, however. His father, the leader of his worker’s union, was a self-educated man, and his grandfather, whose vision began to fail when Flores was seven, asked the youngster to read the newspaper to him each day. Recalling the unexpected benefits of this task, Flores says, “Over time, I caught on to the issues of the country and the world. And, most important, I became a voracious reader.”
Flores attended public schools throughout his education. He entered the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos to study law and, at nineteen, also began a course of studies in education. He obtained his degree in education at the age of 23 and, two years later, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law. By that time, he had already begun teaching logic at San Marcos.
By 1965, he was teaching other subjects as well, including a course on medieval universities. Recalls Flores, “I began to ask myself, what role does a university play in the development of its motherland? Do curricula, kinds of degree programs, ideology, have a significant importance in driving professional groups toward economic development? I devoted a lot of time to try to get a response that made sense.”
Flores began doctoral studies in 1968 and achieved his degree three years later with the thesis “Factors Influencing Student Achievement in the Course of Philosophy at the Secondary Level.” In 1976, he was elected program director of education at San Marcos and, a year later, received a Fulbright grant to study for his master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at the University of Pittsburgh.
Flores’ experience at Pittsburgh was valuable on many levels. He became close to Program Director John Morgan, who offered him a position as assistant in the Department of Education and served as his mentor on an ongoing basis. He also found new ways to think about his ongoing interest in effective teaching to produce individuals who will make positive contributions to national development. Says Flores, “I learned that disciplined academic work and products are the main criteria to evaluate an instructor’s efficiency and that a systematic approach is a powerful tool to analyze social institutions.”
He received his master’s degree in April 1980 with the thesis “Teaching Effectiveness Process Criteria in the Social Sciences.” Upon his return to Peru, he was asked by the government to direct a yearlong evaluation of the National Education Reform of 1968 to 1980. Following that effort, he organized courses to help teachers improve their teaching techniques in a number of provinces of Peru.
In 1981, Flores received a grant from the Organization of American States to pursue a doctorate in curriculum and supervision at the University of Pittsburgh, where John Morgan once again provided support in the form of a teaching assistantship in curriculum design and evaluation. The fieldwork for Flores’ doctoral thesis, “An Evaluation of the Distance Program to Specialize Teachers in Educational Technology,” was done in Peru, and he received his doctorate in the United States in November 1983.
The following decade was a productive period for Flores. He wrote books and articles on university curriculum design and program evaluation, served as director of graduate studies at San Marcos, and returned to the University of Pittsburgh as a research associate to keep abreast of knowledge in his field. He also served as a visiting professor at several universities in Peru, further expanding his knowledge of the academic institutions in his country. In 1995, he was elected dean of the School of Education at San Marcos and the following year became a consultant for academic audits to the government of Peru.
In 1997, Flores was asked to serve as academic advisor to the rector of Universidad Ricardo Palma. Two years later, he was appointed the university’s director of academic evaluation and development. Flores’ activities at the Universidad Ricardo Palma enable him to continue working with universities around Peru through his program, Curriculum Transformation for the XXI Century. He also achieved a long-held goal of visiting Harvard University when he attended a seminar for university leaders that he learned about in the LASPAU Informativo.
Says Flores, “I am extremely grateful to the Fulbright Program. It represented the spark I needed to become all that I was able to. Otherwise, it would have been almost impossible to study in an American university. And grateful for my three children, too, because they obtained part of their education in American schools and now are working as a lawyer, a translator, and an industrial engineer.”
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