Education and indigenous peoples: then and now

Abstract

How did education contribute to the crystallization of a hegemonic discourse on the extinction or dilution of the original population in Argentina at the beginning of the national educational system in the last decades of the 19th century? And, after almost a century and a half of existence, what topics remain and which have changed in the current schools with respect to indigenous peoples? Based on an approach to two horizontal or cross section time segments (Pickenhayn 1998: 52) of the Argentinian educational system (its origins and the present), we try to analyze the continuities and the changes of educational narratives about native people drwaing on different sources and state reports such as textbooks, regulations, inspectorate reports and statistics. A priori, in the schools of the 21st century, the old festive story of state conformation and the extinction of the indigenous (sometimes lamented) seems to coexist with critical approaches more attached to the current historical accounts and their consequences for the native population. For various reasons, a more respectful approach to cultural diversity does not always translate into classroom activities despite the existence of tools, curricula and didactic materials that collide with the traditional narrative of extinction.