Curricular Reforms in Latin America with Special Emphasis on the Argentine Case

The purpose of this article is to describe the effect of the curricular reforms introduced in Latin America in the 1990s. Special emphasis is placed on the Argentine case. Therefore, this work initially makes a historical synthesis of the curricular policies in the region, from the creation of modern education systems by the end of the nineteenth century, up to the present. Secondly, the proposals for education reforms during the 1990s are put forward, with an emphasis on the Argentine experience. The search for some degree of decentralisation of the curricular policies and, at the same time, the emergence of centralised systems of educational assessment, are the issues treated in this section. Lastly, the work discusses the concrete effects that the reform policies have had in the Argentine case. The central hypothesis is that far from a decentralisation of decision-making responsibilities in terms of curriculum, the system is hyper-regulated as a consequence of the interaction of several factors, many of which are related to the centralised tradition which has characterised the development and management of curriculum in most countries in the region.     

The Natural Sciences in The Schools: Tension in the Modernization Process of Argentine Society (1870–1960)

In this paper, we analyze one of the issues that has historically influenced the primary and secondary schools in Argentina: the politicization of the Natural Sciences curriculum. Here we present research findings for two particularly important cases: (a) the evolutionist theories, and (b) the teaching of Astronomy and Cosmography. These findings make it possible to reconsider the complex relationship which exists between the Natural Sciences, the scholastic institution, and politics. We conclude that the ways in which contents are selected and arranged into disciplines arise as a solutionto ideological conflicts. The role of the school in these conflicts was not that of a passive spectator but that of an active participant in the construction of knowledge.     

An overview of educational policies in the countries of Latin America during the 1990s

In this paper we want to examine the construct of the Learning Society in its economic and social context in the UK. We will argue that the policy rhetoric which makes up the current discourse of the ‘learning’ society is both powerfully normative and unhelpfully reductionist and that it displaces and masks issues of inequality. The discourse of the Learning Society has conflated the achievement of increased levels of participation for 16‐ to 19‐year‐olds with the insertion of market mechanisms and relations and the assertion of self‐interest. This has meant that issues of exclusion, polarization and social justice have been systematically neglected. The Learning Society provides, we suggest, for a redrawing and relegitimation of patterns of exclusion. In particular, in a time of social crisis, middle‐class retrenchment (masked as familial duty) has re‐asserted itself, in part, through a specific, particular engagement with the Learning Society in order to ensure advantage and distinction. As Connell (1996: 5) puts it, this ‘is the point on which the politics of education markets mainly turns’. Thus, we believe it is critical to address the question, ‘Whose Learning Society'? We shall attempt this through a preliminary examination of data collected from a cohort of 16‐year‐olds who are in the process of transition from statutory schooling into a post‐16 education and training market (ETM), and deploy their ‘emergent narratives’ to problematize the normative simplicities of the Learning Society.