Abstract

VARELA FREIRE, Gabriela Soledad. Contemporary Official Architecture and Social Space in Rural Mountain Schools in the Context of the Indigenous Communities of Tucuman (Argentina). Entrediversidades rev. cienc. soc. humanid. [online]. 2022, vol.9, n.1, pp.46-75.  Epub Mar 15, 2023. ISSN 2007-7610.  https://doi.org/10.31644/ed.v9.n1.2022.a02.

The school building is the space where the State conceives formal education. Its architecture is an active instrument in the learning processes and in the formation of citizenship. Since 2006, with the National Education Law, the Argentine State has sought to adapt teaching mechanisms for rural schools and indigenous communities with the main objective of respecting their idiosyncrasies. This article looks for clues to approach the problem of how the State resolves the contradiction that it poses to itself between the homogenizing-disciplining civic formation that it intends to impart and the respect for the cultural identities in the rural areas of indigenous communities. The dynamics of the social space generated by the proposed school architecture and temporal, spatial and social roles during festive-cultural events of communities and schools were considered. Three rural mountains schools in Tucumán in three indigenous communities were taken as case studies. From this study it can be concluded that although there are built links between the educational communities and the indigenous communities of the cases analyzed, these relationships often reproduce the mechanisms of subordination that the State has been imposing materially (in the school building) and symbolically (in social practice). As a result, the active participation of indigenous communities in the most important decisions is often limited.

Keywords : school architecture; community festivities; public policies; territory.