Teaching about colonialism, nationalism, and neoliberal patriarchy during the Chilean social outbreak

Abstract

While Chile currently commemorates 50 years since the 1973 coup, it is also immersed in the process of writing a new Constitution to replace that of 1980, which is responsible for the all over present neoliberalism, including the education system. The constituent process is a direct consequence of the social outburst of 2019. In this context, this article informs Other Sociologies of Education by describing the experience of a course inspired by decolonial studies and offered at a community higher education initiative that emerged from a local government, aiming to democratize education. To reconstruct the course experience, we used documents, our own memories and some participants written thoughts, and we wrote this article following the methodology of narrative productions. The article suggests that there is great potential in transmitting decolonial studies – for their capacity to explain and transform ethnic-racial relations in Latin American societies – in community education.

ABSTRACT (Spanish)

Mientras Chile conmemora actualmente los 50 años del golpe de 1973, también está inmerso en el proceso de redacción de una nueva Constitución que reemplace a la de 1980, responsable de todo el neoliberalismo actual, incluido el sistema educativo. El proceso constituyente es consecuencia directa del estallido social de 2019. En este contexto, este artículo aporta a Otras Sociologías de la Educación describiendo la experiencia de un curso inspirado en los estudios decoloniales ofrecido en una iniciativa de educación superior comunitaria surgida de un gobierno comunal, con el objetivo de democratizar la educación. Para reconstruir la experiencia del curso seguimos la metodología de las producciones narrativas, utilizando documentos, nuestros propios recuerdos y algunas reflexiones escritas de las y los participantes. El artículo sugiere que los estudios decoloniales – debido a su capacidad de explicar y transformar las relaciones étnico-raciales en las sociedades latinoamericanas – tienen un gran potencial para ser usadas en la educación comunitaria. - en la educación comunitaria.

Keywords:

• Chile
• migration
• discrimination
• social outbreak
• decolonial studies
• popular university

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Leonora Beniscelli, who was also a teacher of the course referred to in our article, and who made many valuable contributions to the writing of this text. Part of the reflections in this article are drawn from the postdoctoral work of the Fondecyt project Nº 3210090, funded by Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID), Chile.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-printer-716.html (accessed on May 19, 2023)

2 www.recoleta.cl

3 https://www.uar.cl/universidad-mision-vision/ (accessed on May 19, 2023)

4 Dictionary of the Real Academia Española

5 Haitian migration to Chile had started before 2010, but in that year, the big earthquake that happened in Haiti led to a significant growth of Haitian emigration, and part of that migratory flows led to Chile. For more information about Haitian migration to Chile, see Rojas Pedemonte, Amode, and Vásquez Rencoret (2015).

6 http://nudesoc.cl/

7 When saying “the pot that exploded” (in Spanish: la olla que explotó) this participant is making an analogy between a pressure cooker (olla a presión) and the social situation right before the outbreak: a pressure cooker is a very practical kitchen tool, but it is extremely dangerous and destructive if it’s not handled in the right way. The meaning of this is: a market-driven democracy works fine if the rulers achieve wellbeing for everyone, but it produces rage if it doesn’t achieve social justice.

8 As UAR had provided us the mail addresses of all participants at the beginning of the course, we were able to ask them for their written reflections, and afterwards, for their consent to publish their reflections. Four of the five students sent us that consent by mail, and we only cite reflections of students who sent their consent.

Additional information

Funding

Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo;