Escuela Y Diversidad Cultural En La EducacióN Primaria De Personas JóVenes Y Adultas En Santiago Del Estero, Argentina

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which diversity is named and processed in schools and Adult Basic Education centers in the city of Santiago del Estero and its surrounding urban and peri-urban areas. In order to do this, we examined the regulations at both the national and provincial level and carried out a series of participant observations in eight of these institutions. Furthermore, we interviewed members of the teaching and management staff as well as the students. We found that the teaching and management personnel carry out a committed work in favor of building a diverse student body which avoids educational exclusion in their institutions. The staff acknowledges the diversity of the students in terms of their school and generational knowledge as well as their needs, but makes sociocultural diversity in a broad sense invisible. Finally, we identified that the strategies for approaching diversity in place in these institutions are mostly homogenizing and tend to develop “situated geographies” of inclusion / exclusion.