La mediación social en la apropiación de una nueva propuesta para la alfabetización inicial

Abstract

This article aims at showing the importance of social mediation in the processes of appropriation by teachers of new teaching proposals derived from the reforms. Appropriation is depicted as an active social process in which teachers construct and redefine senses and knowledges from the use of the new tools placed before them. An ethnography-based description is made of some of the forms and meanings through which the teachers in this investigation appropriate a new pedagogical proposal for initial literacy introduced at the national level. It was possible to identify how in their interaction with the proposal, the teachers develop their own interpretations and practices which, rather than corresponding to a point-by-point reproduction of the proposal, constitute a process of appropriation. The latter also results from a collective construction by the teachers, since those who try to put the proposal in practice share their reflections, doubts, and decisions with other teachers that have already done it before, such as the "consulting" teacher and other colleagues from the same school. The analysis refers to the experiences described by teachers working in first grade classes of Mexican schools who were taking part in an advisory program derived from the reform that gave rise to the National Program for the Improvement of Reading and Writing in Basic Education (PRONALEES).