School coexistence in latin america: A review of latin american literature (2007-2017)

Abstract

School coexistence is a crucial area of education. Democracy, inclusion, participation and a peaceful resolution of conflict can be promoted through coexistence, articulating the entire daily nature of school. This paper reviews empirical research conducted in Latin America-due to the importance of the subject in this region-, considering countries, methodologies, and the most recurring dimensions in this works, as well as their results. In order to perform this review, the researchers used Google Scholar because it provided a broader search range than other tools and it has free access; in addition, a period of 10 years was considered, between 2007 and 2017. Finally, 64 empirical research articles were selected. The results show that most of them come from 4 countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico; most of the works are diagnostic in nature; interviews are the most used technique; and conflict is the most recurrent topic. Other relevant results suggest that school violence usually is approached through punishment, that there is a lack of information about school coexistence during the first semesters of teacher training, that respect is a core school value, that conflict is associated with violence-which makes it hard to approach-, that there is a positive valuation towards cultural diversity, and that participation is a central element in school coexistence.