Cultural relevance of the curriculum in schools in Chile’s northern tri-border region: dilemmas and challenges

Abstract

The study analyses the contents alluding to migration, respect for cultural diversity, nationalism and chileanness, in the curriculum of the subjects History, Geography and Social Sciences and Language and Communication/Language and Literature, implemented in urban and rural schools in the tri-border region of Arica and Parinacota (Chile) with the highest concentration of students of Andean or Afro origin, and children born in Chile of migrant parents. Through thematic content analysis with the QSR-Nvivo 12 programme, the corpus of curricula and school texts used at seven educational levels between 2018 and 2020 is analysed. The results reveal the scarcity of content referring to migration and cultural diversity. The contents of chileanness and nationalism refer to present and past tensions and disputes between Chile and neighbouring countries, with a predominantly nationalist position of sovereignty. It is concluded that the curriculum is not culturally relevant to the tri-border region.