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Schools and oral history: Improvement in the teaching of social sciences through oral archives

Title (author1): 
Dr
First names (author1): 
Gustavo
Surname (author 1): 
Navarro
Institution: 
Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral
Country: 
ARGENTINA
Presentation type: 
poster
Date: 
27 Sept Tuesday
Start time: 
900
Venue: 
LoC Madison Building: Dining Rm. A
Abstract: 

The history and the memory of the Southern-Patagonian region is based on processes of domination, resistance by and genocide of its aboriginal peoples, union struggles, the carnage inflicted upon strikers, and this memory is linked to a particular social framework conformed by different migratory movements: the first one, coming from Europe comprising Welsh, Spanish, Croatian, English and Italian immigrants, who arrived at the beginning of the 20th century, the second movement coming from the North-western provinces of Catamarca, Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, whose people settled in the decades of ‘50, ‘70 and ‘90 to work in petroleum and the mines, and the current Bolivian, Chilean and Paraguayan immigrants, who come to join the Fishing Industry.

This project aims to improve the teaching of Social Sciences, making it possible to construct from the schools involved, an “extra-centric perspective” to the hegemonic historical interpretations. The proposal intends to improve simplistic records and unilateral visions in teaching, yearning for a complex reconstruction by male and female students, of various historical moments occurred in the region. The work poses the recovery of the subjects’ viewpoints, certifying voices that have been silenced up to now and diversifying the perspectives from which the history has been tackled.

The turn towards the "narrative" in Social Sciences and the undertaking of "memory" through the oral history offer new views and perspectives lacking in the local history. This includes not only the recovery of subaltern voices, but the dialogical relation between the memories of the past, narrated in the present and from the conflicts of the present. The concept of “collective memory” (Halbachs, 1998; Ricouer, 1999) is based on the notion of social frameworks of the memory. Thus, the project demands a “work” that implies the reconfiguration of the past sifted through later stories that supposes the challenge to involve the community in the construction of the history. Publishing of local oral stories continues being a way of breaking the barriers between the traditional historiography and the historical narrative entailed by the stories of the community.

The documentation consists of working on collaborative basis from the schools involved with local communities and mining and meat companies in the recovery of voices and oral testimonies of its settlers. In our opinion, the construction of sources constitutes an essential methodological tool to approach the epistemological dimension of Social Sciences, and within this framework, the work from life stories offers an analytical device that enriches the outline of the dimension of individual and social experience, establishing a different relation with the past, in contrast to the homogenizing stories of the historiography constructed from the centre.

Finally, the pedagogical proposal intends to offer elements so that male or female students may understand the dynamisms of the provincial territory. The knowledge on the tensions that crossed and continue affecting the local identities is fundamental so that male or female students are able to think and manage their own growth.