Argentina. Researching ethnic and educational inequalities in changing policy scenarios: from homogenization to the recognition of diversity.

MEO, ANALÍA INÉS; CIMOLAI, SILVINA; ENCINAS, LARA

The Palgrave handbook of race and ethnic inequalities in education. 2nd edition

PALGRAVE

Año: 2019; p. 7 - 61

This article maps research traditions examining ethnic and educational inequalities in basic education in Argentina from the 1980s up to 2015. A previous similar analysis was undertaken by two of the authors of this piece (Meo et al. 2014). This revised version of the original chapter has also involved acknowledging not only the history of the education system but also the nature of the recent developments in the field of educational knowledge production. This paper offers a typology of research traditions, which are described via a set of studies that have addressed specific research themes or topics, and have deployed similar theoretical tools and methodological strategies (Stevens 2007; Stevens et al. 2011). Boundaries between traditions are not clear and tend to overlap; however, each revolves around specific educational research concerns involving indigenous people and/or immigrants. This article is organized into four main sections. The first section presents basic information regarding social and educational policies targeted at indigenous people and immigrants both before and during the period under analysis. It also depicts the current socio-demographic situation of these groups. Moreover, it offers key data on the Argentine education system, such as structure, governance, participation of the state and private sector, and recent democratizing trends of basic schooling. The second section presents the methodological strategy deployed to make visible the local knowledge produced around ethnic and educational inequalities. It describes a set of systematic and flexible criteria used for searching, identifying and selecting research on ethnic and educational inequalities in Argentina. The following sections explore the identified five research traditions in turn: ?Mapping educational situation?, ?Intercultural educational policies?, ?Language conflict and schooling?, ?Difference and diversity?, and ?School texts as a means of othering?. Finally, the last section identifies potential territories to be charted by these expanding, rich and promising research traditions.