Social inequality, technological inequality and educational heterogeneity in the light of the Conectar Igualdad OLPC Programme (Salta, Argentina, 2015-2017)

ALEJANDRA GARCÍA VARGAS; LAURA GOLOVANEVSKY; MARÍA ROSA CHACHAGUA

Digital Inequalities in the Global South

Palgrave Macmillan

Año: 2020; p. 319 - 346

Which role may the development of digital technologies play for education in the Global South? What has been done so far and what could be done in the short run to bridge digital inequalities in the Global South? This paper bridges both questions in order to analyze them via quantitative and qualitative data referring to a specific context and on a specific educative policy: the Connect Equality Programme (CIP) as a social policy applied in an urban and a rural secondary school located in Salta (Argentina).With an interdisciplinary approach, this case study allows us to generate evidence on digital-inequality issues facing adolescents among marginalized communities; and promotes evidence-informed policy change for the improvement of the access, the use, and the implementation of ICTs for educational, social and cultural development (van Dijk, 2005).Both in Latin America and in Argentina, inequality is a historical and severe structural condition (Kessler, 2010). In turn, the social uses of technology constitute an important field of debate in the area, and the technological equity conditions during childhood and adolescence are part of most of the political and educational agendas of Latin America countries (Becerra, 2015; Reygadas 2008; Rivoir, 2009). The concern is repeated, as well, in the public discussions at local and national levels (Morales, 2015). In that context, this article is set to describe the situation in Argentina, particularly in the northwestern region to which Salta belongs, introducing questions on the basis of the analysis of the implementation of the Conectar Igualdad Programme (CIP) both in a rural and an urban secondary schools from the province of Salta (Benítez Larghi and Winocur, 2016).The province of Salta is part of northwestern Argentina (NWA), a region that includes an Andean area (with varying heights of up to 6,700 metres above sea level), desert areas and also lowlands of a great diversity of wild species (yungas and Chaco salteño). Historically, NWA was the first region in which the Spaniards settled in during their entry to the area of influence of the Río de la Plata; and the northern cities -particularly the provincial capitals- are amongst the oldest in the country. This territory has been inhabited since ancient times by indigenous peoples of various ethnicities, who developed complex agricultural (especially in the Andean area) and livestock management systems, even in an extremely hostile environment such as the Puna. During the colonial period, NWA -particularly Salta and Jujuy- was of great importance as a passing zone towards the mines of Potosí, which were the centre of interest of the Spanish colonial project. After independence, and being the Argentine national territory already shaped with a similar morphology to the current one, the implantation of the agroexport model implied the reorientation of the economy, which turned towards the Pampean region; while those local economies, which served the interests of said model due to their characteristics, were developed. During this process, northern Argentina has progressively plunged into poverty, and has not managed, except for particular locations and periods, to get out of this situation of disadvantage. This work focuses on the digital inequality in Salta, with the aim of delving into a specific and little-traveled dimension of the research on regional inequity. The possibility of rebuilding a material geography of the presence of the ICTs in the territory of Salta appears to be necessary to observe, later on, both the heterogeneity as well as the inequalities of their multiple social uses, hence visibility a part of the diverse forms and possibilities of access in our country.The work with comparative public statistical information during the 2011-2017 period, which is introduced in the first part of the article, allows us to address the presence/absence of various technological devices in Argentine households, pointing out the differences between regions and specifying the situation for the province of Salta. Said statistical information is combined with an inclusive approach on the role, the valuation and the differential use of technologies according to contexts, regions and diverse socio-economic conditions. In order to do that, the aforementioned statistical information is combined with recent debates about the technological dissemination policies in Latin America during the cycle of progressive Latin American governments, with the analysis of the implementation of the CIP in Argentina, and with the fieldwork in an urban school and a rural school, the latter being mediated by technologies in the province of Salta (2015-2017).