Guillermo Ruiz

Revisiting comparative education in Latin America: traditions, uses, and perspectives

ABSTRACT Comparative education is a field with a tradition that dates back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The field has come a long way since the times when travellers sought educational experiences that could be applied in their places of origin; it has expanded across the world, though the rhythm of knowledge production varies significantly from one region to the next. More recently, the increased attention to educational internationalisation has enlarged the pool of perspectives linked to the field. In this paper, we examine some of the more recent debates on comparative education to provide an analysis of the field within a specific context: Latin America. From a historical perspective, we analyse the continuity of, and ruptures between, the field on both global and regional fronts. We emphasise specific features of the region: how was comparison introduced, which were the main loci of production and circulation, who tends to use it at present and for what purpose. We focus on the circulation of themes and practices in three periods of time among Latin American countries. A particular form of academic institutionalisation – not driven by universities – is a unique feature of the region that differs from paradigmatic comparative education.

EL ACCESO IRRESTRICTO DE ESTUDIANTES A LAS UNIVERSIDADES ARGENTINAS A TRAVÉS DE LOS DISCURSOS DE LA PRENSA DIARIA (1982-1983)

Historicamente, los estudiantes han desempenan un rol primordial en la lucha por la mejora de la universidad. En Argentina, tras la derrota en la Guerra de Las Malvinas (1982), se produjo la reactivacion del movimiento estudiantil y con ella la disputa por la consecucion del acceso irrestricto a los estudios superiores. En este trabajo se toman tres variables como objeto de estudio – universidad, estudiantes y acceso irrestricto – que se analizan esencialmente a partir del estudio de la prensa diaria ( Clarin , La Prensa y La Nacion ). El objetivo fundamental es poner en evidencia la posicion de los estudiantes respecto al tipo de procedimiento para el acceso a la universidad durante la epoca de la transicion a la democracia (considerada aqui entre junio de 1982 y finales del ano 1983) y la forma de hacerla visible o efectiva ante las autoridades y, por ende, ante el panorama publico, al darse visibilidad de ello en la prensa.

Music Education at Hospital Schools in Spain and Sweden: Paths between Governing and Knowledge.

This paper focuses on some debates regarding music education within hospital schooling, an educational track that has developed in the course of the 20th century within Western education systems. Analysis and proposals are made with respect to the music education curriculum content in primary education, within hospital education tracks, in Spain and Sweden. In order to critically approach the changing definition of what is considered significant knowledge, we discuss how music education curriculum content is included in hospital schools located in the capitals Madrid and Stockholm.

La formación docente analizada en perspectiva comparada : convergencias y divergencias en las transformaciones de la formación inicial del profesorado para el nivel secundario en el MERCOSUR

En las ultimas decadas los paises del Sur de America Latina realizaron reformas que tuvieron en la estructura academica y en la formacion de los profesores dos de sus ejes de transformacion. Si adoptamos la perspectiva comparada e internacional, podemos evidenciar que en las reformas educativas implementadas en los paises latinoamericanos, se noto una ampliacion del rango de obligatoriedad hasta llegar a cubrir la educacion de nivel medio. Entendemos que la comprension historica de los ciclos, modalidades, de sus cambios y el estudio curricular respectivo, permite interpretar las implicancias que tienen las transformaciones implementadas en dichas dimensiones en la actualidad de la realidad educativa en estos paises. En este trabajo realizamos un analisis de los cambios que experimento la formacion del profesorado para el nivel secundario en algunos paises del MERCOSUR para identificar divergencias y convergencias de las transformaciones asi como los fundamentos pedagogicos que orientaron dichas acciones de reforma educativa. This article focuses on the educational reforms that have taken place in South America countries. Academic structures and teachers training programs were affected by these policies. From a comparative and international perspective, it is possible to identify also an increase of the range of compulsory education that reaches the secondary-level of education in most of Western countries. We believe that it is necessary to understand from an historical point of view the changes of the cycles, tracks and the curricula of these educational systems. Therefore, in this paper we analyze changes experimented at the training teacher policy, for the secondary level, in some MERCOSUR countries. We will point out divergences and convergences of educational reforms as well as their pedagogical foundations.