CULTURAL OVERVIEW OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION IN CHILE: AN INTERMEDIATE READING OF A DOWNFALL

AN INTERMEDIATE READING OF A DOWNFALL

Abstract

Considering the social and cultural temper of education, the aim of this paper is to deepen in the ideological status of what we can call "the figure of the school-teacher", to problematize about the pedagogical systems, inserted in the chilean school system and represented by the teaching characters of the chosen corpus. For this purpose, we decided to investigate a research territory that has not been sufficiently explored, such as its representation in literary writing and some recent cinematographic works in Chile, applying an intermediate methodology. Under the intermediate paradigm of knowledge, that is, considering the elements, aesthetics and crossings that have different artistic disciplines, we propose to review the selected cultural objects. Under this paradigm, the relations between the objects of the corpus, whatever their system of signs, will allow an integrated and deep analysis, which will propitiate the exploration of elements of the pedagogical systems, embedded in the actions of the teacher-characters. In short, the teacher as a sign of the school system displays a powerful social representation in the narrative and in some recent national cinematographic pieces. Before each of these teacher-characters, it is possible to ask, for example, what models of education do they represent? What are the visions about education that the work constructs, after considering that it seems to be a commonplace that the school system of the last thirty years is of neoliberal character.