Changing Meanings of Public Education in Argentina. A genealogy. Angela Inés Oría Humanities and Social Science Institute of Education, University of London A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) September 2013 1 Abstract This thesis explores the changing meanings of ‘public’ education and its process of construction. More specifically, I focus on how Argentine education governance resulted from the meaning policy-makers attached to ‘the public’ at a given juncture, how such meaning evolved over time without a corresponding change in governance, and how there seems not to be within public discourse any significant questioning of this divergence between rhetoric and actual structures. I explore early and current discourses which used and defined ‘public education’, and analyse how these paradigmatic definitions shaped policy and constrained practice. The historical ‘junctures’ addressed in this thesis are firstly, the period of pre- institutionalisation of the Argentine education system, focussing especially on the seminal figure of Domingo F. Sarmiento. Secondly, the actual consolidation of the ‘official’ version of ‘state-public’ education, mainly achieved during Jose Ramos Mejia’s administration of the National Education Council, and over and against alternative discourse regimes, such as that emanating from the anarchist circles. The third period explored in this thesis is the contemporary. ‘Common sense’ definitions regarding the ‘public’ nature of ‘public’ education are breaking and the discursive space is opening. Newly admitted voices and versions of schooling seem to be emerging as a result of new understandings of the meaning of what constitutes ‘the public’. However, are these signs of structural reform? Is there any significant questioning within state-public education of its own forms of governance? The reconstruction of the Argentine educational past can be used as a framework for thinking about the reconstruction of its present. I deploy ‘Genealogy’, as understood within the writings of Michel Foucault, as my research strategy. The thesis is organised into seven Chapters. The first are introductory and subsequently I develop a detailed analysis of the varying positions of the public within different discursive paradigms. Finally, I offer some conclusions. 2 Declaration I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own work. I am responsible for all the research and analyses submitted in this thesis. Except where specified or implied in references to other publications, the work reported is original. This thesis has not been previously submitted for a higher degree at this or any other institution of higher education. The word length of this thesis is 79.384 words, excluding endnotes. 3 Table of Contents Declaration ..................................................................................................................3 Introduction................................................................................................................7 Main theme and arguments ..........................................................................................7 Chapter structure............................................................................................................12 Theoretical approach ....................................................................................................14 Chapter One: Overview of the changing meanings of public education in Argentina.........................................................................................19 Introduction.......................................................................................................................19 An overview .......................................................................................................................19 Historical background ..............................................................................................20 A site for the public within the education system ..........................................27 Struggles towards defining ‘public education’ ...............................................30 The public blurred ......................................................................................................36 Chapter Two: Conceptual Framework and Method ................................42 Defining ‘The Public’......................................................................................................42 Structural Transformation.....................................................................................42 Recovering and broadening ‘the public’ within the social.........................57 After Habermas ...........................................................................................................64 New perspectives in education...............................................................................73 Genealogy and the Writing of History....................................................................75 The genealogical method..........................................................................................76 Part One. The historical layers of meaning embedded in ‘public education’ ...................................................................................................................86 Chapter Three: A site for the public within the education system. Domingo F. Sarmiento’s vision of ‘Popular Education’..........................91 Introduction.......................................................................................................................91 The historical sources and texts...............................................................................96 Displacing views ..............................................................................................................99 4 ‘Popular Education’......................................................................................................112 Programmatic Centralisation..............................................................................114 Administrative Decentralisation ........................................................................119 State and education in the 1850’s ...........................................................................128 Society and education in the 1850’s.......................................................................133 Education in the 1870’s and beyond......................................................................141 Historical Revisionism................................................................................................147 Conclusion........................................................................................................................153 Chapter Four: State education over and against other alternatives. José M. Ramos Mejía’s vision of a ‘National state’ education system .......................................................................................................................................157 Introduction.....................................................................................................................157 The historical sources and texts.............................................................................160 The concept of ‘the multitude’ .................................................................................166 A revearsal of ‘public’ education ............................................................................173 ‘National Education’.....................................................................................................181 Programmatic and administrative centralisation .....................................193 Conclusion........................................................................................................................202 Chapter Five: A counter public education system. Julio Barcos’ anarchist perspective on public education ...............................................205 Introduction.....................................................................................................................205 The historical sources and texts.............................................................................206 A counter-public sphere .............................................................................................208 Anarchism and education..........................................................................................216 Barcos’ anarchist counter-discourse ....................................................................222 The role of the people ...............................................................................................223 Challenging State Monopoly.................................................................................228 Challenging homogeneity.......................................................................................233 5 The idea of Reform ....................................................................................................236 Programmatic and administrative decentralisation.................................239 Conclusion........................................................................................................................244 Part two. Contemporary Discourse Paradigms.......................................249 Chapter Six: New sites, voices and versions of public education. New Governance? .................................................................................................251