Curricular rationales in a History Study Program associated with the Conquest of America

Abstract

This article investigates the curricular rationales present in the learning objectives and evaluation indicators belonging to "Unit 2: The voyages of discovery and the conquest of America" of the 5th grade History, Geography and Social Sciences Study Program, prepared by the Chilean Ministry of Education (Mineduc). This research was carried out from an interpretative phenomenological paradigm and used content analysis to systematically review the section of the consigned curricular document, based on the three types of existing curricular rationales: technical, praxeological and critical. These curricular perspectives allow us to analyze the hegemonic interests of school history on the conquest of America, since they help to understand the nature of the learning associated with the role of the different historical subjects, the presence of ethnocentrism and the precision of various educational purposes of the history subject in the student body. The results show the predominance of technical and praxeological curricular rationality, since it is evident that the objectives and evaluation indicators of the mentioned thematic unit jointly intend the study of a Eurocentric and androcentric history, marked by the expeditions led by Christopher Columbus, Diego de Almagro and Pedro de Valdivia, and the work based on historical competences. It is concluded that, in order to develop a more complete and inclusive curriculum, a greater effort is needed on the part of the Mineduc to move towards a praxeological and critical curricular rationality that intends the learning and evaluation of significant contents about the conquest of America.