Teaching Social Sciences

Professors: Rebecca Lemos Igreja (University of Brasilia, Brazil), Odile Hoffmann (IRD/France and CIESAS/Mexico) and Camilo Negri (University of Brasilia, Brazil)

Abstract: This seminar will address the teaching of social sciences from a practical perspective, focusing on the role of the social sciences and social scientists in interpreting reality and seeking solutions to contemporary problems. This approach centers on research experiences, discussions about the development of critical thinking, and the construction of social categories within their historical, sociocultural, and economic contexts. Furthermore, the seminar includes a reflection on job market opportunities and avenues for social scientists to engage with society. The proposal is to examine the practical application of social sciences in Latin America from various disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, political science, law, and geography, among others. This will involve the contributions of researchers who have reflected on this topic, always in connection with national and international academia, technical fields, research, and teaching.

We will begin by briefly addressing the phenomena of the internationalization of the social sciences, questioning the role of Latin American social sciences in the world, their spheres of action and intervention, and the forms of scientific evaluation. We will also discuss measures of academic productivity and scientific ethics. We will then reflect on how positions of domination and asymmetry are managed among the actors involved in research, including the broader political and academic context. These constructs influence research methodology, content, results, and evaluations. The aim is to conduct this reflection based on concrete situations and case studies, questioning research methodologies and techniques. Finally, the seminar will discuss the selection and construction of social categories. The idea is to consider, based on research experiences, how social scientists reflect on the categories they use, how these evolve according to research topics and contexts, and the development of public policies.

Professors: Isabelino Siede (National University of La Plata, Argentina)

Abstract: The purpose of civic education has been present in American educational systems since their founding mandates, as all schooling was conceived as a means of preparing for the exercise of popular sovereignty, with the limitations that this implied in each context. This long-standing presence in the school curriculum has, however, coexisted with a limited development of didactic criteria to address this particular object of instruction. As the 21st century progresses, it becomes necessary to review what it means to educate for citizenship and what tools are useful for this task. In this seminar, we aim to review some of the curricular debates on civic education and propose some methodological alternatives for teaching it.

In the context of a social order that demands loyalty, cohesion, and adherence to the law, educating for freedom seems, on the surface, impossible. This justifies the questions we repeatedly ask ourselves from an emancipatory perspective: How do we educate a free individual? How do we educate a critical citizen? Can schools, as institutions biased by the logic of the State, teach freedom? We are convinced that knowledge can be a tool for freedom, but some teaching approaches foster this quality while others do not. Understanding education as a space for cultural provocation leads to the classroom becoming a realm of questions, dissent, arguments, and collective constructions, where everyone feels invited to recreate the foundations of life in society.

Professors: Darío Pulfer (Pedagogical University, Argentina) and Nicolás Arata (CLACSO)

Abstract: This seminar addresses the issue of using reliable sources and accessing information for classroom use. One of the defining characteristics of contemporary societies in the internet age is the availability of information. However, this availability does not directly translate into the use and appropriation of materials by different users, primarily teachers. This seminar aims to present a range of resources available in digital repositories, considering them as tools for large-scale cultural transmission. It seeks to leverage these resources to enrich the user experience and enhance pedagogical opportunities for schools, libraries, museums, media outlets, and cultural centers.

Abstract: Geography has been present in the school curriculum as part of the educational process for children and young people. For a long time, its teaching was linked to the consolidation of territorial nation-states through learning the characteristics of the physical and human geography of the various natural regions. This “traditional” approach uses outdated material and generates short-term, rote learning processes that are detached from students' immediate context and the complexity of contemporary social reality. Currently, these perspectives are being challenged by the development of a critical pedagogy and geography that seeks to transform the realities of children and young people at different scales, often beginning with everyday life. This seminar addresses the emergence of critical pedagogy in Latin America, along with the origin of a critical thinking of geography, which is nourished on this side of the continent by postcolonial, decolonial, Marxist and anarchist thought concerned with social differences expressed in social class, sexual diversity, skin color that question climate change, the right to the city, the protection of nature, the mechanisms of reproduction of inequality, global disputes for strategic natural resources, etc.

Professors: Edgar González Gaudiano (UNED, Mexico), María Laura Canciani and Aldana Telias (UBA, Argentina)

Abstract: Environmental education is an emerging and interdisciplinary field of political-pedagogical intervention, embedded in broader historical and social processes, with specific features and characteristics. It arose in response to the acceleration and deepening of the environmental crisis and gained global visibility in the mid-20th century. Today, we are experiencing an unprecedented environmental and climate crisis in human history. Environmental conflicts are intensifying in increasingly deprived territories, and younger generations foresee uncertain, unequal, and discouraging futures, thus activating their participation in the public sphere. In this context, it is essential to revisit the question of how and why to educate in this context of environmental and climate emergency. We propose to present a pedagogical approach called the Pedagogy of Environmental Conflict, which aims to integrate the environmental dimension into the teaching of social sciences, promoting a critical, comprehensive, situated, and community-based environmental education. This approach fosters an understanding of the complex social, historical, and cultural framework within which environmental and territorial conflicts unfold. It seeks to generate teaching practices that critically examine the multiple forms of extractivism, their dynamics, disputes, and controversies, while simultaneously challenging the hegemonic patterns of knowledge construction and transmission that have become entrenched in the school system. We aim to promote an environmental perspective within educational organizations that can challenge, unsettle, move, and mobilize individuals and their practices. Fundamentally, we strive to provide tools for developing participatory environmental projects that aim to build a more just, dignified, and sustainable society based on environmental rights.

Professors: Sebastián Plá (IISUE, Mexico)

Abstract: This seminar aims to address the different school versions of the past and their curricular manifestations in relation to academic production, the public uses of history, the role of commemorative dates and patriotic rituals, and the challenges of teaching recent history, socially relevant issues, among other topics. It seeks to revisit long-standing problems linked to the complex issue of history in the service of national identities, considering them through the lens of regional integration aspirations; the processes that the countries of the region have undergone in the last two centuries; and new ways of thinking about history teaching in the context of Latin American educational reforms of recent decades. The seminar will provide a space for reflection to critically analyze historical narratives in the region's school systems from diverse pedagogical, historical, and research perspectives on history teaching in the region. The following themes will be addressed: the historicity of school versions of the past; the construction of Latin America: locality, nation, and region in the formation of collective identities; The different theoretical positions of the didactics of history and social sciences, the relationships between history, social sciences and socially relevant problems; absences and omissions in the teaching of history; challenges of teaching recent memory; the performativity of history in national holidays and rituals; and the comparative study of curricular reforms in history and social sciences in the last twenty years.

Professors: Inés Dussel (DIE-CINVESTAV, Mexico), Patricia Ferrante and Manuel Becerra (UNIPE, Argentina).

Abstract: This seminar addresses the challenges of digitization in knowledge production and teaching within the social sciences. It revisits debates surrounding the digital humanities, particularly regarding new sources and methods for producing and circulating records of social processes, and analyzes their repercussions for social science education. The seminar will delve into widespread practices using digital media, such as internet searches and the use and production of audiovisual materials, considering both the possibilities they offer and the limitations or difficulties they present for working with social science concepts and language. The seminar will examine classroom examples and encourage critical reflection on new teaching methodologies in this field.