Rural School Closing in Chile

• In Event: 26.021 - Community Resistance to School Closings: Defending Public Education in Chile and Chicago

Abstract

The rural school closing in Chile is a phenomenon that begins to be evident in the last years. The data bases published by the education department show that between the year 2000 and 2013, 899 elementary rural schools depending of the municipality stopped their functions (CELC, 2007; MINEDUC, 2014).

The present research line informs how closures occur, analyzing their implications for the social cohesion of the local and scholar communities, in three levels: macro-institutional, community and individual (Durkheim, 1897; 2011; Solano & Cohen, 2011). We present the results of 2 researches realized in 2 regions of the country, the first one between the years 2010 and 2011, and the second one between 2011 and 2013. The communities analyzed are located in rural areas where the school was closed recently. The four cases were municipal elementary schools with single teacher modality and multilevel.
Methodology: qualitative type with an ethnographic approach and a cuasi ethnographic research design. Research techniques such as semi structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation, field notes and photographic register were used. The participants were municipal authorities, mothers, fathers, student, teacher and key actors of the communities. The data analysis of each case was realized under the Grounded Theory principles. In this opportunity the data were submitted to a second analysis, an a content analysis based in categories emergent from data and from the conceptual frame, in order to find common elements between the four cases.
Results: school closing affects the 3 levels of social cohesion. At the macro institutional level, the local community lose their last link with the state; at the same time, those who were in a situation of social disadvantage before the closure, feel the new school as foreign, so the change means less opportunities of inclusion for these families. At community level, mothers of children lost the only space of social participation. Children with major level of vulnerability and their families cannot be inserted well in the new school, increasing the risk of social exclusion. At the individual level, people lose the confidence in the authorities and the motivation for meeting others for the achievement of common aims (Núñez, Solís & Soto, 2014).

Author

• Carmen Gloria Nunez, The Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso