Each young in his place so the country does not continue wasting its invaluable human capital: confluences of educational languages in a reformist experience (Chile, c.1964–c.1970)

ABSTRACTAgainst the backdrop of the Educational Reform in Chile since 1965, this article sheds light on the convergence of educational language based upon the economic notion of developmentalism, the idea of human capital and the expansion of school guidance (orientación) in Chilean education. Through analysing right-wing press and discourses from teachers and counsellors who were supporters of the significant changes that secondary education was going through led by Christian democrats, we briefly reveal the confluence and the opposition of concepts and the strategic differences among relevant actors in the reformist process.KEYWORDS: Chilean educationeducational guidancedevelopmentalismeducationalisation AcknowledgementsThis paper is a product of the Fondecyt 1200102 project (National Agency for Research and Development), of which I am the principal researcher. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 The phrase is in the inaugural speech that professor Radamadanta Dintrans delivered at the Guidance Congress that took place in Santiago in October 1966. Panorama de la Orientación en Chile. Publicación de las Jornadas de Orientación efectuadas el 5, 6, 7 y 8 de octubre de 1966, Instituto Nacional, Santiago de Chile, 1966, 1.2 A broad and detailed view of the economic, political, and cultural ties between Chile and the United States can be found in the book of Stefan Rinke, Encuentros con el Yanqui: norteamericanización y cambio sociocultural en Chile, 1898–1990 (Santiago: DIBAM, 2013).3 Óscar J. Martín García and Lorenzo Delgado Gómez-Escalonilla, “Educational Reform, Modernization, and Development. A Cold War Transnational Process,” in Teaching Modernisation: Spanish and Latin American Educational Reform in the Cold War, ed. Óscar J. Martín García and Lorenzo Delgado Gómez-Escalonilla (New York: Berghahn Books, 2020), 20–1.4 Among the literature that deals with these issues, Óscar J. Martín García and Lorenzo Delgado Gómez-Escalonilla, eds., Teaching Modernisation: Spanish and Latin American Educational Reform in the Cold War (New York: Berghahn Books, 2020); Jeffrey Taffet, Foreign Aid as Foreign Policy. The Alliance for Progress in Latin America (New York: Routledge, 2012); and Gabriela Ossenbach and Alberto Martínez Boom, “Itineraries of the Discourses on Development and Education in Spain and Latin America (circa 1950–1970),” Paedagogica Historica 47, no. 5 (2011): 679–700.5 Daniel Tröhler, Languages of Education: Protestant Legacies, National Identities, and Global Aspirations (New York: Routledge, 2011), 3–4.6 A historical overview of the development of the educational transfer paradigm is available in Jason Beech, “The Theme of Educational Transfer in Comparative Education: A View over Time,” Research in Comparative and International Education 1, no. 1 (2006): 2–13.7 A general overview on the situation of Chilean education by the mid-century is available in the chapter written by Macarena Ponce de León Atria “La política y las políticas educativas” within the collective work edited by Sol Serrano et al. Historia de la Educación en Chile (1810–2010), volume III Democracia, exclusion y crisis (1930–1964) (Santiago: Taurus, 2018 [digital edition]), 79–101.8 A panoramic view on the challenges and limits of this project is available in Sofía Correa et al., Historia del siglo XX chileno. Balance paradojal (Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2001), 113–52. A more critical evaluation, in Gabriel Salazar and Julio Pinto, Historia contemporánea de Chile. Volume I: Estado, legitimidad, ciudadanía (Santiago: Lom, 1999), 151–65.9 On the violent cycle of urban protests in 1957, see Pedro Milos, 2 de abril de 1957. Historia y Memoria (Santiago: LOM, 2007). A wider perspective on urban and social conflict in Santiago during the 1950s, with references to its precedents and consequences, is developed by Luis Thielemann, 1957. El proletariado invade Santiago. Un año de revuelta, tomas y ruptura estratégica en el alba de la metrópolis chilena (Santiago: Ariadna & Tesis XII, 2023).10 A multidimensional and comprehensive study of Frei Montalva’s government is the collective work edited by Carlos Huneeus and Javier Couso, Eduardo Frei Montalva: un gobierno reformista. A 50 años de la “Revolución en Libertad” (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 2016). In this book, Cristián Bellei and Camila Pérez Navarro analyse the development of education in the chapter “Democratizar y tecnificar la educación: la reforma educacional de Eduardo Frei Montalva”, 207–51.11 “Documentos de la Conferencia Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación del Partido Socialista. Enero de 1968,” in Aportes socialistas para la construcción de la nueva educación chilena (Santiago, 1971), 48.12 Iván Núñez, “Política y educación: rol, fines y objetivos de la educación en un Gobierno Popular,” in Perspectivas de estructura y funcionamiento de la educación chilena, ed. Waldo Suárez, Lautaro Videla, Iván Núñez and Jorge Peralta (Santiago: Ediciones de la Universidad Técnica del Estado, 1971), 17.13 Eden Medina, Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011).14 For a testimony of a first-line witness and protagonist of the ENU process, see Iván Núñez, La ENU entre dos siglos. Ensayo histórico sobre la Escuela Nacional Unificada (Santiago: LOM, 2003). An influential book on the UP educational process is Joseph Farrell, The National Unified School in Allende’s Chile. The Role of Education in the Destruction of a Revolution (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1986).15 For the communitarian ideal of Christian democrats and the role of education in this new order, see the classic study of Kathleen B. Fischer, Political Ideology and Educational Reform in Chile, 1964–1976. Part One (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Studies, 1979).16 Mario Góngora, Ensayo histórico sobre la noción de Estado en Chile (Santiago: Ediciones La Ciudad, 1981), 126.17 Marcelo Casals, El alba de una revolución. La izquierda y el proceso de construcción estratégica de la vía chilena al socialismo (Santiago: LOM, 2010), 11–2.18 Reinhardt Koselleck, Futuro pasado. Para una semántica de los tiempos históricos (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 1993), 16.19 Daniel Tröhler, Pestalozzi and the Educationalization of the World (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 3–4.20 Marc Depaepe and Paul Smeyers, “Educationalization as an Ongoing Modernization Process”, Educational Theory 58, no. 4 (2008): 379–89.21 On the components of a crisis, see Norberto Bobbio, Nicola Matteuci and Gianfranco Pasquino, Diccionario de Política (México: Editorial Siglo Veintiuno, 1997).22 On this topic, Rodrigo Mayorga, “¿Cientificistas, eficientes o demócratas? Actores transnacionales y adopción de ideas educativas norteamericanas en Chile (1920–1950),” in Historia Social de la Educación Chilena, vol. 5, ed. Benjamín Silva Torrealba (Santiago: UTEM, 2017).23 Quite representative of this polemic approach were the books by sociologist Eduardo Hamuy. In 1960 he gave to light his study Educación elemental, analfabetismo y desarrollo económico (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1960). A year after, he published his demolishing essay El problema educacional del pueblo de Chile (Santiago: Editorial del Pacífico, 1961).24 Thomas Popkewitz, “Preface,” in The International Emergence of Educational Sciences in the Post-World War Two Years Quantification, Visualisation, and Making Kinds of People, ed. Thomas Popkewitz, Daniel Pettersson and Kai-Jung Siao (New York: Routledge, 2021), XII.25 Ana Laura Godinho Lima, “The Development of the Child and National Progress. Behaviorism and Cultural Deprivation in Brazil,” in The International Emergence of Educational Sciences in the Post-World War Two Years Quantification, Visualisation, and Making Kinds of People, ed. Thomas Popkewitz, Daniel Pettersson and Kai-Jung Siao (New York: Routledge, 2021), 131.26 David Lemmings and Anne Brooks, “The Emotional Turn in the Humanities and the Social Sciences,” in Emotion and social change: Historical and sociological perspectives, ed. David Lemmings and Anne Brooks (New York: Routledge, 2014), 3–18.27 Pablo Toro-Blanco, “Una nueva oficina en el liceo: la instalación de los orientadores como política educacional en Chile (c.1946-c.1965),” Historia Caribe XIII, no. 33 (2018): 281–313.28 “Comunicación de Enrique Salas Silva, jefe del Departamento de Orientación Educacional y Vocacional al Rector del Liceo de Concepción,” 21 de marzo de 1947, ALEMG, volumen Correspondencia recibida 1947, f.1.29 Rodrigo Mayorga, “Una educación nueva para un nuevo individuo” in Eduardo Frei Montalva: un gobierno reformista. A 50 años de la “Revolución en Libertad,” ed. Carlos Huneeus and Javier Couso (Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 2016), 61.30 Interview with Mario Leyton Soto. Santiago de Chile, October 19, 2021. More on Leyton’s biography and his participation during the reformist process in Jaime Caiceo Escudero, “Reforma educacional de 1965 en Chile: participación de Mario Leyton Soto,” Revista Electrónica Diálogos Educativos. REDE 13, no. 26 (2017): 3–17.31 Abraham Magendzo, A Historical Review of the Development of Vocational Education in Chile (Los Angeles: University of California, Ed.D. Dissertation, 1969).32 Magendzo, A Historical Review, 6.33 Panorama de la Orientación en Chile. Publicación de las Jornadas de Orientación efectuadas el 5,6,7 y 8 de octubre de 1966 (Santiago de Chile: Instituto Nacional, 1966), 1.34 Guillermo Pinto Meris, “La orientación en el Liceo Experimental Manuel de Salas,” Panorama de la Orientación en Chile, 25.35 Jorge Céspedes, “Asociación Nacional de Orientadores de la Educación Secundaria,” Panorama de la Orientación en Chile, 129.36 Radamanta Dintrans, “Inaugural Speech”, Panorama de la Orientación en Chile, 1.37 Idem.38 Josefina Cabrera Gómez has identified the use of this expression in the mid-30s by prominent politicians like Pedro Aguirre Cerda and Salvador Allende. See her doctoral dissertation, “Gobernar es educar y dar salud al pueblo”: Pedro Aguirre Cerda y la educación como problema de Estado. Eugenesia, medicina y pedagogía en Chile (1879–1941) (Santiago de Chile: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Instituto de Historia, 2021).39 “La enseñanza y el futuro del país,” El Mercurio, Santiago de Chile, 19 July 1964.40 Panorama de la Orientación en Chile, 7.41 Oscar Fabres, “La orientación educacional en la escuela secundaria fiscal,” Panorama de la Orientación en Chile, 15.42 “Revisión de programas de enseñanza,” El Mercurio, Santiago de Chile, 29 August 1965.43 “Alrededor de la Reforma Educacional,” El Mercurio, Santiago de Chile, 1 October 1965.44 Sebastián Hurtado-Torres, The Gathering Storm. Eduardo Frei’s Revolution in Liberty and Chile’s Cold War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020).45 Frente Nacional de Profesores Freístas, « Primeras jornadas de estudio », enero de 1964. Sin datos editoriales. https://obtienearchivo.bcn.cl/obtienearchivo?id=documentos/10221.1/13258/1/195169.pdf&origen=BDigital.46 Leslie Bell, “Education Policy: Development and Enactment – The Case of Human Capital,” in Handbook of Education Policy Studies. Values, Governance, Globalisation, and Methodology, Volume 1, ed. Guorui Fan and Thomas S. Popkewitz (Singapore: Springer, 2020), 44.47 Robinson Lira Castro, Reformar la educación para encauzar la revolución. La reforma educacional en el gobierno de la Revolución en Libertad (1964−1970) ((PhD diss., Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Instituto de Historia, 2022)).48 Departamento de Educación. Facultad de Filosofía y Educación. Universidad de Chile “Significado de la orientación en Chile”, Presencia. Revista para educadores. 1, 1971, 14–5.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico [Proyecto Regular 1200102].Notes on contributorsPablo Toro-BlancoPablo Toro-Blanco is a researcher and professor of Chilean history and history of education at Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Santiago, Chile). He is vice president of the Chilean Society for the History of Education. His recent research focuses on educational history and emotions. His publications have dealt with topics such as corporal punishment in schools, students’ movements in Chilean universities under reformist and authoritarian regimes, the history of youth, educational nationalism and historical analysis of textbooks. His current research project is Fondecyt 1200102: “Developing the personality in secondary school education in Chile. Discussions, practices and transnational circuits of educational orientation as an emotional regime, c.1961–c.1995”.