Expanding Accessibility to and Curricular Reform in Latin American Schools: Implications for Social Cohesion

The article examines Latin American educational policies in the last decade and a half from the perspective of their contribution to social cohesion. After establishing the direct relation between education and social cohesion, the author evaluates the impact of the substantial expansion of schooling in the region as a contributor to social cohesion. The latter takes place because education ensures the sharing of common symbolic resources among a large percentage of the population. It also facilitates dynamics of intergenerational mobility that also contribute to social cohesion. The article also presents the results of a comparative analysis of citizen formation curricula as developed in seven countries in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. The central questions are based on the orientations taken by these countries with regard to the formation of bridging social capital (between groups), or of bonding social capital (within the groups) (Putnam, 2000), and to the relations the curricula establish with the past. The latter has as a point of reference the creation of a common identity (national) among groups exhibiting clear socio-economic differences. The analysis concludes that the curriculum orientation of the various countries examined in the study are related to the specific perspective of social cohesion that each national society holds.