Schooling experiences in a colonial school: the story of an experience in three voices

Abstract

The school institution works following some characteristic principles of a colonial epistemology. In this work we have related, in three voices, the experiences of a child (Lucas, 11 years old), an adolescent (Diego, 16 years old) and a father (Enrique, 44 years old) who moved from Chile to the city of Granada, Spain, and began the school experience in a public and traditional school. Based on qualitative methodological work with a narrative approach foundation and in which we have used testimonial narratives, we show the epistemological limitations of this Eurocentric school and the depoliticization of teaching work. The school narrated and experienced by Diego, Lucas and Enrique is a racialized institution characterized by: excessive homework, denial of differences, dichotomous epistemology, constant fears and adultcentrism. But in that same school there are also pedagogical spaces and times in which acknowledgement, sincerity and trust allow these institutions to be inhabited.