Building up “the identity of the excluded”: Ethnography of children’s situated learning in a Chilean public primary school

Abstract

Based on a school ethnography of a public primary school of Araucanía Region, this article analyses sixth grade students’ participation and experiences during class time. From a perspective that holds learning as a form of participation in a community of practice, it analyses the forms of resistance that students develop during academic activities as a reaction against exclusive and inadequate pedagogical practices. The latter are, to a fair degree, the product of an accountability system which undermines teachers’ professionalism and contributes to their lack of motivation towards teaching. In this context, it is argued that student’s classroom participation ends up shaping up a way of being and doing that does not promote a positive incorporation of children into civic society and life. Key words: school ethnography, situated learning, identity, children, accountability.