Study educational policies and pedagogies in Chile and Argentina and explore the relationship between education, society, and diversity in both countries.
16
3 semesters Spanish
Spanish
Spanish
Aug 22 – Dec 4
Chile
Argentina
Santiago
Education & Social Change
Identity & Human Resilience
With its large indigenous and immigrant population and strong contrasts between urban and rural areas, Chile offers the opportunity to study a variety of educational models. You will spend time in diverse schools throughout the country—including public, private, voucher, underprivileged, coed, bilingual and intercultural institutions—to understand forces that affect educational policies and ideologies. Excursions to different regions of the country will deepen your understanding of the complex cultural and socioeconomic realities that impact education systems.
You will also spend two weeks in Argentina, which will provide the opportunity to compare educational systems. You will see how teachers and students in Argentina and Chile are trying to make education available to vulnerable populations, including immigrants and students with disabilities.
You will also develop the formal and informal Spanish language skills to discuss and research education issues and policy through classroom learning, cultural immersion, homestays, and excursions.
Three recent semesters of college-level Spanish or equivalent and the ability to follow coursework in Spanish, as assessed by SIT.
During a two-week excursion to Argentina, seminars will be held at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES). You will examine human rights movements, including meeting with the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and visiting the Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada, the main detention and torture center during Argentina’s dictatorship period. You will visit schools with large migrant populations and with differing education systems including popular education, critical pedagogy and non-formal education such as a dance school, a school serving the transgender community and bachilleratos populares with self-managed initiatives from and by communities. You will meet with local teachers and members of CTERA, a teachers union.
Study complex issues related to intercultural bilingual education, educational autonomy, decolonization and decoloniality during a seven-day excursion to a rural Mapuche community. Live with a local family to enrich your knowledge of Mapuche community traditions. Visit schools to see how the education system transmits culture, identity, and language and talk and share ideas with Mapuche youth. Engage in community activities such as helping construct a ruka, a typical Mapuche house; teaching English classes to children; learning Mapudungun; and playing soccer and palin, a Mapuche sport. Share Mapuche food with members of the community and practice reciprocity through the ceremony of Trafkintu.
During a four-day excursion to the city of Valparaíso, you will visit the elementary school in Laguna Verde, which serves socially vulnerable children. Learn about their educational projects stemming from different pillars such as sports, art, environment, and intercultural education, and Liceo Técnico de Valparaíso A–24. You will also hear members of the Valparaíso Province’s Regional Teacher’s Union talk about Chile’s current educational situation and reform initiatives.
Visit former torture sites, secret detention centers, and clandestine burial sites used during Chile’s dictatorship. These may include the Museo de la Memoria, el Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Patio 29, Memorial de Salvador Allende, the resting place of Víctor Jara, and the Memorial al Detenido Desaparecido y Ejecutado Político. Meet with former detainees, relatives of victims, and Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desparecidos in Chile. In Buenos Aires, visit the Espacio de Memoria y Derechos Humanos, Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA), Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo and hear from prominent lawyers and human rights activists.
Visit the Chilean community of La Victoria, known for its strong sense of identity, culture, and social organization. It was a source of social mobilization against the Pinochet dictatorship during the 1980s and it was there that French priest André Jarlan was shot by police. Meet teachers, families, students, and community leaders as you visit the public school of La Victoria, built by the founding members of the community and currently serving Chileans and Haitian migrant populations, and visit the popular television station, Channel 3 of La Victoria.
Please note that SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, however, SIT may have to change or cancel programs.
Upon successful completion of the program, students will be able to:
The following syllabi are representative of this program. Because courses develop and change over time to take advantage of dynamic learning opportunities, actual course content will vary from term to term.
The syllabi can be useful for students, faculty, and study abroad offices in assessing credit transfer. Read more about credit transfer.
Education Quality and Equity: Tensions and Proposals – syllabus
(LACB3000 / 3 credits)
This seminar analyzes the differences between the educative policies from a Chilean neoliberal state and an Argentine welfare state relative to the impacts on human rights, historic memory, diversity, gender and LGBTQI+, special education, and social change. Studies include the relationship between education, society, students’ organizations, and social movements, analysis of private and public education, and impacts on the quality, equity, and educational wellness in Chile and Argentina. Students explore critical issues including the construction of new knowledge, social transformation, the quality paradigm, equity of education, the teaching process and teacher training, the legitimation and promotion of particular forms of reasoning, the role of the state in education and its impact on schools, students, families, teachers, learning and teaching. All coursework is conducted in Spanish.
Bilingual Intercultural Education and Popular Education – syllabus
(LACB3005 / 3 credits)
This seminar will take place in Santiago and during the program’s educational excursion to the Mapuche rural community in the IX Region of Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the Mapuche rural community excursion, students will participate in participate in observation and lectures while visiting elementary and secondary schools in topics such as Mapuche educative autonomy, decolonial pedagogy, intercultural bilingual education, Mapuche worldview, history, decoloniality and decolonization processes. In Santiago and during the excursion to Buenos Aires, the seminar explores the construction of new knowledge through nontraditional educative models such as popular education, critical pedagogy, critical interculturality, historic memory, decolonial feminist and militant culture, and social transformation. Examine the teaching process, the legitimization and promotion of particular forms of reasoning in formal educational institutions, and in the bachilleratos populares that have been born from community initiatives. All coursework is conducted in Spanish.
Spanish for Social Sciences and Education I – syllabus
(SPAN2003 / 3 credits)
Spanish for Social Sciences and Education II – syllabus
(SPAN2503 / 3 credits)
Spanish for Social Sciences and Education III – syllabus
(SPAN3003 / 3 credits)
In this course, students hone their speaking, reading, and writing skills through classroom and field instruction. They practice reading educational literature as they learn the formal terms and local expressions needed to discuss educational policy, to conduct field research, and to interact in settings related to the program themes and excursion destinations. Students are placed in small classes based on an in-country evaluation that tests both written and oral proficiency.
Research Methods and Ethics – syllabus
(ANTH3500 / 3 credits)
This research methods course is designed to prepare students for an Independent Study Project or internship. Through lectures, readings, and field activities, students study and practice basic social science, educational research methods, and decolonial research. They examine the ethical issues surrounding field research related to working with schools, children, and marginalized groups, and are guided through the World Learning/SIT Human Subjects Review process, which forms a core component of the course. By the end of the course, students will have chosen a research topic or internship placement, selected appropriate methods, and written a solid proposal for an Independent Study Project or internship related to the program themes. All coursework is conducted in Spanish.
Independent Study Project
Independent Study Project – syllabus
(ISPR3000 / 4 credits)
Conducted in Santiago, Buenos Aires, or in another approved location appropriate to the project, the Independent Study Project offers students the opportunity to conduct field research on a topic of their choice within the program’s thematic parameters. The project integrates learning from the various components of the program and culminates in a final presentation and formal research paper or a non-traditional project as musical compositions, theater plays, photography, murals, films, documentaries, among others.
Sample ISP topic areas:
Browse this program’s Independent Study Projects / undergraduate research.
OR
Internship and Seminar
Internship and Seminar – syllabus
(ITRN3000 / 4 credits)
This seminar consists of a four-week internship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, or Chile with a local community or social organization, school, university, union, or federation of students or teachers, research organization, business, or international NGO. The aim of the internship is to enable the student to gain valuable work experience and to enhance their skills in an international work environment. Students will complete an internship and submit a paper in which they process their learning experience on the job, analyze an issue important to the organization, and/or design a socially responsible solution to a problem identified by the organization. The internship will be conducted in Spanish.
Topics and placements vary according to need and availability at our partner institutions, but examples of internships include:
During the first five weeks of the program, you will live with host families in Chile’s capital, Santiago, to experience urban Chilean culture, practice your Spanish language skills, and learn about your family’s experiences with education and social change.
Live for a week with an indigenous Mapuche family in the community of Chapod, Temuco, in southern Chile. Here, you will experience a rural, indigenous community and learn about the ancient traditions of Mapuche education. See the challenges of bilingual intercultural education on visits to a Mapuche school and during conversations with community leaders, students, and teachers.
During a two-week excursion to Argentina, you will live with host families of professionals, academics, and university students in the cosmopolitan downtown area of Buenos Aires known as Capital Federal.
Students on this program represent a variety of colleges, universities, and majors. Many of them have gone on to pursue professional or academic experiences that connect back to their experience abroad with SIT. Alumni of this program are currently working in education and public policy, as teachers, researchers, administrative assistants, and directors for schools, institutions, and NGOs. Positions recently held by alumni of this program include:
Research analyst at Vera Institute of Justice, New York, NY
Legislative press aide in the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC
Enrollment specialist at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay, Boston, MA
School-based clinician at Association House of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Research scientist at Albany Molecular Research Inc., Indianapolis, IN
SIT Study Abroad is committed to making international education accessible to all students. Scholarship awards generally range from $500 to $5,000 for semester programs and $500 to $3,000 for summer programs. This year, SIT will award nearly 1 million in scholarships and grants to SIT Study Abroad students.
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SIT Study Abroad Santiago Chile: Comparative Education and Social Change
@SITSantiagoChile
Shara Guarnaccia, a graduate of the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study and a 2011 alum, recorded a TEDx talk about Chile’s Youth Education Movement.
