Paper short abstract:

I analyze the everyday life of the schools in charge of training rural teachers between 1922 and 1945 in Mexico. After living 10 years of civil war, these were very important to try to change the mentalities and bodies of peasants and Indians children to construct new citizens.

Paper long abstract:

In my paper, I analyze the everyday life of the schools in charge of training rural teachers between 1922 and 1945 in Mexico. This was a very important period in the formation of the State after living 10 years of civil war, during which peasant's participation was very important. The government opened rural schools all over the country, and these training rural teaches schools were very important to construct a special idea of Mexican citizen, using ideas from the New Schools Movement to change the mentalities and bodies of peasants and Indians children, in a different way for girls or boys. I watch all these by examining different kind of autocracy schools' documentation, oral testimonies and local publications, and use an ethno-historical methodology to observe everyday practices.

Frequently, studies stem from pedagogic theory or educative policy to explain school culture. In this paper, I will try to put it the other way around, which will allow us to observe power relationships in school, how school practices reproduce or change cultural power relationships, and the different relationships between pedagogic theory, educative policy, and school practices.

I observe the school as a space constructed by the interlinking of political and cultural relationships by authorities, teachers, students and family parents. Class, gender, ethnics and other cultural classifications, e. i. "peasants" against "urban" cross power relationships in everyday schools life and children´s education.