Schooling in Peru

While in Peru, we visited a variety of schools- Collegio Rooselvelt, the international school, Fe y Alegria in Lima and Andahuaylas, La Inmaculada, and a public school in Cusco. By being able to spend time in these schools and hear about them through administrators, teachers, and/ or students perspectives, it broadened my perspective on education. When people first hear the word schooling or school, they think about students learning content- math, reading, science, social studies, etc. from teachers in order for their knowledge to expand to help them advance in the school years and develop into positive members of society. However, schooling is not just an intellectual process, it is also a political, cultural, and social process. One of the biggest focuses for many of the schools was language. Language is a part of everyday life and it is something that either sets people ahead or behind. La Inmaculada and Collegio Roosevelt emphasized the importance of learning English. La Inmaculada had its schooling geared more towards teaching the students English, whereas Roosevelt, just expected their students to know English because all the classes were taught in English. This difference is because Roosevelt is an American international school, and La Inmaculada is a Peruvian school. Both of these schools however, host students that are considered to have a high socioeconomic status. The students at Fe y Alegria in Lima also learned English in school, but not nearly as much as Roosevelt and La Inmaculada. Another difference between this Fe y Alegria school and Roosevelt and La Inmaculada is that its students were from more middle- class backgrounds. There is pattern that can be seen from this observation- that the wealthier the school and the students/ families who attend, the more of a focus of English is presented in the school’s curriculum. This relates back to the article about English being equivalent to the American dollar. English will make one be higher in the social rankings and allow one access to better and more opportunities. This is how there is politics and social process involved in schooling. For Fe y Alegria school in Andahuaylas, the students are learning Spanish because their first language is Quechua, instead of them learning English because their first language is Spanish. This school makes sure to keep the culture of the Quechua language alive by teaching the students lessons in this language while also teaching them Spanish, so they can more easily be apart of all of Peruvian society. This school emphasizes the importance of self-worth by spreading the message, that the point of learning Spanish isn’t to get the students to stop using Quechua because it makes them “lesser” in society, but learning Spanish is just something that will help them in life. The idea of equity comes into play here. When looking at all of the schools, it is clear that the schools want their students to get ahead in life and participate effectively and positively in society. By learning a second language, this is what will help the students achieve this. Learning English is something that will get the students at Roosevelt and La Inmaculada ahead, even more so since they already are ahead based on their SES standing. The students at Fe y Alegria in Andahuaylas are learning Spanish to get them ahead in life, not English. The take-away point here is that in order to get students ahead in life, like each school wants, they must start where the students are; what the students’ backgrounds are and go from there. The students who speak Quechua as a first language would not benefit from learning English instead of Spanish because Spanish is the dominant language in Peru. However, the students who speak Spanish as a first language can continue their advancement by learning English. Politics can be thought of being apart of schooling in the form of the government. The government will give resources to different schools. Also, the privatization of schools affects schooling. Privatization is what makes a school have a better reputation, which as a result, makes the school have more funding because the is a higher want for children to go there. However, social aspects and politics are not the only processes involved in schooling.

Schooling and education in general, teaches students about so many other things besides just core content areas. Teaching the core content areas can even be influenced by other areas of life- politics, social, and culture. Culture can definitely be celebrated in school. At Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, every Thursday, traditional Peruvian culture is celebrated in the form of dances. At the public school in Cusco, there is a dance team that performs traditional Peruvian dances, which we saw while in Cusco because the time we went, was during the month of June, which just so happens to be the month that Cusco celebrates its culture by having parades and dance competitions. The material that was taught in the science class that I observed at Fe y Alegria in Lima related back to the highlands because the students were learning about diseases, specifically malaria. The English class I observed at the same school, had the students present a project about the different regions of Peru. Finally, the Fe y Alegria school of course celebrates its culture by teaching lessons in Quechua. The cultural process is something that is seen in schools because it is what forms the connection between content and the students’ backgrounds. It is always a goal of schooling and education to have the content be relatable and meaningful to its students, so when teachers incorporate Peruvian culture into the lessons, then the students are able to form these connections. In all the schools, I saw social, cultural, and political processes that were apart of the schooling, whether that be the language that the students were learning, the way in which traditional Peruvian culture is incorporated in the classroom, or resources given or not given by the government affects the schools’ quality.