The social and geographical knowledge in school: the inherent tensions in the institutionalized transmission of culture and the dilemmas of democratic education in a global world

Abstract

The scientific update of syllabuses is indispensable in these times of intensive change, but it does not run out of discussion on the desirable social studies curriculum for the 21st century school. The view that reduces the school subjects to the condition of mere vehicle (more or less left behind) of some or other academic paradigms suffers from important gaps. First, this view does not manage to glimpse the peculiar nature of the knowledge given in a specific institution of socialization, as it will be emphasized by means of a sociohistorical analysis of a curriculum case that reached a relative success in primary education: the environmental studies. Secondly, it overlooks the need to re-examine in depth the social function of the transmitted culture, an unavoidable task if we really want to contribute to a true democratic education.