The commemorative school act as a ritual and nationalizing mechanism: a view from the trainee teachers in early childhood and primary education in Argentina

Abstract

In the daily activities of the classroom, the commemoration of historical dates considered relevant for the  school calendar as part of the collective memory of an identity process becomes almost daily and mechanical. Latin America in particular pays special attention to the commemorations that revolve around the independence processes, these events are remembered through school events structured in a particular way for more than two centuries. The present paper aims to show the traces that school acts have left (and leave), structured in a ritual way and responding to immutable nationalist discourses since the 19th century in the trajectories of the trainee teachers in early childhood and primary education, in different teacher training institutions in the city of Río Cuarto (Argentina). It seeks to demonstrate the continuity of the ritual logic of the acts today, identifying their nationalizing functionality.