Adult Education and Hegemony–Subalternity: A Qualitative Study in Bahía Blanca, Argentina

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a doctoral dissertation in History that addresses the relations of hegemony and subalternity that emerged in pedagogical processes developed within the framework of the everyday life—in both its diachronic and synchronic dimensions—of men and women, most of them migrants from Chile and Argentine Patagonia, who attended adult schools in the city of Bahía Blanca between 1999 and 2003.

The research employed eminently qualitative methodologies, including ethnographic fieldwork, participatory methodologies, and oral history. Oral sources were triangulated with written documents.

The results of this research may contribute to understanding and explaining the cultural and educational processes of subaltern groups, both with regard to the relationship between speech and processes of hegemony and to the place of children in societies within the context of colonial capitalism. They also contribute to understanding the relationship between schooling and culture, as well as the place of women, girls, young women, and adult women in relation to work.

The different dimensions in which popular culture unfolds—speech, work, games, literature, religiosity, and music—have allowed us to access the context in which relations of hegemony and subalternity are inscribed, where processes of subjectivation take place, and how these processes are lived. The study also explores the experience of adult education in the present lives of workshop participants. Likewise, the work develops a reflection on hegemony within the theoretical tradition of Marxism.

This study constitutes a contribution both at the level of theoretical elaboration and from a methodological perspective, since it has allowed us to validate qualitative research methods, oral history, and participatory methodologies for research in the field of education.