History of Things and Things with History: Alternative Methods and Techniques for Teaching the Social Sciences in a School of Early Childhood and Basic General Education

Abstract

The objective of this work is to achieve more fluent communication between the University and the Early Childhood and Basic General Education levels. It was carried out during two years at the José Mármol School in San Miguel de Tucumán. We did not intend to modify the school’s own dynamics. On the contrary, we sought to assume its existing reality and, from there, build and carry out our project.

Our purpose was to produce changes not only in what but also in how prehistory and ethnohistory are taught. The involvement of both teachers and students was sought through the recognition of their individual and collective histories in historical facts and also as one of the many sources for the construction of history.

The methodologies were applied in order to:

a) Change attitudes towards the didactic use of museums, seeking to establish a link between university and school through the transposition of scientific knowledge and a closer contact with the sources.

b) Introduce useful methodologies to preserve memory as an active process by producing genealogical trees of the school community. In this way, it was possible to confirm that a community does not have just one memory, but many memories, which complement, contradict, oppose, and support each other.

c) Recover family histories through objects (showcase exhibitions, hands-on museum exhibitions, classroom exhibitions, and panel exhibitions).