Between Academic Knowledge and Popular Knowledge: The Popular Primary School

Abstract

In the present study we want to share reflections and theoretical/ideological positions that arise from our experience as popular educators in a singular space, such as the processes of Adult Education. In San Luis, according to various studies, nearly 20% of the population has not completed their schooling or never attended school. This invited us to provide young people and adults of popular sectors a space where they could, from own knowledge of their original context, access to more systematic knowledge, and to enable them to realize their schooling we call "Popular Elementary School." Articulate logics of knowledge production historically fragmented faced us a complex process of search, discussions and debates that could build a political horizon of emancipation to school knowledge. From there we will outline the multiple tensions we go through and which daily interpellate our practices as educators, while we redefine the meaning of "university extension" in the spaces marked by poverty. The voices of the participating subjects embodied in the experiences around this experience, help to look back at us about what we have to do, feel, think when we choose to work with the popular sectors.