40 years of democracy in Argentina. The democratization of the Institutes for Teacher Training

Abstract

This article revisits the incipient struggles for democratization within the Institutes for Teacher Training during the first years after the civic-military dictatorship. In the first place, it uncovers the legal framework inherited from the so called “Process of National Reorganization” – an inevitable point of departure for my analysis as it shapes the opportunities and constraints for the transformations put forward by the “Democratic Educational Project”. Secondly, it reconstructs analytically the first struggles for i) the abrogation of institutional limits to organizational democratization and free-of-charge tuition ii) superseding the culture of individualism predominant in the institutions of teacher training. Finally, the article reflects on the relevance of the institutes’ experience for a more holistic understanding of the historical period with regard to the recuperation of organizational capacity, the struggle for free-of-charge tuition and democratization within the realm of higher education.