Development for the Center and Civilization for the Periphery: The First Globalization, Racial Exclusion and Regional School Development in Colombia

An education to colonise. The educational discrimination of indigenous people in colonial settings: lessons from Colombia and Mozambique

“…Racial discrimination and the process of colonisation now focused on the indigenous, so-called "savage" population liv-ing in isolated, tropical jungle regions identified as peripheral (Fitzgerald, 2017;Lasso, 2003). These processes were materialised through a set of laws that were designed to bring "civilisation" to the "savages" living in these peripheral regions (España-Eljaiek, 2019). The Constitutions of 1863 and 1886, and the Law 89 of 1890, categorised the population of these territories into three groups (see table 1).…”

“…The project of bringing "civilisation" to the "savages" was based on white acculturation, the economic colonisation of the peripheral territories, and the exploitation of indigenous communities through forced labour (Appelbaum, 2017;España-Eljaiek, 2019;Múnera, 2005;Rojas, 2014) 5 . Racial discrimination also extended to the geographical and administrative division of the country, which the Colombian legislation divided into two types of territory: Departments and National Territories.…”

“…At the same time, the racist rhetoric and the racial hierarchies established through legislation served as justification for the processes of colonisation. In Mozambique and other Portuguese colonies in Africa, the colonial state relied on the concept of the "civilising mission" (Jerónimo, 2015), while Colombian elites upheld the social constructions of elite-whiteness as representative of "civilisation and progress", and the "savage" nature of indigenous people as an obstacle to development, which justified the "civilisation projects" to which they were subjected (España-Eljaiek, 2019;Pohl-Valero, 2016). Educational policies represented a continuation of this dichotomy and, as explained in the next section, contributed to the stagnation of human capital accumulation by indigenous people.…”

Reproducing Inequality? Elite-Biased Policy and the Rural–urban Educational Gap in Colombia and Its Regions, 1920-2019

“…FES 1987;Helg 2001;Triana 2009). Similarly, works in economic history have studied the long-term development of schooling (Ramírez-Giraldo and Téllez-Corredor 2007;España-Eljaiek 2019;Fuentes-Vásquez 2019). However, although social studies do not provide a long-term perspective, the literature in economic history focuses neither on the rural sector nor on the role of national governments in perpetuating educational disparities.…”

Los Orígenes de la educación básica en Colombia

“…If, on the contrary, we look at educational coverage at the subnational level, many departments in the peripheral and rural areas of the country did not exceed 55% for primary and 25% for secondary education in 2019. Most of these inequalities in the provision of education have their deep origins in Colombia's history (Ramírez and Salazar 2007, Ramírez and Téllez 2007, Fuentes-Vásquez 2019, España-Eljaiek 2019, since the current educational system has its roots in the model defined during the first half of the 20 th century (Ghotme 2013, Helg 2001). Hence, this article provides a complete breakdown of educational coverage during the first half of the 20 th century to identify longterm patterns educational inequality, considering various aspects such as a) regional differences, b) public and private educational coverage, c) differences between rural and urban education, and d) gender gaps.…”