Estrategias antirracistas cátedra estudios afrocolombianos colegio Antonio Van Uden Localidad Fontibón

Abstract

This study investigates school-based racism and the development of anti-racist practices within the framework of the Cátedra de Estudios Afrocolombianos (C.E.A. – Chair of Afro-Colombian Studies) at a public school in Bogotá. The study is based on the premise that racism is not limited to individual prejudices, but operates as a deeply rooted technology of power that organizes social life through racial hierarchies and perpetuates inequality (Moreno Figueroa and Wade, 2023). By permeating social and political structures, this phenomenon manifests in the school environment as a factor that conditions students' identities and development. This research argues that racism operates as a structural system that permeates the country's social, economic, and political dimensions. Within the school environment, this system manifests through racialized hierarchies that condition students' identities and perpetuate inequality. Under the protection of Law 70 of 1993 and Decree 1122 of 1998, this work seeks to characterize how the pedagogical strategies of the C.E.A. at Colegio Antonio Van Uden succeed in transforming interethnic relations and challenging these racialized power structures that shape institutional culture. Theoretically, the work establishes a dialectic between the reproduction of exclusion and the critical approach of anti-racism. Rather than viewing the school as a neutral space for socialization, the research identifies that educational institutions operate under structures of systemic racism that organize social life through racial hierarchies (Moreno Figueroa and Wade, 2023). Faced with this reality, ethno-education and the C.E.A. emerge as an epistemic correction that seeks to strengthen the cultural identity of Afro-Colombian communities and subvert the hegemony of Eurocentric knowledge (Caicedo Ortiz and Castillo Guzmán, 2022). This initiative transforms the school into a space of everyday anti-racism, where the valuation of one’s own knowledge allows for the deactivation of curricular racism and traditional pedagogical practices that silence diversity (Mena, 2022; Sotelo, 2014). Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative approach to characterize the educational community's perceptions regarding discrimination. It analyzes the contrast between the subjective experience of being discriminated against and the objective observation of racist acts in the school environment, identifying how the denial of personal aggression often functions as a barrier for identity protection. These data allow for an understanding of the complexity of institutional racism and the urgency of pedagogical strategies that not only report the phenomenon but intervene effectively. Finally, the research focuses on characterizing how the pedagogical strategies developed at Colegio Antonio Van Uden contribute to the transformation of interethnic relations. By analyzing the effectiveness of the institutional response, the study seeks to identify the scope of the C.E.A. as a practice of everyday anti-racism. The purpose is to determine how these actions succeed in challenging the racialized power structures within school culture, fostering an environment where ethnic difference is valued and respected.