Memoria y territorialidades simbólicas en Fusagasugá. Un red basado en ABP para el fortalecimiento del pensamiento crítico

Abstract

This study presents the results of educational research conducted at Colegio Fundación Manuel Aya, located in Fusagasugá, Cundinamarca, with students from Grade 11-02. The study emerged from a specific pedagogical concern: although students move through the city on a daily basis and are familiar with its streets, parks, neighborhoods, and gathering places, they often struggle to connect these spaces with the contents of Social Sciences classes and, more importantly, to analyze them from a critical perspective. Accordingly, the research understands territory as more than a physical or administrative space; it is conceived as a living environment shaped by memories, family narratives, emotions, urban transformations, social tensions, and silences that also educate, challenge, and construct identity. The general objective was to analyze the impact of implementing a Digital Educational Resource (DER) focused on local memory and symbolic territorialities in strengthening the critical thinking skills of Grade 11-02 students. To achieve this, the research was guided by a qualitative approach and followed the Educational Action Research methodology, as it sought not only to understand a classroom situation but also to transform it through a situated pedagogical proposal grounded epistemologically in the socio-critical perspective. In this way, students and teachers participated in a process of exploration, dialogue, and reflection about Fusagasugá. The classroom ceased to be a closed space and became a setting where the city could be read, discussed, and reinterpreted through young people's voices. The intervention was structured through Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and a Digital Educational Resource that integrated digital activities, mapping exercises, reflective journals, questionnaires, collaborative maps, and narrative productions, including the podcast *“Silenced Memories.”* The findings reveal a progressive advancement in the way students understood their territory. Initially, their perspectives were characterized by general descriptions of familiar places; however, by the end of the process, more elaborate analyses emerged concerning family memories, urban changes, symbolic tensions, senses of belonging, and narratives that are often rendered invisible. Consequently, the study concludes that a Digital Educational Resource designed with clear pedagogical intent can strengthen situated critical thinking, promote a more reflective understanding of the surrounding environment, and transform the school into a living space for the reconstruction of memory, identity, and citizenship.