Recuperación de saberes ancestrales mediante una huerta escolar como estrategia de mediación didáctica y comunitaria

Abstract

This paper presents the progress of an ongoing research study that develops a pedagogical proposal based on the school garden as a strategy of didactic and community mediation for the recovery of ancestral knowledge at the Institución Educativa Técnica Bolívar (I.E.T. Bolívar), located in the rural area of the municipality of Santa Isabel, Tolima, Colombia. The central problem addressed is the disconnection between the school curriculum and the rural territory, which manifests itself in student demotivation, loss of campesino identity, and school dropout, particularly among 9th and 10th grade students. The general objective of the research is to strengthen ancestral knowledge through school gardens as a strategy of didactic and community mediation at the Institución Educativa Técnica Bolívar in the municipality of Santa Isabel, Tolima. The study adopts a qualitative approach with an Action Research (AR) methodology, grounded in a critical and decolonial epistemology. It draws on instruments that have enabled a more objective perspective, namely the field journals kept by the teacher researchers and semi-structured interviews conducted with participating students. At this stage, three preliminary categories have emerged: the tension between school knowledge and campesino knowledge, the progressive shift in student motivation toward activities linked to the territory, and intergenerational dialogue as a pedagogical resource. The preliminary findings suggest that the school garden constitutes an alternative epistemic space that allows learning to be reframed from local and traditional knowledge, dignifies rural life, and builds territorial identity among young campesinos.