Río de historias: la cartografía social para el fortalecimiento de la memoria barrial en el colegio Alfonso Reyes Echandía IED

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship between territory, neighborhood memory, and education at the Alfonso Reyes Echandía School, located in the Bosa neighborhood of Bogotá, D.C., from a conception of territory as a space of social construction interwoven with historical, cultural, and political relationships, with an emphasis on territorial memories linked to the Tunjuelo River that highlight the growing disconnect between new generations and neighborhood experiences in school educational processes. This situation has contributed to the social and environmental stigma of the river being reduced to a view of it as a source of pollution, obscuring its role as a space of memory, identity, and collective resistance. The research is conducted using a qualitative approach, based on case study methodology, and aims to strengthen the neighborhood’s collective memory of the Tunjuelo River through the design and implementation of social mapping as an educational and methodological tool. Implemented with the Memory and Territory Research Seedbed in the afternoon session, this process uses documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, and social mapping workshops to create spaces for dialogue and collective reflection. This dynamic allows students to recognize themselves as territorial subjects and weavers of neighborhood memory, strengthening the construction of identities and research skills. In this way, it fosters critical reflection on the School’s mission in the preservation of territorial memory and the holistic formation of the individual, validating the students’ own knowledge as authors.