Evolución crítica del currículo de artes visuales en MonteHelena: una lectura decolonial

Abstract

This presentation shares progress from the thesis titled "Critical Analysis of the Evolution of the Visual Arts Curriculum at MonteHelena Bilingual School (2020–2025): A Decolonial Perspective through Documentary Review." The research problem focuses on the tension between the institution's discourse, which recognizes art as an essential component of holistic education, and the actual curriculum, which in several documents prioritizes a technical, formal, and sequential organization of the subject area. Within this context, the study seeks to understand how the Visual Arts curriculum has evolved and to what extent its different versions reproduce or challenge colonial logics in cultural selection and in the understanding of the educational role of the arts.The general objective is to critically analyze the evolution of the Visual Arts curriculum at MonteHelena Bilingual School between 2020 and 2025 from the perspective of critical and decolonial pedagogies, in order to identify guidelines that strengthen the subject area. The methodology consists of a qualitative, interpretive, and critical documentary case study. The corpus includes the 2025 Institutional Educational Project (PEI), the Visual Arts Curriculum Framework, the 2024 Visual Arts Curriculum Map, the 2020 annual elementary school lesson plans, the 2023 instructional planning documents, and the Curriculum Guidelines issued by the Colombian Ministry of National Education. Data analysis was conducted through documentary review, document characterization matrices, theoretical comparison, and hermeneutic-critical analysis. Preliminary findings reveal a well-organized and progressive pedagogical framework, but with a predominant emphasis on mastering formal artistic elements, reproducing established models, and following a technical sequence of content. Although the institutional documents emphasize creativity, identity, sensitivity, and holistic education, cultural selection continues to be largely dominated by references from Western art history, with only limited inclusion of local, Pre-Columbian, and Latin American perspectives. Consequently, the critical-cultural dimension remains relatively underdeveloped compared to perceptual sensitivity and artistic production and creation.