The Technical Education Projects That Converged in Peronist Argentina (1871-1944)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct and systematize the ideas that constituted the background to the reorganization of technical education during Peronism, with special emphasis on the contributions of the socialist deputy Américo Ghioldi. It is worth noting that, although there are some studies on this subject, they do not include the projects presented by this legislator. In order to carry out this task, a brief historical overview will be made of the development of this educational modality and of the different existing offers -both state and parastatal- between the end of the 19th century and 1944, the year in which the National Commission for Apprenticeship and Vocational Guidance was created within the framework of the Secretariat of Labour and Social Security directed by the then Colonel Juan Domingo Perón. In this sense, the different projects carried out by different actors interested in the reorganization of technical education prior to Peronism will be presented, among which those in favor of professional education inside factories and those who advocated technical education in educational establishments stand out. Finally, the political position of the socialist legislator Américo Ghioldi will be presented, who, through two bills presented in 1941 and 1942, was able to synthesize and reconcile the different competing proposals on how to reorganise the aforementioned educational modality during the first half of the 1940s in Argentina. This research is part of the qualitative methodology and the research techniques used are documentary observation and content analysis of both primary and secondary documentary sources.