The University Reform of 1918 the performance of the Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy of the University of Buenos Aires

Abstract

This article deals with some of the results rendered by the research project carried out at Department of Humanities and Social Science of the National University of La Matanza under the title: Scope and new perspectives in the relationship between politics, governability and education in Argentina in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Research was designed in three stages: a historical analysis of the diverse educational systems at different times in Argentine history; the study of the regulations and their legal tools, and the identification and description of educational practices at different levels and modalities.

The work methodology involved theoretical and empirical approaches, the latter consisting of the search for specific documents. Individual interviews with specialists in Argentine education were also conducted.

In the study case of 1918 University Reform, the analysis of documentation related to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires in its historical evolution was taken into account, in order to analyze the relationship between the planned contents and the ideological issues that motivated the Reform.

We have reached the conclusion that these issues circulated in intellectual areas with ideas stemming not necessarily from the classrooms themselves, but which were in fact the scenario for a demand for change in the conception of university government and its implications in power spheres.