Between penury and philanthropy: Joseph lancaster, the state and the birth of primary schooling in Chile (c.1810-30)

This chapter argues that the English model of education provided a new rationale to an old practice and that it became an important reference in the development of primary schooling in Chile. It discusses the relation between the State, society and education from a comparative European perspective eventually incorporating the Chilean case into the analysis. The chapter details the material limitations that characterized the Chilean situation during the Independence era and explains how this handicap conditioned educational debates. It also assesses the extent to which the notion of philanthropy was incorporated in both theory and practice through the spread of the Joseph Lancaster’s system. The chapter then provides a narrative of the adoption of this system in Chile and explains how it fitted within a pre-existent reality that since 1813 had left civil society with little alternative but to collaborate in the provision of education.