Análisis crítico de la Ley de Violencia Escolar de Chile

Abstract

In 2001 Chile enacted the School Violence Law, after three failed attempts by the legislature. We present here the results of an analysis of this Law, based on critical documentary analysis. Results indicate the exercise of disciplinary power and the prescription of a hierarchical oversight by adult school personnel. There is evidence of techniques to divide individuals before a normalizing punishment, whereby the student is pictured as subject of punitive action, with faults scored with consequences that may go all the way up to the exclusion from school and society. School community life is conceived as a situational variable that inhibits violence. Adult school personnel are held responsible for it, making co-construction invisible and thus also making invisible the joint responsibility of students and legal guardians. The discourse has the effect of making criminal law rationality prevails over pedagogical rationality, diminishing the school’s formative function.