This paper shows the results of a historical-cultural analysis of the construction of childhood as a social category in Colombia. This analysis is based on the revision of a documented corpus from a Journal called Educación, put into circulation by the Education Sciences Faculty of the National University of Colombia between 1933 and 1935. The research was carried out from an analysis of Chartier perspective, enabling the identification of experimental speech/ discourses that come from modern psychology as forms of reasoning to approach and think about children, speech/discourses that were promoted by specific groups of intellectuals of the time. Experimental speeches are presented as tools that help preserve the institutionality by means of the transmission of the basic notion of ‘order’ to children during the first part of the 20th century. A marked predilection for the study of the organic and physiological instead of the subjective, was also found. All these aspects allow for the understanding of a rupture between forms of knowledge,
and allow to characterize and highlight the particularity of this specific population group. The results include also the identification and analysis of different patterns in speeches by intellectual groups and several institutions which contributed to disseminate forms of thinking, which brought about particular actions and attitudes around this group. The research points out the social image, rupture and changes of what was considered ‘childhood’ at the beginning the 20th century.
El artículo presenta los resultados de un análisis histórico - cultural sobre la construcción de la categoría social de infancia en Colombia a partir del corpus documental de la revista Educación, puesta en circulación entre los años 1933 y 1935 por la Facultad de Ciencias de Educación de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. La investigación se realizó desde la perspectiva de análisis de Chartier obteniendo como resultado la identificación de discursos experimentales provenientes de la psicología moderna como formas de razonamiento para abordar y pensar a los infantes y que eran promovidos por un grupo de intelectuales. Los discursos experimentales son presentados como los encargados de ayudar a la institucionalidad para darle “orden” a los infantes de la primera parte del siglo XX, así como la predilección del estudio de lo orgánico y fisiológico sobre lo subjetivo, aspecto que ayudaría a la ruptura entre formas de conocimiento para abordar la infancia como un grupo poblacional particular.