MYTHS AND REALITIES OF MULTIGRADE SCHOOLS: A POSTMODERN CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THEIR PEDAGOGICAL EFFECTIVENESS IN LATIN AMERICA.

Abstract

This literature review addresses the persistent tension between multigrade schools and narratives of educational quality in Latin America. Despite being the dominant educational model in rural areas, multigrade schools are systematically perceived in educational policy and some literature as a deficient institution or a temporary logistical solution, fueling the myth of their inherent ineffectiveness. The central objective is to deconstruct this myth through a Postmodern Critical Analysis, questioning the evaluation framework that subordinates them. The methodology is based on an exhaustive review of empirical and theoretical literature, structured around four categories: contextualizing the model, evidence of its pedagogical effectiveness, critiquing the metanarratives of school modernity (Foucault, Lyotard), and reconfiguring its potential. The results of the review demonstrate that the supposed ineffectiveness does not lie in the multigrade model itself, but rather in the application of quality metrics and curricular structures designed for urban single-gradé schools. Concepts such as disciplinary standardization and homogeneity are identified as the ideological pillars that obscure the inherent strengths of this pedagogical approach, such as cooperative learning, peer tutoring, and curricular flexibility. It is concluded that the multigrade school should be revalued not as a vestige of the past, but as a space of pedagogical resistance and a viable, flexible, and relevant alternative for education in liquid modernity.