SAN LUIS: MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND HISTORICAL NARRATIVES FROM THE CLASSROOM A SIGNIFICANT PEDAGOGICAL EXPERIENCE FOR STRENGTHENING REGIONAL HISTORY AND A CULTURE OF PEACE IN RURAL COLOMBIA

Abstract

This article presents the significant pedagogical experience "San Luis: Memory and Identity, Construction of Historical Narratives from the Classroom", developed at the Institución Educativa San Luis Beltrán, located in a rural area of the municipality of Neiva (Huila), as a response to students' lack of interest in Social Sciences and the low performance evidenced in the ICFES state examinations over the last five years. The experience was framed within Educational Action Research (EAR), following the cycle of planning, action, observation, and reflection proposed by Lewin (1946) and developed in the school context by Elliott (1990) and Freire (1970, 1997). For the diagnostic phase, qualitative techniques were used, including semi-structured interviews, oral narratives, and participant observation, applied with students, families, and community leaders. The design of the experience integrated play-based pedagogical strategies such as historical role-playing games, dramatizations, murals, and living timelines, articulated with the regional history of Huila within the seventh-grade Social Sciences curriculum, and included a field trip to the San Agustín Archaeological Park, an interview with an indigenous leader of the Pijao people, and the use of the Banco de la República's educational resource kit. The evaluation of results was carried out through the analysis of field journals written by students, collective reflection sessions with the group and families, and a community forum titled "Our History, Roots and Perspectives of the People of San Luis", in which the community recognized itself as a producer of historical knowledge. The discussion of findings shows that regional history, approached through EAR and pedagogical dialogue, strengthens historical thinking, activates a sense of territorial belonging, and transforms teaching practices, establishing itself as a replicable model for rural contexts with similar characteristics.