An educational proposal from the teaching of history and the environment to address a controversial topic in the chilean classroom: The occupation of the araucanía region, in the second half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

In Chile, several investigations have been made in the last decade in the subdiscipline of environmental history. However, the same scenario does not seem to exist for education side of the matter. It is important to revert this situation if we want to take educational advantages in environmental history such as interculturality, more complex explanations of the past and interdisciplinarity. This work illustrates this educational potential through the Chilean occupation of the Araucanía region, in the second half of the nineteenth century. This theme was chosen for being one of the controversial topics in the Chilean history teaching that complicates teacher's job. To prepare the proposal, primary, secondary, and tertiary sources of different kinds have been analyzed qualitatively. A teaching of history is proposed from three thematic lines that, according to historian Donald Hughes, distinguish environmental history, namely: The impact that human beings have generated on the natural environment; the influences that this has had on the former; and the perceptions that human beings have had surrounding the environment. In this way, the teaching surrounding the occupation of the Araucanía gains greater coherence with the geographical and historical reality of the region. Even more importantly, citizens develop responsible attitudes towards nature and a greater awareness of their place in the world. © 2023 The authors.