The thesis Evolutionary biologic theories on Chilean textbooks has analysed more than 50 books and their respective editions used in Chile for educative levels comparable to Spanish Higher Secondary Education and University. It can be seen from texts from the end of the 19th century to 2003 how the different political powers have tried to control evolutionary theories for students of secondary education and future biologists.
This scientific work is the fruit of the collaboration between the Dpt. Didactics of the Experimental Sciences of the University of Granada and the Catholic University of Maule (Chile).
The author of the doctoral thesis, Manuel Sánchez Tamayo, teaches at this University.
The supervisor is Francisco González García, Professor at the UGR.
On many occasions, even nowadays, conservative politicians, with the support of th conservative sectors, want to consider Charles Darwin’s evolutionism –who visited Chile during his journey in the brig Beagle—and biblical creationism as comparable theories, “when, in fact, they are of a different nature: one is science and the other id faith”, points out Prof González García, supervisor of the thesis.
And he adds: “In Chile, the political and social debae is absent from the y social no está presente en la comunidad científica. Los biólogos son conscientes de la valía de la teoría de Darwin, independientemente de sus creencias religiosas”. El propio Tamayo Hurtado da clases en una Universidad de adscripción católica, y es un firme defensor del evolucionismo y del rigor científico.
Ultra-conservative governments
The Chilean State does not force, but recommends, the texts that must be used at the school. During the government of the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei, he promoted an education which removed evolution from biology programs of secondary education, due to the pressures of the ultra-conservative religious sectors.
However, in the last years of Pinochet´s dictatorship Darwinian theories were not censored. In secondary education, texts published in Chile from 1960 cover between 27% and 49% of the most relevant aspects of current evolutionism. The thesis concludes suggesting some didactic models for the teaching on evolutionism in different levels.
Reference: Prof Francisco González García. Dpt. Didactics of Experimental Sciences.
Phone numbers. 958 243555 – 958 240930.
E-mail. pagoga@ugr.es.
