Going back to school: Engaging veterans’ memories of the Malvinas war in secondary schools in Santa Fe, Argentina

Abstract

This paper offers a new perspective on debates about young people and critical geopolitics by placing attention on war veterans – actors rarely considered when thinking about how young people learn about geopolitics, the nation and memories of past conflict. It does so through the analysis of the voices of Malvinas War veterans (officers and conscripts), young people and teachers in public and private secondary schools in the city of Santa Fe, Argentina. Political geographers working in school settings have often turned to textbooks and/or the perspectives of educators when looking to grasp how geopolitical issues are presented to young people. Yet the presence of those with first-hand testimony of war does something markedly different to the affective and emotional registers through which geopolitics is embodied and referenced. The paper, then, critically considers what the veterans' presence and testimonies do to the ways that geopolitics is discussed and interrogated within secondary schools. Such attention can shed light on how young people learn about memories of Argentina's recent past and the protagonists involved, highlighting the societal tensions and sensitivities that continue to characterise narratives associated with the military and the Malvinas War specifically.