Nothing is Thrown Away, Everything is Transformed. Becoming a Scavenger-Teacher: Management of Everyday Precariousness in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires

Abstract

In this article, we propose that the idea that nothing is thrown away becomes an integral part of the daily management of precariousness in schools affected by the logics of New Public Management (NPM). We retrieve results of qualitative investigation on special education schools in urban poverty and environmental degradation contexts in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. We discuss urban recycling and the ways in which these dynamics affect schools and their teachers, and we maintain that teachers adopt basic subsistence practices like scavenging as one way of classroom management. The notion of scavenger-teacher refers, precisely, to that condition; the way in which teachers integrate the recovery of waste to get the necessary materials to do their work.