Recovery of historical memory
"The tradition of all dead generations, oppresses like a nightmare the brain of the living" Carlos Marx, El 18 Brumario by Luis Bonaparte.
challenges-of-contemporary-education-in-chiapas-mexicoHistorical memory is a collective memory, an evocation directed towards the present of the symbolic value of the collective actions lived by a people in the past. It is an action that preserves the identity and continuity of a people, it is not forgetting what has been learned, often with blood, it is the way to avoid repeating past mistakes.
When we look back, we are not asking ourselves the scientific question of What do you seek to know the “truth” of what has happened? but a question full of anguish. Articulating the past historically does not mean discovering "the way it was" (scientific truth) but appropriating memory when it flashes briefly in a moment of danger (political truth).
1.- Why has the loss of our historical memory occurred?
Currently remember that one day we were free threatens to break the domain of those who today take advantage of our chains (the ruling classes). It seems that only they seem to have historical memory, because for them it is not important to determine the historical facts, they just need everyone to remember the final result: whoever faces them will end up defeated (García Bilbao, 2010), although the task of domination is It has become increasingly difficult under the resistance of the dominated.
2.- Can I recover the historical memory?
This task of reconstructing a lost historical memory is difficult because the dominators of a certain moment are the heirs of all those who have ever won in history, and currently tell the story at mere convenience, however; if it is possible to recover the historical memory.
History is built in a time that is not homogeneous and empty but is full of a current time that shows signs of being "in the thicket of the past". Aware of this we can have historical memory.
3.- What is my job as a teacher to instill the recovery of historical memory?
First: teach that we must consciously recognize and vindicate the past taking into account everything that has happened afterwards, not empathize with the victor, which means understanding that the present is the future of the past, that all past was present, that all past it was future and that all present will be past.
Second: Teach the culture, since the dominated feeds daily and with the words of that culture, the dominated perceives, understands and explains the reality in which he lives and only historical memory allows him to remove the veil of the dominant culture and escape ignorance.
Make sense of what we do
As a teacher we must be active, participatory and innovative agents, responding to the different educational models that offer educational vision and practices in a diverse way based on the work and academic environment developed in their educational space.
Starting from the socializing consideration of school education, we need to resort to certain references that guide us, support and justify our actions so that it can pose or face the challenges framed in conditions of quality, equity and efficiency, in a comprehensive academic life.
Why make sense of teaching?
Because education as a social task, allows the integration of the individual into his contextual relationship through the understanding, sense and orientation of his knowledge; the teacher must contribute to consolidate a system that intentionally highlights the capacities and abilities of the individual and modify their behaviors based on what they do or develop and implies having a possibility of being a commitment in itself. Faced with the constant reconstruction of a society, education enables and establishes social relations between men, their nature and their forms of production, defining their own action.
What is the meaning of education?
The meaning of education is to ask about the meaning of life. Work is one of the unnatural human activities that man has created and at the same time creates it. Work regulates time, social relations, possibilities of access to material goods, but we are not only working beings.
4.- How to make sense of what to do as a teacher?
Education is not a thing we stumble upon and start analyzing. Education is an activity to which we can dedicate ourselves and to the extent that we dedicate ourselves we do it. It is, therefore, something to do, which will have one or the other characteristics according to the will of those who are engaged in the educational task.
The need to do research
Actually, research in education is an item that has been forgotten by the educational authorities of our country, since they do not allocate sufficient support to carry it out. Although it is true that all teachers in the learning process carry out a type of research, it is also true that we rarely order it and adapt it to the scientific method, which has led to the development of research throughout the 20th century in Mexico, has been poor and poorly treated.
There must be educational professionals who are interested in research in this field and aspire to be recognized as researchers; However, there is a long way to go, which goes beyond academic training, so that these individuals are recognized by their peers as researchers in education.
Nuestro país debe abrir centros de formación de investigadores, porque es necesario, formar un cuerpo bien consolidado, capaz de presentar propuestas educativas al país, que lo liberen de aquellos modelos educativos actuales, pocos contextualizados que en vez de crear sujetos sociales y críticos, no van mas allá de crea personas conformistas, que con lo poco a mucho se conforman.
Problem: Lack of food for children in their daily lives.
Challenge: Create a social policy on prevention and promotion actions.
Problem: Minimum economic investment in education for rural indigenous communities.
Challenge: Create various educational policies and programs aimed at serving the rural population in Mexico.
Problem: Education as a flag of struggle, in electoral campaigns by government candidates.
Challenge: As teachers we must train critical students with Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, stop being submissive.
Problem: Inequality in the human development of children.
Challenge: Create schools in all corners of our country, so that every individual can access the education that by law corresponds to us.
Problem: Non-attendance at school by the students.
Challenge: For the government: Create educational policies aimed at improving their economic life situation. For the teacher: working from the classroom, personal motivation.
Problem: Changes in school policy subject to a world order.
Challenge: Create more scholarships for Mexican doctorates to have researchers in education who can contribute, to create our own educational model.
Problem: The sentimental value of humans is being lost, individualism prevailing. Challenge: It would be for the teacher guiding his educational practice in working daily with values, teaching how to be a good human being, doing practices of mutual help.
Problem: teachers in front of a group, with little vocation to carry out their work.
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