I observe that basic education in the 21st century rests on two great pillars: learning to learn and learning to live together. If we wanted to understand the reasons that justify these pillars of education, it would be necessary to analyze the dynamics of the new capitalism, who affirms that its objective is the construction of a more just society, which leaves me much to be desired in particular.
Having said the above, these pillars are the basis of important transformations in basic education, which affect both the curricular content, training and teacher performance as well as the institutional organization of school activity. For this, a pedagogical perspective based on the objective of overcoming the social determinism of learning outcomes is postulated, which dominates basic education in our region.
I would like to begin this presentation with some preliminary considerations of my own vision that seem important to me in understanding the issue of educational quality.
The first consideration
It refers to the state of dissatisfaction with the educational offer available that can be seen in almost everyone. To put it in a nutshell, it seems like no one is happy with their educational system and everyone is looking to change it. I understand that this dissatisfaction is directly related to the intense changes that have occurred in all dimensions of society.
As teachers we must understand that today's educational challenges are different from those of the past, and both the role and place of education have changed. Opening ourselves to these opinions or rather affirmations would help us to understand the nature of the phenomena that we have to experience (different, new, strange), both those that are related to the dissatisfaction that most teachers have and those that can indicate new good tendencies to humanity and valid alternatives to successfully face those challenges.
The second consideration
It refers to the impact of this context change on pedagogical knowledge. To agree my opinion, I would like to take up a small text that a few years ago a book was published in France that reproduces the dialogue between George Steiner and a philosophy teacher at a French secondary school (STEINER and LADJALI, 2003). At one point in the dialogue, the teacher mentions her difficulties in handling pedagogical techniques that allow obtaining good results with young people from poor neighborhoods of Paris, even though she had never had access to so many pedagogy books, training courses and didactic materials as in the last years.
Faced with this declaration of pedagogical impotence, Steiner recalls Goethe's famous phrase: «He who knows how to do, does. He who does not know how to do, teaches »and then adds, as his own contribution to this denigrating vision of the educational task:« He who does not know how to teach writes pedagogy manuals ». What has happened for an intellectual of the stature of George Steiner to have such an opinion of pedagogy and pedagogues?
Beyond the explanations about the causes of this phenomenon, the fact is that education must face new and complex challenges within the framework of a context of significant weakness of our theoretical, technical and scientific paradigms. For this reason, the teacher must consciously assume that their professional practices must be developed within the framework of theories that they have about the same phenomena, and accept that there are explanations and applications as opposite as those that exist in current education.
The third consideration
It is a consequence of the previous two: I have become aware of the enormous complexity and difficulty that exists in modifying the functioning patterns of educational systems. Taking stock of the educational reforms of the 1990s, I observe that, although they allow increasing coverage and introducing new management modalities and instruments (decentralization, measurement of results, greater autonomy for schools, etc.), they have not managed to significantly modify the learning outcomes of students.
The explanations about these difficulties are diverse and many of them are quite familiar and traditional: corporatism of the internal actors of the system, traditionalism, resistance to innovations by the teacher, etc. This type of behavior reflects me and explains part of the problem, it seems important to highlight the presence of a series of new factors, linked to the structural tendencies of this «new capitalism» based on the intensive use of information technologies, in the globalization and in the deregulation of social services.
To these considerations, I think we should add a point that, due to its importance, should be treated in a particular way: the growing globalization of all dimensions of society. In this sense, take a look at the international situation, which will undoubtedly place us in front of problems that we must analyze carefully. The first and most impressive is the significant increase in social inequality, based on this we must guide our educational practice, looking for effective ways and methods that allow the non-individualization of our citizens, with correct strategies arising from the teacher.
I would like to end this presentation with some reflections on a new agenda, current and future, of educational innovations, which I am currently implementing from my own classroom.
- The first one: it is based on a concern of a social nature. From this point of view, the fundamental question that I have asked myself about my educational practice is how to break the social determinism of learning outcomes? The second: it is necessary to overcome the traditional approach, where the effort is exerted in analyzing the contribution of education to social equity, to postulate the need for a basic minimum of equity and social cohesion as a necessary condition for a successful educational process to be possible.The third: it is only possible to argue that the expansion of educational coverage,The improvement of learning outcomes and curricular renewal policies that allow relevant learning for productive and citizen performance will only be sustainable over time if they are accompanied by an economic growth strategy. The fourth: teacher policies should attack inequalities in terms of cultural resources available in families, to favor a process of primary socialization aimed at promoting adequate basic cognitive development. Fifth: with respect to who we teach, some recent studies confirm that we are far from a homogeneous body from the point of view of their professional culture. Therefore, it must be understood that the teaching sector is made up of people who differ significantly with respect to their socioeconomic status, values,social representations and opinions on key aspects of their performance.
If we look at those teachers, students or establishments that are successful in their task of ensuring that everyone learns and that they do so with high levels of quality, we find a series of characteristics that come from the subjective dimension of the actors. At this point, I just want to allude to the need to explore some lines of action specific to each of the teachers with personal learning methodologies.
A pedagogy that seems to me to be effective in overcoming adversity conditions in the current era is one based on the trust that educators give their students, focused on strengthening the ability of students to know themselves and define their life projects with aptitude and positive attitude.
