Reyes, brujos y filósofos: la educación en el cambio y en la reproducción social

Abstract

The ability to learn, even not voluntarily, is intrinsic to human nature. Education, implicitly o explicitly, sets a direction, a purpose and an organization to the learning process. And like any social action, it is driven by material and ideal interests, and conditioned by worldviews (Weltbilder). Since it is projected into the future, the educative system can reproduce or create new social conditions. At the same time, it is conditioned by the traits of the society in which it exists. In this article, we will analyze two pairs of approaches to the educative phenomenon: restriction versus the extension of the access, and transmission versus the communication of knowledge. Since the very first civilizations, the restriction of access to certain knowledge has been used in order to reproduce different social models, such as theocracies in ancient Egypt and Babylonia. On the other hand, the extensive approach aims at making possible (or even mandatory) for everybody, the inclusion in the educative formal system. In the transmission approach, obedience and authority are central elements, and the student is conceived as a piece of clay that has to be shaped. On the contrary, the communicative approach encourages autonomous thinking (Immanuel Kant's sapere aude). Distributing power in a society will condition the level of access to information and autonomous experimentation, and also to knowledge tools for action and information. And, conversely, choosing one approach or the other will have a fundamental role in the structure of that society.