Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This essay reflects on the questions posed by historical research regarding the institutionalization of educational sciences and Pädagogik, on the occasion of the publication of the book Education and «Pädagogik»: philosophical and historical reflections (Central, Southern and South-Eastern Europe), edited by Blanka Kudláčová and Andrej Rajský. In a first part, the essay deals with the problems of translating into English the concepts used to account for European continental cases and the dangers of misrepresenting their historical logic. A second part focuses on the discussion of the chapters of the book and defends the need to advance in a theoretical framework on the boundary between science and politics in the case of dictatorships and o allow for the experience of the former  communist countries to be included.

In the middle of the 19th century scarcely a single town in Spain had its own school building, and most of the existing ones lacked the minimum conditions necessary for teaching. During the Sexenio Democrático (1868-1874), the progressive liberalist wing promoted the construction of schoolbuildings, launching a call for models of primary state schools in 1869. The significance of this call was such that it could be considered as the early  dawn of Spanish school architecture, even if the ensuing process and results are debatable. The construction of the Escuela Modelo in Madrid, the Escuelas Aguirre in Cuenca and Madrid, and the Jardines de la Infancia – the first Froebelian institution in Spain, also located in the capital – can be considered to have derived from this contest from 1869.

Review of the book by Sani, Roberto.  Education, school and cultural processes in contemporary Italy. Macerata: Edizioni Università di Macerata, 2018

Introduction

Review of the book by Terron Aida and José A. Ávarez (coords.). La educacion en Asturias. Estudios históricos. Oviedo: Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos, 2019.

The state of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil, following the international guidelines and models related to implementation, dissemination and improvements of primary education, undertook, between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, initiatives that responded to the need for the construction of school facilities. The objective of this paper is to analyze the ideas and actions that marked the continuities and the transformations related to government intervention in school spaces. For this purpose we will use a model of a school building, from 1883; a standard design project, from 1899; a model of an agricultural school, from 1919; and a competition for school constructions, from 1928. The documentary research, of a historiographical character, uses as primary sources the reports by the Direction of Public Instruction and Public Works of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The paper shows the permanence throughout these decades of certain aspects, especially those concerning the need for tax revenue to pay for the building of schools, their location in the cities and villages, hygienist issues, the teachers' places of residence, and the graded school system. Among the main transformations, we highlight the design of cornerless, adaptable rooms; mixed classes; rooms for different activities, such as museums, laboratories, administrative rooms, libraries, and spaces for school movie theaters and radio stations. These new state prescriptions were partially aligned with the New School principles, which were introduced in Brazil especially throughout the decade of 1920; in keeping with this movement, it was thought that the design of school spaces should consider the central role that children would play in the educational process, taking into account their needs and curiosities.

This paper reports a research project undertaken whose aim was to explore the possibility of using a particular theoretical framework for engaging in preliminary studies aimed at analysing specific historical instances of change in education. The change that was the focus of the investigation was a new school established by the Sisters of Mercy in Ennis, County Clare (Ireland), to replace an original school built in 1865. This was no ‘ordinary school. Instead, it was at the time deemed a model infant and primary school. While the case is of interest in its own right, the principal aim of the study was to explore the potential of cultural activity theory for engaging in historical analyses of cases of its type and using its structure, the CHAT model, as a framework for presenting results.

Este ensayo de investigación de nuestro colectivo ENDYEP (Encuentro entre docentes y Educadorxs Populares), sobre nuestro andar en la Formación Docente en clave de Educación Popular, propone un diálogo permanente con la obra del Maestro Paulo Freire y su legado. Partimos de una opción política ética, pedagógica, que necesita de los otrxs como condición de existencia y re-existencia. En el pensarnos y re-pensarnos proponemos una serie de paradas en donde planteamos quiénes somos, las ataduras, legados y continuidades que nos atraviesan -como también- las rupturas conquistadas colectivamente y los logros esperados. Una y otra vez, reafirmamos que, la formación docente es la expresión y opción de lo que ha sido el eje estructurante de nuestro andar como educadoras, tanto en la formación de lxs educadorxs dentro del ámbito de los movimientos sociales como en la estructura formal de los Institutos de Formación Docente de la Ciudad de Bs. As., Argentina. La Formación Docente en Clave de Educación Popular se configura así, como el eje estructurante de nuestra praxis educativa. Los desafíos de pensar y construir una Formación Docente que se nutriera de las concepciones emancipatorias de la Educación Popular que tiene al maestro Freire como exponente, fueron forjando una nueva centralidad en nuestras acciones. Es por ello que queremos ser parte de este legado freiriano como praxis transformadora.

El desarrollo de este texto se presenta en dos momentos. En el primero, se analiza el método de alfabetización del profesor Paulo Freire. Sin embargo, no se aborda como un conjunto simple de técnicas de lectura y escritura; pretende resaltar la "propuesta antropológica, ética y política para rescatar la vocación ontológica de hombres y mujeres, que, entre otros, se incorpora al derecho a leer la palabra mundo". En el segundo, el foco está en la relación entre el pensamiento pedagógico de Freire y la teoría del nacionalismo-desarrollismo brasileño, creada en el ISEB en el período comprendido entre 1959 y 1964. El argumento central es que la posición de Paulo Freire se opone a la de las élites, una sociedad cerrada identificada con los matices del populismo conservador que masifica, fanatiza y evita que los hombres simples sean participantes y agentes del proceso de transformación que consideran fundamental. La educación que propuso fue esencialmente transformadora y liberadora. Se resalta su importancia y las razones de ocupar un lugar destacado en la historia de la educación brasileña y mundial.

In this autobiographical article I develop some turning points in my training as an educator. The first refers to the influence and educational implications that the person of Paulo Freire and his thinking had on me, which still persists today. However, as a disciple I had to distance myself from him because his presence, although necessary, made it difficultfor me to think autonomously, which contradicted his teachings. The other turning pointwas when I learned about Reuven Feuerstein's educational formulation, which enriched and complemented Freire's dialogic proposal. The last turning point, at least until now, tookplace when I learned about chaos theory, which shook me deeply and led me to reconsidermy entire conceptualization about education by understanding that educational processesare eminently chaotic and tend to self-organize in levels of increasing complexity. Thisradically differentiates them from schooling, which reduces them to orderly, linear sequences dependent on disciplinary contexts, which are expressed in orderly planning and evaluations where doubt and impression have no place. I develop the idea that thepropensity to learn flows thanks to chaotic conditions that favor bifurcations and emergencies that create new complexities, which corresponds to what educationalprocesses are, ranging from the creation of possible relationships, which, thanks to theantecedents collected by students, they can become probable relationships and that, if theadvancement of science and technology allows it, can be realized.