El lado oscuro en la educación: papel del símbolo en la formación de valores, espiritualidad e ideología
The dark side of education:
its role in the formation of values, spirituality and ideology
Mauro Avilés-Salvador
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito,Ecuador
mraviles@puce.edu.ec
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6836-8467
(Received
on: 15/07/2018; Accepted on: 15/08/2018; Final version received on: 10/09/2018)
Suggested citation: Avilés-Salvador M. (2018). The dark side of education:
its role in the formation of values, spirituality and ideology. Revista Cátedra, 1(1), 115-127.
Resumen
Los procesos educativos tradicionales han centrado su atención en la
adquisición de contenidos por parte de los estudiantes. Ámbitos formativos de
carácter universal como la ideología, los valores y la espiritualidad son
considerados como supuestos deseables en los sistemas educativos, no obstante,
no es posible dejar de reflexionar sobre su importancia y trascendencia en la
formación de los seres humanos en la actualidad, más aún, en el marco de la
crisis de la racionalidad moderna y la emergencia de nuevas alternativas
educativas que respondan a, los complejos contextos actuales. Un espacio de
incidencia de estos factores lo constituye, en el ámbito de las ciencias de la
educación, el denominado ‘currículum’
oculto y, uno de los espacios por los cuales
es posible la adquisición, formación y desarrollo de estos ámbitos
educativos lo constituye el símbolo.
A
partir de una reflexión en torno a estos de estos factores, de sus
características generales y de su presencia en el contexto educativo
ecuatoriano, se estudiará la importancia del currículum oculto, en general y, del símbolo
como un ámbito de la racionalidad humana que evidencia
un carácter universal en relación con el desarrollo de la humanidad,
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Este trabajo,
a la vez que expositivo tiene un carácter
hermenéutico, herramienta necesaria para la comprensión del símbolo como
factor educativo, el mismo que se despliega a través del desarrollo discursivo
de la propuesta.
Palabras clave
Currículum,
cultura, espiritualidad, ideología, lado oscuro, símbolo, valores.
Abstract
Traditional educational processes have focused on the acquisition of
contents by the students. Universal formative areas such as ideology, values and spirituality are considered
as desirable assumptions in educational systems; however, it is not possible to stop reflecting on their importance and
transcendence in the formation of human beings nowadays, joined to the crisis
of modern rationality and the emergence of new educational alternatives that
respond to the complex current contexts. An incidence space of these factors is
constituted by the so-called “hidden curriculum”, and one of the spaces by
which it is possible to acquire, train and develop these educational fields is
the symbol.
From
a reflection on these factors, their general characteristics and their presence
in the Ecuadorian educational context,
the importance of the hidden
curriculum will be studied as well as the symbol, as an area of
human rationality that evidences a universal trait in relation to the
development of humanity.
This
research is expository and hermeneutic,
being a necessary tool for the comprehension of the symbol as an educational factor, which presents
in the discursive development of the
proposal.
Keywords
Curriculum,
culture, spirituality, ideology, dark side, symbol, values.
1.
Introduction
Thinking about education
from a different perspective involves
eliminating some ideas that
have sustained the usual pedagogical task. One of these theoretical foundations
has been the regular formal education, which, thanks to the western modernity
of analytical- deductive nature, is under a crisis. It is necessary to think of
new referents and educational spaces that respond not exclusively to a
scientist vision -biased and dichotomized-
but to a more complex and integrative vision that would motivate and orient the
individual to an authentic integral formation.
The formation of the affective and emotional dimensions of the human
being has been subordinated to desirable pedagogical assumptions that have been
omitted, forgotten, ignored in the daily education. Spaces like the
axiological, the ideological and the spiritual
respond to the universality of the human being: they surpass the temporality
and all geographical space, and are ignored in the formal curricula. These
areas need to be reconsidered in the human
formation. The symbol constitutes a space of possible reflection that since it is present in all
the times and cultures allow reflecting in another education possible.
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2. The dark side: its presence in the social aspect
In
the face of traditional education that is focused on the transmission of
content, there is another “hidden” area, not perceptible and yet present in the
daily life of human lives. Dimensions such as emotions, affections, feelings,
dreams, although they are a substantial part of the human nature, these have
been forgotten, hidden and even ignored from the regular educational system.
The public imaginary accustomed to speak of the “dark side”
brings to the memory the saga
of the Star Wars. A series originating in George Lucas,
which belonging to the field of science fiction collects elements of human
nature with universal character. Thus, for example, the teachings of the
millenary wisdom, the warlike conflicts between the various groups, the way of being, relating
and proceeding against
the adversaries to the friends
and to their own conscience. Thus, the dark side becomes
a “common place”
in the series and invites
to reflect on its
transcendence and importance both in the tape and in the daily lifeof human nature.
The series, at various times, presents expressions of this type, as
well as: “fear is the way to the dark side”, “fear leads to anger, anger leads
to hatred, hatred leads to suffering. I see much fear in you”, “fear, anger,
aggression, they are the dark side. If someday they govern your life, they will
always dominate your destiny” “the strength of a Jedi flows from the force. But
beware of the dark side: wrath, fear, aggression; they are from the force of
the dark side. They join easily
in combat. If you once take the path of the dark side, it will forever dominate your destiny. It will
consume you, just as it did with
Obi-Wan's Apprentice” and “fear of loss is a path to the dark side”. These,
among others, are some of the moments
when “dark side” appears.
Terms such as “strength”, “fear”,
“domain”, “care”, and “aggression” are characteristics of this dimension,
which exemplified in the series of the seventh art, make evident aspects of human nature of universal characteristics.
But, what is it and what
does this “dark side” relate to? This was an aspect of the force. People who used it got their power from emotions called negatives, such as anger, suffering,
hatred and violence. This was also aligned
with the search
for supreme power: the desire
to increase their capacities and their dominance over the environment.
In the film Sith they shared this
dark side and, therefore, fought the heroes, i.e., the Jedi order. For the Sith philosophy, this (the force) does
not deny free will, but –on the contrary– encourages it by empowering those who used it, although, paradoxically, these are increasingly paranoid
and are slaves of their passions.
On the contrary, from the perspective of the Jedi order, the force
propelled them to the “luminous” side and directed them towards positive
aspects such as heroism, bravery, selflessness
and solidarity. From this vision,
it was the cohesive and benevolent element
for the galaxy, whose closeness made of them “mere tools in the hands of
the force”.
In the understanding of the producers of the film, the dark side of the
force feeds on the emotions of those who use it, therefore these can be
positive or negative. The positive (euphoria, passion, joy) and the negative
(frustration, anger, fear, and sadism) are part of human nature, and they emerge daily in the life of human beings
and, in a particular or more
characteristic way, in the “limit situations” (death, loneliness, moments of
triumph, etc.). The human profile of those who have leaned on the dark side
evidences traits of cynicism and pathologies tending to aggression.
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In the case of the Sith,
their nature is aimed at the desire for personal improvement as “positive”
emotion, and anger and frustration as “negative” emotions. They consider that
their contact to the “dark side” is much more complete than that of their
enemies, as they recognize the natural and inevitable role of emotions as a
catalyst for the powers of the force, while the Jedi try to place themselves
apart from them, progressing in a much slower and unsatisfactory way. But like
the Jedi, they explicitly discourage love and positive emotions: they consider
them conducive to mercy, self-sacrifice, and the cessation of ambitions, things
that are contrary to their way of being (http://es.starwars.wikia.com, s.f.,
p. 2).
From these reflections, it is intended
to analyze on some forgotten and subordinated aspects of formal education, aspects called “hidden curriculum”.
Among the most significant elements are the formation of values, spirituality and ideology. These three elements, each
one from its own sphere (ethical-axiological, religious-spiritual and
political-social) have been a constituent part of human nature since its origins, but due to the rational
formation of analytical empirical character that has characterized education in
the West, these have been forgotten or relegated. Their learning has been
proposed in a superficial, theoretical and have been proposed as an
“extracurricular” or elective activity in the training of students.
3.
The values
in the school formation
The
discipline that studies the values as part of the philosophy is the axiology,
and its presence in the philosophical reflection is rather recent: it dates
from the middle of the nineteenth century. One of the most recognized authors
in the study of values, Risieri Frondizi (2010), said
Values do not exist for themselves, at least in this world: they need a
depository to rest. Therefore, they appear as mere qualities of these
depositories: beauty of a painting, elegance of a dress, utility of a tool (p.
16).
After an analysis
of these examples,
it is important to mention
the role that the value has
on the object: while it is different from it, it characterizes it. According to
Frondizi (2010), “the values belong to the objects that Husserl calls
'non-independent', i.e., that they are not substantial. This property... is a
fundamental note of values” (p. 17). By not having this independence, its
formation is not generated by the will; the human being does not consciously motivate
its formation. So it is not possible
to say “today I will work and develop
this value” or “I want to have this
or that amount of this other value”. In the formation process of the moral
conscience, it is the reason that chooses,
freely, what to select. The chosen object will become valuable to the subject.
Frondizi calls values as “parasitic”, because their
existence depends on their proximity or bond with realobjects.
Traditionally, the philosophical reflection of the values1 has studied the values and their relation with the real objects.
The first “are”, as they have to be and, in a different way, the values “worth”
and, they do it according to the relation that they keep with the objects of
which they depend or that they relate
to. For Frondizi (2010), “the value of an object
will be
1 Axiology is a phylosophical discipline that studies
the values.
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given by a hierarchy, importance or sense that a human group, according
to its needs and characteristics, has granted to a certain object” (p. 45). For
example, a person is valuable, a society is hardworking, a friend is faithful,
etc.
Values can be ordered hierarchically, higher values can be proposed
and, according to Max Scheler's proposal, this would depend on two fundamental
criteria: its polarity and its hierarchy2.
For Frondizi, (2010) hierarchical ordering of values should not be
confused with their classification. The first would comply with criteria of
social valuation and its relation with the object; the classification would
depend on the convention of a certain human group. Generally, humans prefer
higher values than inferior values, varying their choice according to the needs
and requirements. The acceptance of a certain value will vary according to the
conditions and characteristics of the individual or the community.
4.
The values
in the curriculum
By characterizing the values because they are not independent and,
because they show a parasitic behavior (these
do not present without a real object);
their presence in the training processes exposed in the
different curricula is not subject to
verification or testing.
For example, in the curricular reform of Elementary School (cfr.
Ministry of Education and Culture, consensual proposal
of the curricular reform for basic education, 1996) in Ecuador, the formation in values and the
interculturality (among others) were considered “transversal axes” of the
curriculum, and by not being mandatory almost no educational project showed the
work in this educative dimension.
Another
example is observed in the reform of the unified General Baccalaureate, in
which the study of the values was limited to a unit (ethics and aesthetics) of
the subject “development of the philosophical thought”. At present, it is also
not incorporated in the substitute subject (philosophy). Therefore, the
formation in values is in the “assumptions” that the school institution
transmits and offers to the students.
Additionally, while the educational proposals that promote a
“competency-based curriculum” emphasize the development of knowledge and
skills, “training in values”, as it is not verifiable in a given period and
being contingent on a subject real, is among the desirable assumptions in
education taught by the school institution. The path presented in
2 For Scheler, polarity establishes
criteria from the positive to the negative, and hierarchy causes a value scale,
which if it is ordered from lower to higher would be:
1.
Taste
values: sweet - bitter.
2.
Essential
values: health - sick
3.
Spiritual
values, which are divided in:
-
Stetical: beautidul - ugly
-
Law: Fain – unfair..
-
Intelectual: true - false.
4.
Religious
values: saint - sinner.
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the hegemonic
education systems does not take into account the values in the formative
process nor guarantee their fulfillment.
5.
Ideology in
the school formation
Gallegos (s.f.)
supports in Laclau when trying to provide a definition of ideology:
Ideology is not only a system of ideas, without order or logic, on the
contrary, is what provides an identity to the individual as a subject,
but it is also a sort of
behavior. Individuals do not form identities, there are no isolated
individuals, it is a social subject that confers that identity to the extent
that the questioning of a certain ideology is appropriate by this individual
(p. 1).
There
is no reason think of a human being without ideology. This is a dimension that
constitutes and characterizes the human being and defines it as a social being.
Like the values, their training
is not done automatically or alien to a particular community or human conglomerate; on the contrary, it
is evidenced and developed in an individual when it participates in a certain
social group.
Gallegos (s.f.), after analyzing the contributions of Laclau and
Althusser, and when discussing the ideology states that “its function is the
formation of the individual through the questioning” (p. 1). Another important
aspect of their approach is that there is no ideology as an abstraction, but
there are ideologies instead.
From
the perspective of this author, there are different types of ideologies, for
example, political, religious, class, family, discriminatory, gender, which can present variants
such as, for example, in the
case of political ideology, which can be right, left, center; a religious
ideology can be evidenced as catholic, muslim,
jewish.
Certain ideologies will allow the human being
to relate or assert in a group. This affirmation and relationship will build
identity, both individual and collective.
Gallegos (s.f.) states that identity is not manifested in the
ideological, but is created at this level, therefore,
If we assume that identity is manifested in the ideological aspect, we
would be assuming that the objective defines
our ideas, that the material conditions of existence
determine us, and that is only half of the truth, falling an exclusively
empiricist position (p. 2).
The identity
proposed by a certain ideology
emerges, for example,
in the diversity of genres, ethnicities, religious practices
or political tendencies in different social levels or human groups. In
addition, there may be change of ideology without affecting the membership of
one or the other group: there may be poor catholics or African-American groups
practicing the Islam. Their identity will make them distinctive, but in no way
identify them in an absolute and unchanging way.
Although the ideology and the material conditions show the identity of
a human group, it will be the latter two that determine
it more specifically. For Gallegos
(s.f.), “There are many
elements in the shaping of that identity, since the material conditions and
ideologies are
121
also multiple” (p. 3). The author calls culture the union of these
elements. And he defines culture as “a series of identities determined by
ideologies, which in turn provide an interpretation and vision of the world, as
well as objects, uses and customs, becoming symbols everything that is
practiced by a human conglomerate” (Gallegos, s.f., p. 4). One of the elements
that will make up culture as an essentially human manifestation is ideology.
The elaboration, manifestation and consolidation of the symbols is also
a way for the construction of the ideology. Their acceptance and recognition require
a collective space, by
fostering the identity of a group. They are representative of the cases, for
example, of the symbols used by different religious ideological groups, as well
as those used by Nazism, Soviet Socialism and Francoism, among others.
6. Ideology and education: the Ecuadorian case
A topic widely analyzed in Ecuador is liberalism – conservatism,
especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with its
representatives: the former Presidents Gabriel García Moreno and Eloy Alfaro
Delgado, respectively. They are also distinctive intellectuals such as Juan
León Mera and Juan Montalvo, as well as a long line of actors who contributed
to this struggle. Among the scholars can be mentioned Osvaldo Hurtado (1997),
who in his work The political power in
Ecuador makes a detailed analysis of this phenomenon.
The two political currents influenced the Ecuadorian education
profoundly. The first trend, conservationism,
promoted the development of education, but particularly, of confessional.
European religious orders and congregations originated in Ecuador due to the
Catholic Church, which by having the advances achieved in education, had a
remarkable boost to education.
Education
driven by liberalism in Ecuador brought with it modernizing contributions, such
as those proposed by the European “new School”, especially with the
contributions of French pedagogues, who promoted public education and the
renewal of education. It led to secular education through the creation of
educational centers and pedagogical institutes (e.g. Colegios Mejía, Manuela
Cañizares, Juan Montalvo Pedagogical Institute.
The two currents
influenced the educational work of the country, favoring
its development. However, it
is necessary to recognize that their intentionality was due to political
interests of the governments in turn and not to the educational demands of the
environment; therefore, although its presence is valued and recognized, its influence nowadays
is partial.
The ideological formation of a student, although it may be related to
the family, school and even the recreational aspect of the student, is not due
to a formal or voluntarily curricular proposal. It is assumed as a dimension of
what is called hidden curriculum
7.
Spirituality
in the school formation
Although
this has been one of the dimensions of more universality in the history of
mankind
–like
Christian, Buddhist, Islamic (Sufi), Shinto, Ancestral spirituality, etc. –
western modernity has reduced this area to religious centers and communities
that practice it related to these forms of spirituality.
Piedmont (2012)
defines spirituality as “an innate
motivation that orients
and guides
human behavior in the effort to build a broader
sense of personal
meaning in a scatological
122
context” (quoted by Sandrín, 2017, p. 345). The traits of innatism,
sense construction, personal meaning and scatological context are elements that
invite to reflection and particular analysis.
The innate character that characterizes the spirituality is accompanied
by the universal. In the journey of human history, individuals and communities
have sought ways to meet with transcendent realities in the search for meaning.
Spirituality has an area that shows the permanence of traditional
religions and the flourishing of new manifestation forms, and the presence of
“the sacred” that seek to offer alternatives of meaning to the human existence.
Finally, one of the characteristics of spirituality is the scatological
context, the search for temporal space transcendence, the confidence in a
promise and the expectation of its fulfillment are part of this way of
manifesting and remaining in the nature of the human being of this dimension.
Among the spaces in which spirituality has manifested more clearly are religion and art (cfr. Mélich, 1996), having universal
and transversal nature in the history of humanity and in the
different civilizations. Although
religion has traditionally been thought as a unique
pathway to spirituality, it is necessary to recognize other paths and
spaces in which this reality is manifested; therefore, Sandrín states “while
spirituality represents a universal construct, religiosity can be understood as
a set of systems, beliefs, practices and values explicitly patterned and immersed in certain social traditions
or institutional frameworks” (Miller & Thoresen, quoted by Sandrin, 2017, p. 345). Thus, while there are now
many forms of religion and various religious manifestations, the spiritual
quest, and the yearning that this reality provokes in the human being is a
common factor in all of humanity. The various civilizations and cultures have expressed this dimension
in a particular and specific way, taking into account that it has been a
reality present in humanity and in
the most diverse moments of history.
The universality of human spiritual manifestations has also
caused abuses, misinterpretations and deviations. Castillo (2003) warns of this
reality when stating:
Speaking of "spirituality" produces different reactions.
There are people who consider that spirituality is the noblest and most
important thing that the human being can and must face in life. On the contrary,
for others, spirituality is
not interesting and it is even suspicious and unacceptable. Raising the issue
of spirituality is to present debatable topics, because in dealing with
spirituality, enthusiasts and opponents
are found. The enthusiasts are the ones who see in the spirituality the remedy of all evils. Opponents are the ones who do not
even stand what that word suggests. Because there are those who think that spirituality is the same as evasion of the world and history,
renunciation and mortification of all that we like, resigned acceptance of the sorrows
and miseries that carries with it
the fact of living "in this valley of
tears", and all that with a good dose of "spirituality" (p. 4).
123
This risk of “spiritualism” that this author mentions is even more
evident in this context, in which a return to a spiritual search by different
human groups is observed in different religious fundamentalism in certain
groups of individuals as in the search of experiences through oriental
practices, such as feng shui, reiki, zen Meditation, among others.
8.
Spirituality and education: some reflections about the Ecuadorian case
In general, the experience of this reality has been present in the
educational institutions, according to the agreement of the Modus Vivendi between the Ecuadorian
state and the Catholic Church, to Religious orders
and congregations characterized by diverse spirituality. Thus, the Catholic Church
has had hegemony in confessional education in Ecuador and the presence of
orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Mercedarians and
congregations such as the Salesians, Lasallians, and the order of Sacred Heart,
etc., have led to an educational practice characterized by its particular spirituality.
But, contrary to the fact that the experience of spirituality with
religion has been identified, secular education promoted by the State has
ignored the presence of this reality in the integral formation of children and
young people. In the case of the formative practice of some non-confessional
institutions, there are some experiences, such as participation in sacraments
or religious liturgies, zen meditation practices, among others. Obviously, the
presence in the curriculum is null, limiting the study of religion and art as
part of the story.
9.
Hidden curriculum
The
presence of fields such as values, ideology and spirituality escape the obvious
curriculum, and are part of what has been called “hidden curriculum” from
different pedagogical perspectives.
For
Acevedo (2010):
It can be defined as the set of norms, customs, beliefs, languages and
symbols that are manifested in the structure and
functioning of an institution. ... It is everything that can be seen and
heard, but is transmitted and received
unconsciously, at least without a recognized intentionality. It is what
Stenhouse calls what is not publicly
recognized, what can be found in contradiction or that reinforces the intentions of the
official curriculum. The hidden curriculum is not consciously developed, either
in matters of gender or in any other aspects, but it develops and, therefore, it must be taken into account... it exists so strongly that it many times it exceeds the explicit
curriculum (p. 1).
This
set of norms, customs, beliefs, languages and symbols that manifest in the
structure and functioning of an institution are carried out in the daily
practice of the school, without reflecting intentionality, determining a form of being that is characteristic of the institution. The entire educational
system, in one way or another, is affected by the hidden curriculum, not just a
part of it. The early years of childhood, the school education process and even
higher education reflect this curriculum in their daily practice. The different
factors manifested in the daily educational task find their objectivity in the
community recognition of languages, symbols and norms that, while promoting
socialization, foster the formation of identity and particular ideology, the experience of values and a characteristic spirituality.
124
The value and scope of this curriculum, expressed in the aforementioned
factors, will determine, continuously and renewed each time – without losing
the essence – the identity of the institution, its particular way of being,
which is not achieved the explicit curriculum, unless very rare cases.
Unlike
the official curriculum, formal or explicit, hidden curriculum does not
originate in the norms in force in the educative system; it is the result of
certain institutional practices that, without being regulated, can become more
effective in acquiring knowledge, behaviors, attitudes and values. In this way,
through the social links and the scenarios to which it is related, it can
promote and motivate better learning moments.
The daily bond between
teachers and students
constitutes an effective means of ideological transmission, in which a party
assumes the power that confers its status, while the other is placed in a
situation of submission. In this educational relationship, a series of rituals
that characterize the pedagogical task (punctuality, active participation, disposition, etc.) appear and can
constitute the hidden curriculum, through which the teacher reaffirms his/her
power and control on the process, while the student can be limited to a
development in the learning process, characterized by the ease and the least
effort. According to Murillo, “the degree of equilibrium that can be
established in these relationships will depend on the ability of the student to learn the hidden curriculum,
from which the expectations associated with their role are transmitted and that
may contradict the objectives of the explicit curriculum” (2012, p. 3). This
would be a more real, integral and
participatory role for the professor, transcending instructional spaces.
It
will be the mastery of the teacher and the educational institution that
determine the balance between the different latent factors in the hidden
curriculum, in such a way that this harmony promotes the desired human
development and the integral formation. Thus, this would be a non-explicit path
in which values, ideology and spirituality develop in a social and
communitarian way, but also in an individual way.
One of the elements or harmonizing agents of this process is found in
the symbol, whose study and analysis corresponds to hermeneutics.
9.1
The symbol: a space for reflection and formation of values, ideology and
spirituality
A
symbol (from the Latin: simbŏlum, and the Greek
σύμβολον) is the perceptible
representation of an idea, with traits associated by a socially accepted
convention. It is a sign without likeness or contiguity that has a conventional
link between its signifier and its denoted, in addition to an intentional class
for its designate. It can be a term, a name or an image that is known in everyday
life, although it possesses specific
connotations in addition to its current meaning.
The different social
groups often have symbols that represent them; there are symbols referring to
different associations such as: cultural, artistic, religious, political,
commercial, sports, among others.
It is characterized by being a system of indirect knowledge in which
the meaning and the signifier try to annul that division between
the deep and the manifest
reality (Durand, 1993,
p. 18). The symbol presents an evident “face" or show up as
another “hidden”, unknown; the first one obeys the conventions and requires a
basic and common understanding. The second motivates a deeper understanding and
reflection by those who know it.
125
The symbolic thought, contrary to the scientist, does not come from the
reduction of the multiple to the one, but by the explosion towards
the multiplicity in order to perceive better, in a second moment, the unity of
the multiple. The symbol is a language originates like all language, from a set
of signs, i.e. signifiers that evoke an
image and refer to something. Its significance is given by over-added levels of meaning. The different languages
correspond to different ways of constructing reality, to different perceptions
and rationalities, and the symbol
stands out among the different forms of communication. This has an original
disposition, is an ontologically outstanding expression that points to the
gradations of reality that are considered paramount.
Culture,
through its different expressions –many of them symbolic-, overflows meanings,
which are transmitted through the educational process consciously or
explicitly, but, as it has been analyzed, also in unconsciously or implied. For
Giménez (2005), one of the languages used is the symbol; therefore, the
educational processes can be understood as hermeneutic formation processes or
of preparation for the decoding of symbols.
Scholars from the different branches of the social sciences made
approaches to the understanding of the symbol. Authors such as Jung, Eliae,
Levi-Strauss, Cassirer, Bouchot and Melich, among others, have approximated an
integral understanding of the symbol.
Although the action
of educating carries
with it the two visions
that its etymology proposes: the educator and the educere, that is, to give information, knowledge, and to provoke
the awakening, to arouse the learning, the encounter with the truth, in the two
expressions the human being integrates, assimilates, meets a culture, either to
assimilate its identity and values,
or to change it, to transform it. In these two cases, the symbol is a vehicle
(lat. Vehiculum: means of
transportation) conducive to the manifestation of this relationship. Educate,
from this perspective, is the process and art of forming hermeneutics, decoders,
individuals who in contact with reality seek to re-signify it, performing an
interpretative reading in which will influence the multiple intentionality of linguistics. Here, the context
in which it was written, the motivations of the author and also of
thereader will intervene.
Alvarez Colin (2013), in his work Analogue
hermeneutics, symbol and human action quotes Paul Ricoeur (1967) who states
that in the context of a culture, “the true symbols are the main part of all
hermeneutics, which is directed towards the emergence of new meanings and oriented
towards archaic ghosts”
(p. 119). This is perhaps
the greatest advantage
of the symbol: being a living
“archive”, inside each culture as well as cultural, social, educational keys
that allow to access, save memory,
recover the identity from the original moments, in which these find the reasons
and the essence of aculture.
The school responds to the culture in which it develops. It shows the symbolic
elements needed to address
education as a way of understanding the student's context
in meaningful structures such
as the institution and symbolic systems within the school environment.
Joan-Carles Mélich (1996) affirms that “education, then, as a social and
cultural action, is always a symbolic action” (p. 133). In other words, human
existence requires meaning and the symbol is perhaps the most suitable vehicle
for developing this educational-cultural task. Considering the possibility of a
symbolic education as an alternative to a school that often appears to be
separated from the culture of the community or society from which it
participates, is an authentic possibility of opening up to multiculturalism and
meeting with the other, as well as a possibility to form a different, more
transcendent and integrative
dimension.
126
10.
Conclusions
The
reflection on educational innovation normally debates the same topics. The
contributions, criticisms and proposed advances do not meet their objective: to
transform education in the interests of development and the common good.
It is urgent for the formation of teachers to propose new spaces for
the reflection on the educational work to the benefit of the transformation of
the human beings and the society. A space of transformation is the symbol,
which, thanks to its universal character is a transversal element that is
always present in the educational processes and susceptible to provoke new and
different pedagogical encounters. Teacher training must transcend the formal,
rational and explicit scenario to promote a much more humane and comprehensive
growth.
The ethical training
required by teachers, and determined by the encounter with a different ethos, finds in the symbol a vehicle for transmitting the culture,
spirituality, values and ideology.
In a society that claims for a horizon
of meaning and which every day shows in the television
and images the tragedy and the human nonsense, it is necessary to propose
alternative spaces so that the areas proposed in this article are conducive to
the human being of the 21st century. Perhaps
by returning to the original, archaic efforts of human civilization, new forms of
integral human development will be reached.
In one of the episodes
of the “Star Wars” the professor Yoda says: “...my ally is the force,
and a powerful ally is... life creates it, makes it grow, penetrates and surrounds us... we are luminous
beings! Not this raw matter!” Yoda.
STAR WARS, episode V, the Empire Counterattack). The educational system must be
a space for the creation and transmission of the culture, of human fulfillment.
When the news that talk about the educational and social work is more
encouraging and free the human being from the fears, falsehoods, superficiality
and individualism that overwhelm every day, education will make sense and will
really be forming human beings for a
better society. It is crucial to face that “dark side” in educational contexts;
it is essential that emotions, values, ideology and spirituality are part of
the integral formation of the human being, surpassing the fragmentation of the
knowledge that characterizes the today’s world. Access to the symbol and
hermeneutics as paths of knowledge
are an alternative.
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Author
MAURO AVILÉS-SALVADOR Is a full time professor from the University Pastoral of Pontificia
Universidad Católica del Ecuador. He has a master degree in Higher Education
Teaching (UTE – 2005) and in philosophy (PUCE
-2012).
He was the Training Coordinator of Universidad UTE in the excellence
division. He was the Director of Education, Culture and Sport of Rumiñahui
municipality. He was the training coordinator
of UDLA, and was the former Academic
Coordinator of Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial- campus in Santo Domingo.
He is the author of philosophical articles in indexed journals, such as EIDOS (UTE), Sophia (U. Politécnica Salesiana),
Estrategas (UDLA) and Revista 103 (PUCE). El símbolo en el arte y religión:
dimensiones para la formación de la afectividad”, chapter published on: Pensar, Hacer y Vivir la Educación: Visiones
compartidas (PUCE, 2018). He is the author of different academic texts for
different editorials. He has lectured in conferences at UTE, Universidad
Central, UPS
