education policy

This article emphasises the characterisation of time as a human social and cultural construct, while not neglecting other perceptions and representations of it. Reflections on the nature and scope of time have always interested the sciences, as a time of times, fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue which calls to all branches of knowledge including the educational sciences and, in particular pedagogy, as they accept the challenge of educating us about time as a civic task in which all of civil society must participate.

This piece, which takes the form of an essay bringing together different documentary sources, proposes two main objectives: a) to identify and integrate a wide set of epistemological, theoretical-conceptual, methodological, and empirical viewpoints used in studies of time; and b) to affirm and assert the importance of time in educational and social research, educational policies, and people’s everyday lives, projecting their achievements into conceptions and practices that extend learning to the entire life cycle.

Time educates and we educate ourselves in it, and so it is necessary to rethink — pedagogically and socially — its meanings in a society that is open 24 hours a day and is symbolically and materially globalised. The complexity inherent in processes of social, cultural, technological, economic, etc. change and transformation presents us with the challenge of imagining an education without spatial or temporal limits. It also forces us to broaden its horizons as a right in the service of the people and the planet. This is stated in the Sustainable Development Goals and in their framework of action, in an attempt to guarantee quality inclusive, and equitable education that promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all. Paradoxically, in their goals, strategic approaches, means of implementation, and indicators, time is absent, unlike space and communication.

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Please, cite this article as follows: Caride, J. A. (2020). Educar y educarnos a tiempo, pedagógica y socialmente | To educate and educate ourselves in time, pedagogically and socially. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 78 (277), 395-413. doi: https://doi.org/10.22550/REP78-3-2020-03

This is a speculative response to the article published in this journal by Fernando Gil Cantero and David Reyero advocating the priority of philosophy of education on empirical research. This answer is based on four arguments: Contemporary empirical research involves an ontology rather complex than it is assumed in their paper.The relationship between both disciplines takes place at two levels: At the most general level they are interdependent; at the lower level, close to the action, they can not contradict each other. In order to apply knowledge coming from both disciplines to practical problems, an epistemic intermediary is necessary. This intermediary combines principles derived from both disciplines, but also additional assumptions that jointly shape a pedagogical normative. The epistemic intermediary is what we call the professional wisdom, whose intertwined components are wisdom and technology, both necessary for the professional performance of teachers.

The process towards an European Union seems not to have taken into account the need for an European dimension in education until recently. However, this dimension has been extremely reinforced by the means of different European programmes which have been launched in the past few years. According to this general idea, this article describes and analyses the main phases in the generation of an European Commission's education policy, as follows: 1957-1970, with a main concern on economic matters; 1971-1986, first steps to a common education policy; 1986-1992, the educational programmes; and 1992-1995, review and harmonisation of the educational programmes.

The information society, that is based on the technological revolution, is already a fact. The information and communication technologies also concern the education world -not only commerce and leisure-, and the education policy should take advantage of them.

Our aim in this paper is to establish some benefits and limitations of technologies in education from a policy approach. Computing and telecommunications may serve a market model, or they may be useful to build a democratic and egalitarian society, or both. For the moment policy discourse is driven from the perspective of markets, rather than from a perspective which places the priority on the needs of the democratic process. It is argued that educational environments are suitable contexts to foster citizensâ?? involvement in the information society in a moral way.

 

Key words: Education Policy, New Technologies, Democracy Models, Equality in Education, Lifelong Learning.