What does it mean to «educate» in today’s world?

A reflection on the current situation of education and the importance of the philosophy of education.

Abstract

The following article presents a critical philosophical reflection on the current situation of teaching and pedagogy in Spain —at all levels of education—, and claims the need for a philosophy of education to deal with the problems of education. On the basis of the thoughts already put forward by José Ortega y Gasset in the first quarter of the 20th century, this paper tries to defend the figure of the teacher, whose education is not only limited to the institutional classroom, but also outside it. It also analyses the imbrication of pedagogy and politics, converting the former into a social task; it delves into the means-ends of education debate, to criticise the current homogenisation and technocratic conception, which annuls personal training and critical attitude or thinking; and it advocates the encourage of a philosophy of education, in order to reveal another way of teaching, which some Spanish authors of the last century had already proposed through literature.