About the event

This symposium reunites scholars from the Theory and History of Education Research Group housed in the Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, and the History of Education Research Group from the Faculty of History, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, with the participation of the Centre for the Study of Educational Policy and Practices at the same university. The guiding purpose of the Symposium is to introduce a new examination of the conceptualization and historical interpretation of the phenomenon identified as educationalization.

The symposium places the debate on educationalization in a new light by introducing the approach of the Catholic Church to education and educationalization from early modernity onwards. The discussion then moves to educationalization and contemporary issues, providing not only a theoretical frame of reference, but also policy analysis and empirically grounded research. Topics of discussion include recontextualization of curriculum, educationalization and technologization, educationalization as citizenship education, and educationalization of spirituality.

The Catholic role in educationalization in its various political and theological dimensions is brought to the table by examining the role of Catholic congregations in Canada, Spain, and Latin America. Papers on educationalization and democracy in the digital era examine technological possibilities for expanding access to information, as well as ways in which information is manipulated. Finally, questions of educationalization, coloniality, and decoloniality in Chile and Canada will be addressed from philosophical and historical standpoints, and also by means of a discourse analysis exploring post-colonial sediments in the discourses of young Aboriginal people.

This event will provide a unique interdisciplinary approach to educationalization and its historical dimensions through time and place. We hope that the content and perspectives presented at this symposium will generate original perspectives on a timely subject.

Event Organizers

This symposium was made possible by a Connection Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

SSHRC Connection Grant Applicant:

Rosa Bruno-Jofre
(Queen's University, Canada)

Co-Applicants:

Sol Serrano
(Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)

Jon Igelmo Zaldívar
(University of Deusto, Spain)

Collaborators:

Carlos Martínez Valle
(Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)

Elizabeth Smyth
(University of Toronto, Canada)

Daniel Tröhler
(University of Zürich, Switzerland)

Supporting Institutions:

Faculty of Education
Queen’s University, Canada

Faculty of History, Geography, and Political Science;
Center for the Study of Educational Policy and Practices;
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Funding:

Educationalization/schooling of social and moral issues in the western world:
Historical dimensions through time and space
and the educationalization of the world

Rosa Bruno-Jofré and Jon Igelmo Zaldívar (Co-editors)

Part I. Placing the terms of the debate

Protestantism and the educationalization of the world - Daniel Tröhler
Whereas over the last 25 years the label “educationalization of social problems” has become internationally popular, the more encompassing label “educationalization of the modern world” aims at understanding and deciphering the grand narratives of modernity and the modern self. It thereby aims historically at uncovering the motives in the late eighteenth century in which social problems (in the largest sense) were translated more and more into educational questions. The paper argues that it is no coincidence that this educational translation took place in Protestant contexts, for in one of the characteristics of Protestantism, it had turned from the Catholic emphasis on the institution (the Holy Mother Church) to a focus on the individual’s soul as the instance of salvation, with no fundamental need of consecrated mediators (priests) between God and the individual. The educationalization of social problems thus turned to focus on the soul of the individual and according to the two different Protestant denominations, German Protestantism (Lutheranism) and Swiss Reformed Protestantism (Zwinglianism and Calvinism), out of which two different educational theories on the modern self emerged: the politically, indifferent and antimaterialistic contemplative educational ideology of Bildung and the Swiss Reformed Protestant ideology of the virtuous citizen. 

Catholicism and the educationalization of the world - Rosa Bruno-Jofré
This paper will frame Catholic education developments precedent or even parallel to the drive to the educationalization of social problems situated by Tröhler (previous chapter) in the eighteenth century within the context of early modernity. It goes back to the sixteenth century to consider the creation of the Society of Jesus, the Concilium of Trent’s intent to educationalize the faith, and the spiritual renewal of the seventeenth century and its concern with social issues. The Catholic side of educationalization as a counterpoint to or critical engagement with modernity took its full shape in the nineteenth century, along with ultramontanism and an explosion of religious congregations engaged in foreign missions. The last part of the paper concentrates on the 2nd Vatican Council focus on schooling and the social pastoral, which made formal and informal education the main instruments with which to solve social problems, in many cases through the empowerment of agents/believers.

Part II. Educationalization, technologization, and epistemic shifts: Navigating through conceptions , reforms, critiques of curriculum, citizenship, educationalization of spirituality.

Educationalization as technologization - William Pinar
One form of “educationalization” is technologization. In education, technology is not only expressed as instrumental rationality and in its more obvious forms such as computers and other devices, it is registered in the conviction that humanity’s salvation requires its domination of nature, including human nature. The Canadian philosopher George Grant critiqued the cultural consequences of technology over fifty years ago. In my contribution to understanding educationalization, I will juxtapose Grant’s prescient critique of technology with trends today, among them the quantification of educational outcomes, the technologizing of teaching, and the moving of curriculum online. I will reference research that suggests that the overuse of technology undermines the social and intellectual development of children as it also exposes them to scenes of bullying in which parents and teachers cannot always promptly intervene. What would Grant recommend? With answers to that question I will conclude.

Curriculum and miseducation: A philosophical study of reconceptualist curriculum - Samuel D. Rocha
The shift in thinking that occurred in what is called the “reconceptualization of curriculum” in the 1970s took curriculum away from plans and methods of education towards more complex questions and conversations about education. The inspiration of this movement was literary, philosophical, and historical. In other words, the foundation of this radical new way of thinking about curriculum was founded on a humanistic engagement. What is curious then about the present state of the field that this movement founded, called “curriculum theory” or “curriculum studies,” is that social scientific research has taken over the vast bulk of the project. In this paper, I consider this progression—from an originary humanistic reconceptualization to a social scientific field of status quo research—as a philosophical problem in itself. This shift then is a particular form of educationalization that raises important and critical themes related to modernity, implicit theological assumptions, and the need for a return to the humanities.

Waldorf education: The educationalization of spirituality in the plural context of Spain in the second half of the twentieth century - Patricia Quiroga Uceda
A second wave of secularization took place in the 1960s in Spain mostly due to development and mass consumption. During this time of Catholic Franco’s dictatorship, a desire to explore new forms of spirituality emerged among the middle classes. Without abandoning Catholicism nor the notion of transcendence or fullness, these individuals sought more open expressions of spirituality, even esoteric ones, and/or religious alternatives. The reception of anthroposophy and related pedagogy took place in Spain within the context of this personal search. Waldorf education, based on anthroposophy, proposed an educational method based on spiritual development. Its promotion of self-development and the Christian language used fit well with the search for a new spirituality, while remaining framed in the Christian tradition. The author argues that Waldorf education in Spain was appealing because it was a proposal of the educationalization of spirituality at the beginning of the second wave of secularization in Spain.

Antigonish, the Great Depression, and the critical re-educationalization of the world - Josh Cole
As many scholars argue, in the modern period, education became intertwined with capitalism on the one hand, and a “progressive” vision of history on the other—leading to an “educationalization” of social problems. I will explore the strengths and limitations of this thesis through the response to the Great Depression mounted by Antigonish, a famous Canadian adult education project. These educators sought to counter this economic crisis with a grassroots project of re-educationalization, combining educational work on the ground with mass-mediated distance education and learner-directed study groups, all geared towards giving ordinary people the tools to understand and alter the course of a modernity seemingly gone wrong. I will use both primary and secondary materials to explore Antigonish’s singular take on education, modernity, and critical andragogy, while drawing out lessons for educators and historians in 2016—another time of profound, (post)modern/neoliberal crisis.

Educationalization, Schooling, and the Right to Education - Felicitas Acosta
In the last ten years, the “educationalization” of social problems has become more central to analyses of schooling. This paper examines how, in recent decades, Latin America has experienced the expansion of schooling within the framework of the right to education, and relates that framework to the concept of educationalization. While both right to education and educationalization processes equate education and schooling, the right to education represents the legal–moral facet of the growing educationalization of society. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of educationalization and its circulation around the globe through an overview of Latin American history in relation to the expansion, breadth, and limits of schooling; educational problems that schooling resolves and those it fails to resolve; and the effects of envisioning the right to education from the perspective of the right to schooling.

Citizenship education and the re-contextualization of national and global requirements: Chile and Argentina (1990s–2000s) - Sergio Riquelme Muñoz and Cristián Cox
This paper compares how citizenship education was defined and developed in the Chilean and Argentinean school curricula during their transition to democracy in the 1990s and 2000s. The analysis is placed within the context of current processes of educationalization with multiple intentionalities. The focus is on commonalities and differences and the comparison is placed in relation to global trends on curriculum and citizenship education and their reception. Furthermore, the erosion of social bonds, individualization, the increasing detachment of young generations in terms of participation in formal political processes, and the need to deal with a plural world are major contextual challenges. Methodologically, our study operationalizes the civil/civic distinction and examines how the two countries organized goals and content in order to address the challenges of living together, not only with close others (civil dimension) but also with distant others (civic dimension).

Part III. Catholic congregations and educationalization: Situating themselves in the educational state and the ruptures of the long 1960s: Canada, Spain, and Latin America.

Educationalization as an expression of multiple modernities: the divide between Catholicism and Protestantism and the Jesuits' approach to education - Carlos Martínez Valle
The paper provides a background to explain the differences between the early Protestant ideas on education and the emerging Catholic educational conceptions, in particular those of the Jesuits in the sixteenth century. This examination of divide that runs through both Catholicism and Protestantism is centered in the central theological question of salvation and its implications for education. The goal of the paper is to trace and explore the characteristics of the Jesuit educational enterprises based on the free will soteriology (doctrine of salvation). The Jesuits played a central role in the Catholic educationalization process, including missions in Latin America and the formation of Catholic leaders, and exerted great influence on other teaching congregations.

From Marian Congregation in the 19th century to service learning in the 21st century: The educationalization of solidarity in the Jesuit Universities in Spain - Jon Igelmo Zaldívar and Ángela García Pérez
Jean Leunis founded the Marian Congregations in 1563. Historically, this lay congregation had been linked with the Jesuit Higher Education Institutions, encouraging students first experiences in social apostolate. In 1967, as a result of the Second Vatican Council and in the context of the United Nations’ support of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the Marian Congregations were transformed into the Christian Life Communities (CVX-CVL). After this renewal, the organization adopted as a reference for its organization the official structure of the NGO. Taking as a reference a longue dureé approach, we address the continuity in terms of the educationalization of solidarity between the Marian Congregation in the end of the 19th century and the learning service projects now implemented in Jesuit Universities in the 21st century. We focus on the case of the University of Deusto, a Jesuit higher education institution founded in 1886 in Bilbao, Spain.

The educationalization process and the “Catholic mind.” - Joe Stafford
This paper examines how the educationalization process of the Roman Catholic Church developed in North America, beginning in the late 1800s when the Church adopted neo-Thomism as an “antidote” to counter what it viewed as the intellectual and philosophical “errors” of modernity. In North America, the Church experienced considerable success in this educationalization process, which was facilitated by the classical culture that North American Catholics shared—a culture that provided a collective worldview that provided meaning for individuals. Whereas this classical culture began to be transformed, in the early seventeenth century, to an empiricist culture in which individuals themselves determined their own sense of meaning and set of values, this transformation did not occur in the “Catholic world” until Vatican II. The result was the development of what has been termed the “Catholic mind”—a mindset shaped by the dominant philosophy of neo-Thomism in North American Catholic schools.

The Sisters of Charity (Halifax), adult and community education in Latin America, 1972–2000 - Heidi MacDonald
Until the mid-1960s, the Sisters of Charity, Halifax, the largest English-speaking congregation of women religious in Canada, focused primarily on teaching in eastern Canadian and American Catholic and public schools. At that time, in accordance with Vatican II guidelines, they withdrew from the majority of their institutional teaching commitments to focus on less formal and more direct work with the poor, both locally and globally. This paper focuses on two of their post-Vatican II Latin American missions in Peru and the Dominion Republic, highlighting the Sisters’ collaboration with local women in developing employment, childcare, and home management skills; contrasting their new teaching methodologies with previous techniques; contextualizing their work within liberation theology; and assessing their commitment to the “preferential option for the poor”.

The role of religious orders in the educationalization of the modern world - Elizabeth Smyth
This paper challenges the argument presented by Trohler, and posits that by their large and growing presence and orientation, Roman Catholic and Anglican religious played a critical role in the transnational expansion of education systems during the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Their school curricula were aligned with the state, upholding the same goal of “strengthening the soul towards (civic) virtue” (Trohler, 2016). Drawing evidence from the archives of three Toronto-based religious orders—the Congregation of St Basil, the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph—this paper demonstrates that through curriculum, instruction, and teacher development, these Roman Catholic teachers were engaging with modernity as they actively shaped their pupils for the state-regulated emerging professions.

The educationalization in the Spanish Second Republic and the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain in 1932 - Jon Igelmo Zaldívar
The Spanish Second Republic, after its proclamation in April 1931, assumed as a key problem state citizen formation. The republican idea of one state with the capacity of monopolizing all formal education contains the impulse of consigning to education the mission of coping with perceived social, economical, and political problems. In this impulse the influence of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza is noticeable. I analyze in this paper the expulsion of the Jesuits by Republic authorities in 1932. I take as a reference the three Faculties of Theology for Jesuits working at that time in Spain (Granada, Barcelona and Oña). By using primary sources found in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu in Rome, I focus on the process of occupation of those three centres by the republican authorities. I claim that the Spanish Republic, with the seizure of the institutions of this Catholic congregation, tried to replace the Society of Jesus in its leading historical role in the process of educationalization of the Spanish society from the Catholic perspective.

Part IV. Educationalization and democracy in the digital age

Educationalization and Public Pedagogy in the Digital Age - Ana Jofré
I begin with the premise that data literacy is a fundamental facet of citizen education in this information age, and that an engaged citizenry in a democracy not only requires access to data, but also a clear understanding of its meaning. Digital technology has allowed for unprecedented access to knowledge, and the means by which to understand it, but there remain open questions about how people are assimilating digital information. The main questions around using digital media for pedagogy are about how to create situations where learners are actively engaged rather than passively receptive, about how to present data in a way that is meaningful, and about how to create community and foster collaboration despite the highly individualized experience that digital media offers. In this paper, I address these questions, reviewing the ways in which digitalization has made data accessible through interactive visualizations and 3-dimensional representation, and within this context, I present some projects within my art and design practice in public pedagogy.

Educationalization, digital literacy, and democracy - Ina Ghita
In the past decades, the long standing movement toward educationalization has been accomplished to an important extent through digital technology literacy. Digital technology is cultivated across all disciplines and has influenced the way we research and write/represent history. I argue that digital history is particularly relevant in the building of a democratic polity. Yet, very few contemporary digital history projects make use of technology in a way that allows users to interact with and manipulate the data presented, or engage in a dialogue with their creators. In this paper, I explore the negative effects this form of one-way communication can have on individuals and society, starting with passivity and suppression of critical thinking, and resulting in lack of understanding and interest in democracy.

Part V. Educationalization, coloniality, and decoloniality: Indigenous peoples in Chile and Canada

Indigeneity and educationalization - Christopher Beeman
In Canada and elsewhere, the process of educationalization has successfully integrated the interests of the state with the systemic oppression of Indigenous peoples. Broadly, educationalization dissociates the education of people from the economic, social, and political problems of the culture as a whole, while simultaneously viewing processes of education as ways to solve these “societal” problems. Applied to the education of Aboriginal peoples today, the parallels are very clear: a colonized identity, coupled with systemic factors leading to Aboriginal failure, effectively preclude young Aboriginal learners from success when studying the problem in detail. Aboriginal scholars may become expert in understanding their oppression, but the ways in which this knowledge can be turned into systemic change are withheld. Those living Indigenously are even more likely to find their interests unrepresented in formal educational practices because this way of life is antithetical to the perceived interests of the state.

Teacher education as a tool of decoloniality - Bonita Uzoruo
The Aboriginal peoples of Canada experienced a process of educationalization/ assimilation through the residential schools in which the agenda of the educational state converged with the agenda of the Catholic Church and traditional Protestant denominations. In the 1970s and 1980s there was a shift toward control of schooling by the Aboriginal peoples in the process of affirming their identity and human rights. The conception of Aboriginally controlled education took place within provincial teacher education programs. The paper examines the creation in Manitoba of the Project of the Education of Native Teachers (PENT) and the Indian-Métis Project for Careers through Teacher Education (IMPACTE). The authors pay examine the programs within the historical configuration that took shape in the long 1960s (late fifties to mid 1970s) the struggles over the program in light of epistemic shift in education and political and economic agendas affecting education.

Missionary and public schools in the Mapuche community (1900–1940): A fine line between denying and transforming identity. Sol Serrano and Macarena Ponce de León
The processes of educationalization leading to the colonization of the Mapuche people in Chile, after the military occupation of their territory in 1888, engaged both the state and the Church through the congregations’ teaching missionary work. However, the processes were different: while the state used the school to destroy the ethnic identity of the Mapuches, Catholic missionaries founded Mapuche schools. The latter, though they introduced students to the values and knowledge of the western world, were not seen by the Mapuche people as negating their identity as was happening with the public schools. This paper focuses on both the public schools and the work of the Bavarians in the Araucania between 1900 and 1940, including the interaction between forms of knowledge in the missionary schools. It shows how the first Mapuche organizations that claimed the right to land and to their culture were formed by students of the missionary school.

The postcolonial Chilean school and ethnic identity amongst young Mapuches in Santiago, Chile. María Eugenia Merino
This paper describes the role of the Chilean school in the construction of ethnic identity amongst young urban Mapuches in Santiago, Chile. I focus on current educationalization and its postcolonial sediments, which are revealed through the young people’s historical and cultural discourses, and in the dialectics of the indigenous and diasporic histories of their elders who have migrated from southern communities. I approach the study through an interactional socio-narrative analysis which recognizes the discursive sedimented processes in ethnic identity construction and the intertextuality operating between dominant and non-dominant discourses. Findings reveal that the current Chilean school impacts young people’s Mapuche identity, which exhibits a dilemmatic character, observed, for example, in the discursive tension between “being” and “feeling” Mapuche. This is due to the imperative of participating in Chilean society within a context of asymmetrical intercultural relationships.

Conclusion: The state of the question

The conclusion will pull the main themes together and summarize the terms of the debate in relation to the processes of educationalization and issues regarding Protestantism and Catholicism.

Our Blog

Educationalization: is it still a tool for colonization? or can it be turned into a tool for deconlonization? is it a tool for indoctrination, or can it be used for consciousness raising?

Over the next two months, as we develop our papers and present them at the symposium, we encourage participants to post their reflections and ideas either on their paper topic or in response to the symposium presentations. We also encourage participants to respond to their colleagues' posts and to instigate vibrant discussion. We hope this can be a space where ideas can be explored, developed, and discussed in preparation for our published work. Also, as participants, please feel free to post thoughts and share experiences pertaining to non-academic topics, such travel tips around Santiago.