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Materialist Pedagogy for the
21st Century
The validity of Dialectical and Historical
materialism as a scientific and social
research method: The Chilean case
Roberto Enrique Villaseca Muñoz
I. Context
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The ideas regarding Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism reached their
peak during the Russian Revolution.
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The Second World War and the atomic bomb became elements to start questioning
positivist ideas.
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The Cuban Revolution reinforced materialistic ideas about the transformation of the
world and society.
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The Vietnam War was an example of the crisis of Capitalism.
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The Dictatorships in Latin America reinforced the idea of the ideological crisis of
capitalism.
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The fall of the Soviet Union helped to discredit materialistic ideas.
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Postmodern ideas from discourse and language were placed in the collective imaginary
as the only ideas that were able to explain the fast structural changes of the economy
and society.
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The ideas from discourse and language, as well as from constructivism, were validated
by the means of communication. Even so, they were mainly validated by education,
academic programs and curricula.
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The crisis of capitalism or Neoliberalism was characterized by worldwide war tension,
the destruction of the environment, poverty and hunger in the planet.
in Chile:
– Neoliberal experiment.
– Private sector over public sector.
– Public services such as: water, electricity, health,
social security and education were privatized.
– The role of the State was reduced to a minimum and
the State became a subsidiary.
– The education system was based on teaching
contents.
– Commercialization of education.
– Greater investment in private education than in public
education.
– Students and their families were regarded as clients.
– A sole vision and ideology that came from language
and discourse.
II. Dialectal Materialism
Laws regarding life and nature;
1.
The law of transformation of quantitative
into qualitative changes and vice versa.
2.
The law of unity, struggle and mutual
penetration of opposites.
3.
The law of negation of the negation
III. Laws of movement
Characteristics of movement:
Dialectical materialism vision of the cosmos
Aymara vision of the cosmos
III. Laws of movement
– Forces of attraction and repulsion
– Transmission of movement
– Repulsion + attraction – addition of repulsion = equals
energy
– The law of conservation of energy
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Gravitation
Celestial Bodies
Terrestrial mechanics
Quantum mechanics and physics.
Physics and nuclear fision.
Physics, heat and electricity
Chemistry
Mathematics
Astronomy:
Electromagnetic waves and sensory perceptions
The importance of Dialectical Materialism in
the progress of natural science knowledge
• Relevance and importance of dialectical materialism in
knowledge: Dialectical materialism conceives knowledge
as a perennial activity of the human specie. It also
proposes that each new category and development
achieved brings new levels of depth and evolved
development to the human specie.
• It criticizes people who by condemning positivism search
to discredit the developments of the scientific world. It
laughs at the disagreements regarding whether
knowledge is acquired by induction or deduction, since
neither of these positions by themselves come near full
knowledge. Dialectical materialism is concerned with the
relations that help deepen knowledge, as the
aforementioned ones.
IV. The importance of Historical Materialism in
the progress of Social Sciences knowledge.
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Historical processes
Primitive societies.
Matriarchy.
Primitive communism.
Slavery
Feudal
Bourgeois society
Capitalist Crisis
Second half of the 20th century and late 20th century
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Cuban Revolution.
Vietnam War
Dictatorships in Latin America
The fall of the Soviet Union helped to discredit materialist ideas.
Peak of discourse and language theories.
21st Century
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Hegemony of power and coercive power.
Worldwide military tension.
Worldwide economic crises.
Hunger.
Poverty.
Destruction of the environment.
Means of communication and their ideological
effect in the collective imaginary of society.
• Collective representation of the truth
• Definition of practices, values, meaning, symbols, culture
and identity
• Alienation.
• Labor and alienation.
• Labor and conscience
• Symbols and language
• Language as an element of power and as an agent that
dislocates really from truth
• Language as an articulator of hegemony
• Dislocation of reality and truth.
• Language seen as a contribution to knowledge
• Historical memory.
Validity of historical materialism as a method
of research in social sciences, human
relationships and economy.
• This is the analysis that historical materialism makes
about the philosophy of social and human sciences,
society, human beings, reality and subordination to factic
powers.
• It is a liberating and critical analysis, of social and human
construction, a construction that is placed in the center of
the discussion, as an articulating axis to understand
reality and as an emerging theory for those who seek to
hide it.
V. The Chilean case
Chile, an objective reality or theory of
discourse?
Poverty:
•
The theory of discourse states: “Poverty has decreased from 38,6% to
13,7% since 1990 to 2006”.
The poverty line in Chile is drawn at a USD 118 monthly per capita income.
What if the line were drawn at minimum wage income? Poverty in Chile would
reach nearly 40%.
Behavior of poverty according to income
% of poverty
40
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
≈ 40 %
?
Poverty Line
35
27 %
22 %
15,1 %
13,6 %
89,3
1990 - 2006
118
140
160
321
Monthly per capita income in USD
2006 - 2010
Minimum wage declared by the law
70% of the working class earns minimum wage
Income:
According to discourse theory: “Distribution of income in
Chile: the richest earn 14,3 times more than the poorest”.
The income distribution difference raises up to 56,4 times
GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
• The poorest decile group in Chile accounts for
3,2 % of the GDP. The following decile group
accounts for 6,2 % of GDP.
• Therefore, 40% of the poorest people in Chile
don’t account for even 10% of the GDP.
• On the other hand, the 20% richest in Chile
account for 64,4 % the GDP.
VI. Materialist Pedagogy for the
21st century
“Forming young people who can see
objective reality and who have the ability
to change it”.
“Critical and auto critical young people,
capable of transforming the world”
Using the theory of discourse, the political agents
of Chilean governments declare to the world:
“Educational reforms in Chile are an example of
educational quality and equity in the world and in
Latin America”.
• But, Chile is an experiment of Neoliberalism.
• Public services such as: water, electricity, health,
social security and education are privatized.
51% of primary and secondary schools are private and only 49% are public.
70% of college or higher education institutions are private and only 30% are public.
Some results of educational
quality and equity in Chile:
7% of all schools obtain the best results.
76 % of middle, middle-lower and low class
schools obtain bad results.
7% of young people receive quality
education and 83% receive poor quality
education
The case of Cuba
Cuba obtains the best results in the region.
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The best results from Brazil, Chile and Argentina are not as high as the
worst results obtained by young Cubans.
The lowest results in Cuba are higher than the best results in countries such
as Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
Teachers and the worldwide crisis of the
current economical situation
• Teachers, upon the evident crisis of postmodernism, its ideological
expression and practice, put into practice by the free market and
Neoliberalism, can not remain as observers and replicator of
models.
• We must promote the education of social beings, with social
conscience, who are critical and auto critical, who are creators and
re-creators of their context and environment.
• Pedagogical ethics are understood as having the diversity to deliver
all kinds of visions, without bias, and in the search of a deep
explanation of social, political and economic relations, as well an
explanation of the relations between beings and spirit.
• Teachers must reflect profoundly about the essence and sentiment
of educators. The economical model may suffer variations and fast
changes, but ideology acquired through education, resides
generation after generation.
Education as the interpretation
of their bond with reality
• Reflecting as an educator, instead of assuming the
concept of an absolute and totalitarian truth of
hegemonic means of power. Not acting as a replicator
and not being obedient to an absolute truth.
• Reflecting about education, understanding education as
a form to: put in front criticism and auto criticism instead
of acceptance and consent, incentivizing scientific and
technological development, adding value to labor and
distributing its increased value for public interest.
• Reflecting about history and native cultures such as
Aymara and Mapuche cultures. Studying their vision of
the cosmos about earth, land, and work, the caring for
nature, the distribution of assets and the forms to
reproduce those cultures.
Reflections based on economical
and social terms to promote:
• Equitable distribution of income.
• The social benefit of public services such as: water,
electricity, telecommunications, transportation and social
security.
• In the field of science, promoting medicine, robotics and
bionics applied to the well-being of human health.
• In the field of social and human sciences, promoting
education and housing for the well-being of the
community.
• In regard to national resources, adding value to mineral,
fishing, forest and agricultural resources is not selling to
the world our natural resources as primary materials.
The goal is to add value to those resources so that the
added value returns as profit to the country, providing
social welfare.
Education in Chile today:
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The education system regards students and their families as clients.
The education places emphasis in discipline more than in thought.
Repressive education, focused on expelling students.
Schools which are isolated from their communities.
Excluding education, replicating poverty and inequalities.
Education oriented only to the learning of contents.
Pedagogical models to educate people that can administrate the
economical model, only for to educate and forming contemplatives
young people.
Young people in social risk and in state of social vulnerability.
High rates of school desertion.
Delinquency and drug addiction.
The State has only a subsidiary role.
Teachers suffer work instability. They are hired as company workers.
Private schools and universities that make a profit out of education.
The higth education prepare profesional for adminstrate services
enterprises.
Paradigm for pedagogy and materialist
education for the 21St century
Pedagogical Paradigm:
• Teachers who are better prepared, who are well-paid and who are
public functionaries of the state.
• Schools oriented to young people putting together their life projects.
• If there is an objective, the student will endure through the process.
• If students see or have a future, they will do any type of sacrifice to
finish their studies.
• We need a type of pedagogy that is close to the problems and
expectations of young people.
• Educating young people who are capable of changing objective
reality.
• Recurrent pedagogical research coming from educational reality and
society.
• Profestionals with skills in dustrialization, because Chile is a country
rich in natural resouerces minery, silvicultura, acuicultura, pesca
agricultura and other.
About schools and Universities:
• More than schools of knowledge, they should be schools of thought.
• Schools don’t have all the answers. It is necessary that schools
nourish themselves by the community, by other types of knowledge.
Therefore, a school should also listen to young people and should
be part of the community.
• When a school is part of the community, it shapes the community’s
identity. This develops a sense of belonging and commitment in
young people.
• An including school, more than a repressive school, focusing on
expelling students.
• A democratic school, where collective thinking is the guideline to
adapt to fast social changes.
• Institutional culture, in opposition to recreation and reformulation.
• Reflecting about quotidian practices teaches the school how to
better function and develop.
About the State:
• Educator and doer.
• Education as a public asset, managed by
the state.
• Ending with the commercialization and
profit in education.
• Curricula oriented towards reflecting about
nature, life and society from the perspective
of objective reality.
Some experiences in the world
show us that:
“Not only a different world is
possible, but it already
exists”.
Thank you very much
for listen me.
Roberto Enrique Villaseca Muñoz