¿Puede la Institución Escolar contribuir en la construcción de sociedades más racionales? La Institución Escolar a la luz de la Teoría de la Acción Comunicativa

Abstract

The aim of this article is to answer the following question: can the school institution to collaborate to make our forthcoming societies the most rational and humanistic ones? First of all, it is argued that, if a school institution is able to get priority for its critical function, it can effectively contribute to improve the rationality of both the social and individual ways of life. For that to be possible, the school must organize its dynamics around the communicative rationality criteria. Second, it is marked that, in general, the school institution has a double nature, as well as, particularly, the school organization, showing the need ofr breaking the reductionist conceptions restricting the understading of the school phonomena when these are faced solely from an exclusive and particular wiewpoint; this double nature of the school relates with the two kinds of rationality technical and practical which pervade the school actions and functions. Third, the habermasian concept of communicative rationality is introduced as a norm reference for the life and dynamics of the school when its purpose is to contribute to reach a better rationality into society. All these arguments are embedded into the Critical Theory of Education.