Person, freedom and commitment. Three keys in educational action

Abstract

Regarding the educational action, there is a temptation to see it, frequently, as a technical function. However, the educational action is first of all a service to people. This was warned by José Luis González-Simancas in Claves en la formación de profesores, highlighting those fundamentals that in his opinion are the keys both in the training of education professionals, and in the professional exercise that they carry out. In this article the author analyses, from the perspective of the anthropology of education, the theory of education underlying the approach of the Spanish academic, highlighting, on the one hand, the philosophical foundations that are present in this theory, and on the other hand (echoing the Aristotelian premise that in matters of concrete life it is not a good idea to take refuge only with theorizing), highlights the foundation that comes from practice and pedagogical evidence that the Spanish academic collects from his own professional experience stands out.

Based on the theoretical and practical reasoning of the Spanish academic, the author concludes that educational action must be effective in helping students to grow in the four dimensions that personal growth implies, namely growth in integrity, solidarity, in personality, and in the growth that refers to freedom. The author emphasizes that ultimately it is in the comprehensive achievement of growth where the effectiveness of educational action is resolved.