Abstract

HOUSSAYE, Jean. PEDAGOGY AND UTOPIA: ever!. Revista Teias [online]. 2021, vol.22, n.67, pp.355-361.  Epub Feb 14, 2023. ISSN 1982-0305.  https://doi.org/10.12957/teias.2021.62756.

Jean Houssaye, author of numerous books including “Le triangle pedagogique” and “Quinze pedagogues”, notes that we are in a period of hopelessness, however should we give up? Similarly to Paulo Freire, he advocates for the image of an educator engaged in the city, bearer of civic and democratic values. Education and politics are linked, but what can an educator accomplish without a commitments of politicians on education? It would appear that the educator is condemned to utopia: condemned to be dissatisfied, critical of dominant practices in his desire for emancipation. It gives life to hope. What utopia (s) should be claimed and implemented? A century ago, equality was the driving utopia that led, at first, to primary school accessible to all. Equality of opportunities or equality of results? It is not enough to open the doors of schools to everyone (equal opportunities) if we do not combat the causes leading to inequalities of results. Jean Houssaye proposes a pedagogy of fraternity by referring to the proposals of Dewey in Democracy and education which establishes the challenges involved in the schooling system. In its current form, the schooling system is characterized by formalism, individualism, intellectualism, academic and social disempowerment. In fact, if the values consist of competition, selection and individualism, fraternity is likely to be at the service of these values and in contradiction with the intended goal, since fraternity aims to achieve autonomy and socialization: a way to live together at school, social practices that are learned and experienced in order to form our society. It is in this condition that fraternity is combined with democracy.

Keywords : pedagogy; utopia; fraternity; Freire; Dewey.

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