Education and politics in formation: provocations for a necessary debate

Abstract

The topic addressed in this work is of great relevance and has been widely discussed by educators and people who, in one way or another, are involved with education. The relationship between formal education and political participation is an old and essential subject for the maintenance and strengthening of democracies. In the historical context of the constitution of society, it is possible to observe that human formation for autonomy has always been the goal of those who proposed to think and practice education in a way committed to ethics and politics. Autonomy is undoubtedly one of the great ideals of human formation. From Modernity onwards, and especially with the birth and development of science and technology, education began to follow the rules of consumption dictated by the media, professionalization, and instrumentalization, reducing the field of education to the functional formalities necessary to operate under the aegis of technical rationality. In this way, the aim is to highlight the meaning of education as politics in the modernization process that prioritizes bureaucracy, productivity, and efficiency, to the detriment of human, intellectual work and living, creative, and questioning thought. This study questions the meaning of education and seeks to establish it as a human achievement committed to ethical and political practice in search of the best way of life in society.