Curriculum and informational criticism

Currículo y crítica informacional

Orlando Valera Alfonso¹
Universidad de La Habana-Cuba

¹ Doctor en Ciencias Pedagógicas, Instituto Central de Ciencias aplicadas de la Habana-Cuba. Profesor titular, Universidad de La Habana, Cuba. orlando.valera@infomed.sld.cu.

The neosystemic curricular metatheory comprised in this book constitutes a logically and historically based epistemological bridge between science, contemporary culture and the school curriculum in a society of knowledge and information.

This model teaches how to think about the curriculum through an alternative curricular and pedagogical model of thought which allows for the design and reevaluation of contemporary curricular theories, models and praxis, from a novel, scientific, and ideological substratum, inviting us to assume a new attitude regarding contemporary times. This way of thinking leads to an actual change in time; overcoming its current historical features of exploitation and exclusion, and adopting a feature of emancipation, that accomplishes its mission as "a means of liberation".

Therefore, this model of thinking offers us a new paradigm of curricular criticism, contemporized with technical and scientific development, particularly with information and communication technology, which activates the roles of education programmers and designers, including teachers of all levels, leading them to a metacognitive reflection which modifies their attitudes and professional actions.

The introduction of the book itself establishes the scientific assumptions for a critical, systemic, and in fact, original approach which opens a "new horizon of understanding in the epistemological historicity of the western curriculum". The first part of the book presents a successful summary and rigorous balance of the dominant theories of the present times and their most recognized authors. It aims at presenting, not an updated and prolific design, but the discussion of this proposal from a dialectic, historical and logical perspective, overcoming the myths and prejudices that arise in the production of scientific knowledge, in ontological and gnoseological, as well as methodological and ideological aspects.

The second part of the book presents the author's research results, including his conceptual framework, in which science and technology are united to create a critical, contextual and innovative interpretation of the curriculum from the point of view of pedagogy and information and communication technology (ICT), which pursue the scientific methodology and reveal intersystemic relations in the educational environment.

The book involves high flying theorizations, typical of the scientific results shown, in order to present its neosystemic curricular metatheory. However, comprehension is not obscured by its conceptual complexity, which makes it interesting and useful to a wide circle of readers including teachers of all levels, especially professors.