Educational Sciences: an approach to educational trends in Latin America

Abstract

Determining whether the Educational Sciences form a unified structure and function, or whether, on the contrary, they constitute a heterogeneous conglomerate artificially united for external reasons, constitutes a broad field of discussion, especially when analyzing what disciplines such as Group Dynamics, History of Education, Economics, or Educational Biology may have in common. This issue becomes more complex when considering the diversity of settings in which educational events manifest themselves -family, community, mass media, school- where education is conceived either consciously and purposefully, or spontaneously. The objective was to systematize educational trends in Latin America to allow for a critical assessment of the presentations from the symposium "Pedagogy of Higher Education" at the University Congresses, which have served as a scientific laboratory for the Ministry of Higher Education (MES) to address the changes required by Cuban Higher Education. The methods used included a qualitative approach, the phenomenological method, and scientific systematization, which made it possible to interpret pedagogical discourses and extract regularities. Among the results, a trend toward the transformation of pedagogical models, the strengthening of the social role of the university and the integration of teaching, research, and outreach was identified. The main conclusions were that, despite their diversity, the Education Sciences can be articulated from a transdisciplinary approach and that the symposia have been key to project educational policies in the Cuban and Latin American contexts.