Civic education: key aspects of José Martí's thinking

Abstract

This work was carried out from the perspective of the Philosophy of Education. Its starting point was the current relevance of civic education and the value of observing the dialectic between present and past within it. Therefore, its core lies in the links between civic education and the thought of José Martí, a topic that has received little attention, especially considering one of the essential characteristics of his ideology: its unified and integrative nature. Some of its characteristics are presented: its foundation rests on the ideas of the homeland, nature, and the universe; it is synthesized in the conception of the human being and, from this, is decisive in his reflections on the citizen, the republic, and education, as well as in the integration of education with instruction and human development, because Martí's ultimate goal is to form the human being as a whole and, therefore, as a citizen, linked to society, the State, and legal norms, but also to culture. Thus, the idea is defended that the unitary and integrative nature of Martí's thought is the basis of the relationship between his ideas and civic education, and the scientific objective was to argue that this nature is the basis of the relationship between Martí's thought and civic education. Among the methods used are the historical-logical method (to address historical conditions and thematic coherence) and comparison (of ideas and texts).