Social Education and the New Society of Knowledge
2. The new society of knowledge in the context of the social education An educational reality in a continuous process of transformation emphasizes a
cognitive dimension which can enjoy a certain methodological value at a social level. The dimension of the educational reality from a social perspective reflects the necessity to find out the potential of knowing the instructive approach. Thus, in the context of promoting the value system, the responsibility and the formation of the social actors involve a certain state of spirit. Also, one should not neglect the social-affective relations between the actors involved in this approach. In other words, we consider that the communication competences must follow a nonconformist way and not obligatorily a standard pedagogical model. In fact, an educational culture supported by an authoritative decisional system can transpose its values freely as long as it has tolerance and respect. A society which does not respect its culture and implicitly its education can only decade in its own compromised
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conventionalism. In this way, the axiological reevaluations built on pragmatic reasonings cannot find their justification at a social level.
The social dimension of communication must suppose methodological activities through which there are emphasized a series of relationships consistent at an interpersonal level. It has to do with the communicational barriers. That is why, at asocial level, we consider that the idea of "science of communication" is justified. Thus, the communicational phenomena relate, on the one hand to the axiological principles and on the other hand to the eligibility criteria of a pragmatic nature.
As a dynamic structure, the educational reality expresses a social correspondence between the idea of scientific paradigm and the concept of "education". In other words, within the educational reality there are certain problems which should be solved only by relating the results obtained to the attitude of the scientific community. It is obvious in this situation the fact that for an optimum substantiation of the cognoscible structures it depends to a great extent on the psychosocial behaviour. Out of this it results that a valid social system is the one where the education enters the dimensions of the pragmatism.
Taken as it is, this perspective reminds of a process of operationalization of the competences assumed at the social level. The contextual dimension of the social education supposes some relating of the actors involved in the instructive approach to a practical thinking meant to efficiently put into value the methodological strategies. In fact, at an operational level, the level of educational performance is directly proportional with the obtained scientific results. Such an assumption justifies exactly the necessity to relate the social education to the new technologies of learning. In this sense, the fundamental modalities of applying the educational methodology are focused on the social innovation.
Thus, we have in mind the new forms of education, too through which the strategies applied in the instructive process suppose methodological interpretations resulted from a scientific analysis. We have in mind especially the correspondence relationship that we propose between the educational paradigms and the new types of education (Table 1).
Table 1. Educational paradigms and types of education
Educational paradigms Specific types of education Common types of education Multidisciplinary paradigm Conventional education
Personal education Public education Interdisciplinary paradigm Spontaneous education
Pluridiciplinary paradigm Competitive education Transdisciplinary paradigm Scientific education
In conclusion we can admit that a certain type of education corresponds to each paradigm. It is about an education with a deep majoritarian character. This does not mean that a certain type of education cannot be found within another type of education too.
Personal education and the public one (understood as common types of education) are those that make the possible correspondence between the educational paradigms and the specific types of education (Table 2). That is why we underline the fact that a theoretical approach results exactly from the way the main paradigmatic approaches are conceptually understood.
Table 2. Types of education and common types of education
Eşi Marius-Costel / Procedia – Edu World 2010 Specific types of education Common types of education The conventional education
It emphasizes a silent form of "complicity"
between the socio-educational actors;
It supposes the existence of a communication barrier at an educational level;
It generates a communication built on principles which do not always achieve scientific criteria.
The personal education
It promotes the value principles within its own system;
It generates informational paradoxes as due to the context it can be both subjective and objective;
It allows the promotion of an educational management at the level of the professional training;
It does not always offer the certainty and the fidelity of the knowing process;
It generates (intrinsic) motivation as far as the reaching of an objective is concerned.
The public education
It is based on interpersonal communication and consensus at the group level;
It has to do with the socialization process which is mostly made in accordance with the common interests specific to the group;
It acquires a formal character when it does not take place under the impulse of a strong motivation;
It acts at various levels of understanding;
It approaches especially in a comparative way different social fields.
The spontaneous education
It supports a qualitative growth of the role of education;
It allows the conceptual-methodological transfer
from one level of abstractization to another;
It generates new educational paradigms of
It stresses out specific forms of approaching and understanding the social finality;
It reflects a cognitive model through which the situational context concretizes (by relating to the attitudes of the social-scientific community);
It stresses out within the levels of organization a methodological-social reality which is being built (by itself);
In the society there are promoted the social actors' attitudes through which the true values must assert themselves, and this fact is possible through communication which appears "as a condition of possibility and determination of the representatives and the social thinking" (Moscovici; 1995; p. 113). At the same time this situation expresses a reality where the system of values does not always relate to the consensus between the social actors. In this mode, the paradox of this situation justifies through the fact that everything a certain scientific does, everything that happens among its members, all these are done in the name of the social and educational pragmatism. This social fact reminds of axiological
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significances through which the involvement of the social actors determines pro social behaviours.
Such an image emphasizes the importance of family within the process of educating the human individual. In fact, this aspect should assure a pedagogical orientation of the family towards an advanced education. In fact, the quality of a family can be seen in the moral-educational contents which it promotes both inside and outside it. The activities initiated at the level of the social education concretizes as long as the family can influence certain psycho-social parameters through which it generates true values. The instrumental value of the family depends on certain educational criteria assumed at a social level. This state of fact deals with a social perspective which the family members must take into consideration. It has to do in this context with a possible education within a family which relates to the problems of a social nature. In this mode, the structural organization of the family illustrates a potential system of values through which the development of the functions specific to the families acquires a social character. That is why, the significances of these aspects confirm the fact that the family is built on a social structure well situated from the point of view of education.
From a methodological point of view, the social education gathers the common types of education and at the same time tries to illustrate the modalities of learning of the actors involved in an instructive process. Such an understanding of the social education offers explanations which materialize in accordance with a conceptual-theoretical apparatus well-founded from a scientific point of view. The opportunity of such a perspective emphasizes in the context of a new society of knowledge the possibility of relating everything that has to do with the social aspect to a philosophy of education. In other words, the educational reality must pass through a process of reevaluation and value reorganization in a continuous way. In this way, an optimum systematization of thinking constitutes a starting point as far as the understanding of the social education is concerned, relating it to the idea of the society of knowledge. Also, we consider that one should take into consideration the fact that the development of the activities initiated in an educational context concentrates certain social models towards which the (scientific) society must remain indifferent. In fact, the contextual perspective of this situation resides in the fact that the dimension of the social education subordinates to a specific form of organization through which the act of socialization acquires some shape. This image transposes at the level of the scientific community meaning that the pragmatism of the initiated activities can be felt exactly within that certain community.
In the specialty literature one speaks especially, from a pedagogical point of view about the educative function of the family. Thus, an important role in this sense is played by the family environment which contributes to the establishment of the relationships between the family members. Also, the structure of a family determines exactly these interpersonal relationships and the family environment differs from the social context itself on which the family is built. Moreover, a family environment can influence the afterwards evolution of the human personality. That is why, it is also said that family plays a major role in organizing the child's psychical life. "On the line of the psychical intellectual development the family brings its contribution to the organization of the child's psychical life by stimulating the process of growing up and the development of the various components- sensorial processes, language, memory, thinking, attention, the psychical features etc. there are certain moments that mark true jumps in the psychical development to the production of which the family's role is considerable." (Nicola ; Fărcaş ; 1998 ; p.
79). This situation reflects a relevant aspect concerning the social strategies regarding the
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family. That is why, a sequential ordering of the levels of organization is vital when the family is analyzed at the level of the social education.
The dimension of the family illustrates however, certain educational valences through which the specific form of social organization acquires value significances. Thus, one can foresee certain functions that the family has at a social level. Also, the family coherence is given by the principles according to which the social actor guides. In this context, of course, the socialization modality is the one which counts very much in this approach. Yet, the basic condition in this approach is that through which the social actor must take into account the interpersonal relationships within the family. That is why, we think that it is justified the idea according to which in a family one has to promote and support an educational model built on true value competences as they are perceived at the level of the family.
The analysis of the social education from a scientific perspective supposes a reconsideration of the value system and a new theoretical construction. Still, the theoretical architectonics relies on previous structures and the experience of the educational system in general. It has to do with the effective making of a pedagogical (self) training. Yet, this training must take into consideration a real education which should represent a training instrument of the society and which should transmit the science in its true meaning. (Revel;
1993; p. 314). Thus, the pedagogical finalities meant to justify the role of the informational substantiation within the instructive process allow on the basis of the conceptual-theoretical connections the relating of the social education to new paradigms of the scientific knowledge. Especially the problem brought into discussion emphasizes a series of correlations functional at the level of the different forms of education.
The social norms of the actors involved in this instructive approach relate to a methodological practice (Segerstrale; 2000; p.224), which has a remarkable axiological importance on the informational resources. The dynamics of such an approach supposes the effective making of a pedagogical training. In this way, the educational practice constitutes a group of pedagogical finalities meant to justify the role of the informational substantiation within the training-development activity. Therefore, we have to do in this situation with a spontaneous education through which the creation of the competences specific to the process of communication must generate professionalism and performance.
The modeling of the informational flux is a priority in a society in a continuous change. The necessary methodological interface from the forms of education and the social-scientific responsibility emphasizes the importance of analyzing the informational culture.
The degree of adaptation represents an important factor in such an analysis. This form of organization structures the information in accordance with the concrete methodology of the educational process. The reformation perspectives which are at the basis of the qualitative research imply an activity meant to promote new methods, preoccupations, curricular reforms. The teleological character of the social education expresses in fact the substantiation of the intellectual potential. The systemic modality of approaching the social education from the perspective of knowledge corresponds to some methodological strategies well defined and which allow permanent changes at the level of the society. The authority employed at the level of such strategies relates to pre established operational objectives in the context of the instructive activity. Also, there are visible some formative, substantial in fact, effects which generate veridical hypotheses as long as the attitude of the (scientific) community is open to the new knowledge. As a result, the interaction of the socio-educational actors and the dynamic of the methodological strategies do nothing but support a specific form of social reality structured on different levels of organization.
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The social education must be, thus in correspondence with the scientific results related to the realities of the contemporary life and the value judgments. Yet, the value judgments relate the object to the values (Weber; 2001; p. 95). In this sense, we have into mind the scientific perspective and the need of social adaptation within the assumed new paradigms. There are significant in this context exactly those criteria of performance which make possible the existence of a value system. In fact, an analysis of the social education aims at the necessity of integrating the human personality inside the educational system.
Through this approach the assumed finalities concretize in the direction of the social innovation with the help of a methodological functional process. The scientific foundation necessitates a pedagogical research starting from the specific structures of the reasoning.
Thus, the educational interpretations aim at certain pragmatic competences through which the typology of the social education supposes a well defined characteristic of the social system. Moreover, the communication process legitimizes a form of socialization with a special status in the social system. At the same time, the strategic educational options emphasize the existence of the culturalization phenomenon in a society of communication.
The information found within such a system orientates the type of research towards its rational substantiation by relating to the teleological dimension of the scientific knowledge
The acceptance of a flexible mode of knowing can concretize at the level of the social mechanism by anticipating the psychological dimensions in the field of the sciences of education. The establishment of the optimum decisions consists exactly in overcoming some difficulties connected to the methodology of action. Maybe that is why, it is justified the idea that the innovative paradigms sometimes relate to a critical thinking present especially at the level of the interpersonal relationships. The efficiency of such an approach reflects in the social education and the evaluation of the instructive activities is done in accordance with the obtained results. Consequently, under an educational rapport the personalized attitudes of the socio-educational actors include substantiations of the scientific knowledge potential.
References
1. Bocoş, M. (2008). The didactic of the pedagogical subjects. A constructivist frame (p. 34), Piteşti: Paralela 45.
2. Dumitriu, A. (1991). Retrospectives, (p. 189), Bucharest: Technical Publishing House.
3. Moscovici, S. (1995). Social Representations (p. 113), Bucharest: Science and Technique Society.
4. Nicola, I. & Fărcaş, D. (1998), General pedagogy (p. 79), Bucharest: Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House.
5. Popper, K. (1998). The Myth of the Context (pp. 24 -25), Bucharest: Trei Publishing House.
6. Revel, J-F. (1993). Useless knowledge (p. 314), Bucharest: Humanitas Publishing House.
7. Segerstrale, U. (2000). Defenders of the truth (p. 224), Oxford, University Press.
8. Weber, M. (2001). Theory and method in the sciences of culture (p. 95), Iaşi: Polirom Publishing House.
4th International Conference "Education Facing Contemporary World Issues" Piteşti, Romania, 2010, 2010, October
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