Axis 3. Social responsibility

Under the umbrella of their educational institution, education professionals cannot isolate themselves from contemporary social dynamics nor from the space and time they had to live in: critical social movements, progressive emergence of increasingly aware citizens, demand for sustainable social and ecological realities, etc. (Sauvé, 2014).

Back in 2015, when the United Nations’ global plan for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda was established through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), there was a new ethical shift in education. It was associated with a concern to incorporate or strengthen issues related to ethics, sustainability, social responsibility, gender perspective, or inclusion in teaching plans at all educational levels.

In this context, schools cannot remain on the sidelines; they have the social responsibility to commit to ethical values and educate children and teenagers to act as citizens in these uncertain times of constant change.

The task of educating, understood only as the possession of knowledge, has been questioned for a number of years. Over the last few years, adherents to the concept of a knowledge society have taken multiple approaches to the term. As of today, the social responsibility of the educational institution consists in shaping a new, complex knowledge that allows establishing relationships in the face of the global and complex phenomena present in the world today. According to Morin (1994), “intelligence that separates what is connected atrophies comprehension and reflection, thus reducing the chances of corrective judgment or a long-term view”. Today, the knowledge that is modifying our societies is not old, accumulated and unreflective, but new, one that favours the capacity for action in children and teenagers. This calls for educational institutions capable of accepting change (Innerarity, 2011).

“One of the ways of referring to the new demands that the knowledge society poses to human beings is formulated as an ability to innovate or creativity. In line with this objective, organizations –schools, universities, political parties or parliaments– are called upon to set themselves up as learning communities and to generate knowledge.”

(Innerarity, 2010)

As an organization, the educational institution has a clear educational and ethical component in itself: how it organizes itself, manages control or decision-making, responds to its participants, etc. (Syrian, 2002). Only if the educational institution is able to take responsibility and assume the need for transformation that is demanded by society will it be able to respond to today’s challenges and “help” learners build this “new” knowledge.

Following this idea, Alfaro and Rivera (2011) (in Fuentes, 2020) highlight four areas of action that educational institutions should consider, keeping this ethical will and social responsibility in mind:

• The organizational method.
• Education and everything that affects it.
• The relevance of knowledge transfer and teaching innovation.
• The ease of social participation within the institution.

Today’s society is complex and interconnected, and we need schools to break with the rigid and uniform organizational models that have characterized much of their history over the last two centuries. Renovation is of utmost importance.

“Schools need to become places where everyone is able to form and realize their aspirations for transformation, change, and well-being. Above all, schools must allow us, individually and collectively, to explore unforeseen possibilities. In many parts of the world, increased access to schooling has provided transformative opportunities for individuals and entire communities. It has raised their consciousness, helped them develop new skills and understanding, and taught them to envision new trajectories of learning and development. Too often, however, today’s schools serve to entrench inequalities and widen disparities that need to be unlearned and corrected.”

(UNESCO, 2022)