Enliven: Bio analytical Techniques

For a Contextualization of Popular Knowledge in Crisis Times
General Information

Scientific Discussion

Authors:

Msc. Yeslando de J. González B
* National Experimental University South Del Lago (UNESUR) Colón Municipality, Zulia State, Venezuela

Corresponding author

Msc. Yeslando de J. González B, National Experimental University South Del Lago (UNESUR) Colón Municipality, Zulia State, Venezuela, Tel: 0275- 5551036; E-mail: Yeslandogonzalez778@hotmail.com
Received Date: 29 June 2017; Accepted Date: 01 November 2017; Published Date: 05 November 2017

Citation

González GAM (2017) FOR A CONTEXTUALIZATION OF POPULAR KNOWLEDGE IN CRISIS TIMES. Enliven: Bio Anal Techniques 4(1): 001.

Copyright

@ 2017 Msc. Yeslando de J. González B. This is an Open Access article published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, that permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

It is tried from a look dialogical, the deepening of the popular wisdom and to stretch bridges with a view to the academic opening on the part of the University for the Reunion people-university. His purpose consists of trying to explain the theoretical practical challenge of transforming the surrounding reality and the way how human beings achieve the interaction of this wisdom still in moments of crisis. Venezuelan society historically has managed occur despite the different ways of thinking and acting that coexist in it.

 

Introduction


Human beings have always been confronted with the theoretical and practical challenge of increasing their knowledge and transforming the surrounding reality, thus accumulating knowledge about the environment in which they live. These knowledge when not acquired in official institutions are called popular knowledge.

Rush [1] argues that the process of democratizing official knowledge by incorporating sectors or aspects of popular knowledge is a process that is at the very origin of modern natural and social science (...) and continues today. The recognition of multiculturalism and diversity in social groups is a point of advance in the dynamics of understanding the life of peoples, who have their own identity, traits and ways of life that make their particularities distinctive. In this order of ideas, popular knowledge, rather than cultural heritage, are tools of action in community reality.

Materials and Methods


From this point of view, we can define by popular knowledge the knowledge that people have acquired as a result of their coexistence and interrelation with the environment, with equals, the unknown, natural phenomena and the magical or plausible interpretation that human beings have achieved Of the world as well: the religious, the beliefs, the recipes, the "real-wondrous" that so seduced Carpentier, the profane, and of course the historical legacy of the times. Lopes da Silva [2] states the following:
(...) it is important to recognize that popular knowledge arises from very different life experiences and ways of knowing the world that occur outside the formal spaces of education, that is, they are inherited or have their origin in the popular media, In social movements and / or in religious, ethnic, associative movements with intentions of citizenship, cultural resistance or symbolic negotiations. (P.76)

The contributions that come from the different fields of experience, are integrated to health, food, beliefs, crafts, agriculture, animal husbandry, natural phenomena such as winter and summer, traditions, Customs, demonstrations Religious, among others, which undoubtedly form part of the essence of daily family and community action. All these knowledges approach the integral formation of the members of the social groups, manifesting themselves in values that allow the interpretation of the world from a much broader, deep and elevated dimension of the communities.

For (Lópes da Silva [2]), popular knowledge does not possess the systematization of scholarly knowledge or scientific knowledge, but rather approaches dialogue with them. It is born of the relationship of people to each other and to their cultural productions; Material and immaterial. In this sense, it is fundamental that university education translates into greater opportunities for inclusion and respect for communities and their knowledge, integration with minorities (Afro-Venezuelans and indigenous) and where knowledge is also democratized. Historically the Venezuelan university has succeeded in spite of the different ways of acting and thinking that cohabit in it, leaving aside, what despite being its neighbor, its friend, has not managed to avoid that transgresses its dominions: the populace.

Similarly, if society presents a crisis, universities and education do not escape it, the knowledge that comes from the popular classes, the peasant way of life could represent a way of observing and interpreting the reality that allows to carry out university education However, in the current economic context it is also necessary to have access to formal or officially accepted socially accepted knowledge in order to understand the various mechanisms of modern life and thus to strive for a new form of sociability Just, where human life is actually valued.

In the university educational aspect, popular knowledge can be incorporated as a fundamental part of a process of unofficial education but that can be accredited by the universities; Not so, there are operational distances between the pedagogical practice and the use of the knowledge of the community, revealing a phenomenon that has been investigated, from several qualitative approaches; Ethnomethodological and ethnographic, whose results could be a fundamental part for the elaboration of a work that brings us closer to a more humane contextualization of popular knowledge, and of course, of the people.

Results and Discussion


From this perspective, the concept of education is proposed from popular knowledge, which, according to the writer of the article, emerges at a time when humanity,Educational institutions, societies are eagerly seeking a new order to re-integrate and re-articulate to the world, which by its acts against the natural balance, seems to want to exclude them. The holistic, understood as a concept that encompasses all human dimensions, (González Garza [3]), is presented as a necessity, in a sector of the population concerned with transpersonal psychology, the ecological and the philosophical implications of quantum physics.

The recognition of human existence is what supports the idea of educating in an integral way for life, for the highest purposes of transcendence and fullness, this is also what translates the value of education, as it Says Savater [4].

The fears and misgivings, precisely, of the aforementioned human particularity stop the paradigmatic advance towards the education that humanity needs, therefore, the reflection centered on the very nature of that condition, places the accent on the manifestations that speak of that dimension Materially intangible, but subtly present in social groups, only perceived from subjectivity. One of the manifestations that emerge from the intimacy of the human essence, are the popular knowledge, built in the dynamics of their experiences, they are translated into a man-cosmos bond, but always within the limits of the possible and necessary balance, in The relationship of humanity with nature. Rush [1] mentions in this respect:

In their mutual interaction, the subsisting reality and the symbolic and material social practices in each culture or conceptual framework, co-produce the facts or more generally - to include the transempirical, the values, etc. - the relevant objects for the Life of the community, and inter subjectively accepted in that community, objectives. It is not an unmediated action of the real on us, but not a mere arbitrary conventional construction of ours (p.6).

Popular knowledge refers to that connecting thread with collective spirituality, to values present beyond the concrete, but which serve the human being to develop in the material world. It is underlined that they have been historically forgotten in educational institutions, very few have been able to enter the classroom and be recognized as valuable content in the training of students. Whole communities, with traditions, customs and knowledge, must open their way to academic knowledge, displacing their ways of life for new concepts whose application breaks the harmony of the relationship with nature.

In such a way that in the formation of the new generations of students, a systematic process of distancing with the natural world evolves, in the interest of a progress that leaves existential discouragement and frustration, affecting the fauna, the flora and the ecological balance of the soil, the air. It is not a question of rejecting the contributions and benefits of science and technology, what is sought is the reflection on the impact that its excessive use does in the elevation of human quality, which implies then, to go beyond a practice Pedagogical, utilitarian, for a transcendental education, where the human race is fully privileged and where he himself is able to give himself the opportunity that others have taken away.

It should be noted that this type of education has spaces for the inclusion and interpretation of these knowledge. In that sense, integrative thinking includes intuitive, creative, physical and contextual ways of knowing that connect people with life situations, which, in addition to facilitating learning, sow elements of interrelation with the existential times of humanity : The past, represented in its traditions, customs, ways of life, history; The present, translated in the action of the application of the legacy of knowledge to address the issues of life, such as food, health, housing, recreation, culture and, the future: to maintain life on the planet.

In a world filled with uncertainty, the incessant search for new realities has come the time to see the true dimensions of education: in all areas should try to break down the walls of individual blindness so that the real thing is no longer Do more in the classrooms and in the classrooms but in the village and for the people who represent the essence of the true university.

Education as an Essential Part of Human Beings

Official or not, must have common foundations that make it relevant to humans. But education today is not important anymore so what has served, intellectual training, what is important is that it has served. But the human essence has been lost. Governments, times, and aid failures are being blamed today, scientists and researchers are only emptying their discourses of errors and misunderstanding of a complex and dynamic world.

It would be disproportionate how the popular sectors see education and how they achieve access to it. Today it can be assured that there was always a disagreement between religions and what they advocate: education and less people, and between education and the people: less people and more ignorant.

It is necessary to look for the way to enter from the deep look of science, to the sometimes irrelevant knowledge of the people now that one lives in crisis. It is necessary to try to enter the heart of the universities, our University of the South of the Lake in the municipality Colón "the one of the knowledge of the town" to see if the encounter or reunions is obtained in a library that walks and has soul.

It is necessary to review the natural knowledge of the people, from the ancestral to the most distant, everyone has something to say and tell. On the other hand, it is tried under a dialogical view the need to achieve the material transformation of the current society and try to reduce through the propositions that may arise from the impacts of a society in crisis and of course a committed citizen, to Say Boscán [5] ... in the construction of structures for the generation of knowledge that lead to a better standard of living.

Conclusion


In the field of education, reflection and contextualization of knowledge that science still fails to understand but assumes and tries to accept with suspicion, of course, we must try to overcome the division between theory and practice. To eliminate the divorce created between science and what it has not been able to leave aside, between research, education and the people and of course, carefully examine those factors that affect the well-being of them: crisis; Values, existential, paradigms, positions and epochs. From this position are explicit the limitations for a study where science and everyday knowledge, the barriers of the self and the other from the ontological point of view and the historical differences are involved.

It is of vital importance to recognize that one of the almost insurmountable barriers in the municipality of Colón is the lack of information on the topic of popular knowledge, so it is possible that some important references may not be located. Just mentioned by the relevance of the subject.

References


  1. Rush A (2001) Knowledge and culture in globalization. Discussion of the theses of León Olivé. Political and epistemological studies. National University of Tucumán. Mexico.

  2. Da silva EJ (2011) A reflection on popular knowledge and its legitimacy. Federal University of Pairaba Brazil. Decisions Magazine. September-December 73-77

  3. González GAM (2009) Holistic Education: The pedagogy of the 21st Century. Barcelona. Kairos

  4. Savater F (1997) The value of educating. Barcelona, ??Editorial Ariel.

  5. Boscán N (2011) From popular knowledge to the construction of a new citizen of the 21st century. II Online Congress on Free Knowledge and Education CLED 2011. And Papers. Caracas. Venezuela.

  6. González Y, Mora C (2011) Two visions of the university in Venezuela. National Experimental University of the Lake. Collection ideological notebooks. Directorate of Publications. Saint Barbara. Zulia.