Rereading the History of Pedagogy between Apocalyptic and Integrated. A Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Ubiquity

Abstract

On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of Umberto Eco’s Apocalypse Postponed (1964), this paper proposes to interrogate pedagogy and explore an alternative path through a critical rereading of the dichotomy between Apocalyptic and Integrative in Eco’s text and the implications for contemporary pedagogy. In an interdisciplinary dialogue that combines General Pedagogy and the History of Pedagogy, the aim is to outline a possible dialectical path that overcomes this polarisation, elaborating a pedagogical ‘third position’ that can respond in a complex and dynamic way to the challenges of mass culture and technological pervasiveness. This paper aims to reflect on how pedagogy today can position itself neither in a position of demonising technological and media innovations nor in a perspective of uncritical emphasisation but rather as a field of critical thinking and educational praxis capable of valorising both the dimension of presence and that of distance. The aim is to develop an educational model capable of forming conscious, critical, creative, responsible and reflective citizens capable of dealing with today’s society’s cultural and media complexity. In this perspective, our contribution analyses the ethical, social and political implications of a pedagogy configured as a space of mediation and cultural negotiation, capable of contributing to the construction of collective and individual meanings in an era characterised by ubiquity and the hybridisation of physical and digital worlds.