Πολιτική και εκπαίδευση, εκπαίδευση και πολιτική: Η «συνομιλία» του Κριτικού Γραμματισμού με την Ανοικτή και εξ Αποστάσεως Εκπαίδευση

Abstract

The interconnection between politics and education is taken as given, without this being necessarily good or bad, harmless or dangerous. Because of this interconnection, it is of essence to develop critical thinking at every grade and form of education. This raises concerns as to the role to be played by Open and Distance Education (ODE) with respect to the reinforcement of the students’ critical ability, as well as to the selection of the best possible way for this to be achieved. We view the “interaction” between Critical Literacy and ODE as one of these ways. However, a review of the literature showed that this has not been highlighted, even though the possibility of such an interaction seems to be not only feasible but even imperative. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ODE and Critical Literacy and to highlight those of their principles that could be combined. The paper is based on literature review. The study of the theoretical framework and pedagogy of both ODE and Critical Literacy points towards the existence of similar or even identical characteristics. In particular, it becomes evident that there is a channel of communication and cooperation between ODE and Critical Literacy by means of concepts such as autonomy, self-adjustment, dialogue, interaction, accessibility to knowledge and use of experience acquired, aiming at student progress and, by extension, at the progress of the society and the world they live in, through the creation of citizens with a sense of responsibility and awareness.