By ARÁNZAZU AGUADO ARRESE.- On behalf of the Teresian Association, I most sincerely thank those who have come to this Congress. Especially the sponsors and associates who have made this event possible, and those that have given their support in various ways.

  Many voices have been raised to diagnose the present moment and express their claims to education. Reports from prestigious institutions have pointed the direction and horizons at the local level and internationally. Some, very recently and with undoubted success.   Thus, making a space for reflection on the education issue is not an isolated event. This Congress adds something and enters, so to speak, into the forum of educational concerns, human concerns shared by so many people, groups, almost at the beginning of a new millennium.  

The hundred years of socio-educational action of Pedro Poveda that this Congress celebrates with satisfaction and responsibility certainly speak of fruitful sowing of ideas and actions, and the way this union was realized: a most admirable coherence. This sowing can be considered a valuable initiative, because it speaks, in origin and development, of the capacity of proposal and fertility visible beyond the difficulties that always accompany the birth of an initiative. From today’s viewpoint, we can recognize in it an educational initiative with proven potential for impact in our multicultural societies.

Looking at Pedro Poveda as educator is to welcome the current validity of his thought and action. We are interested to recognize how he has been seen at different times in the elapsed century. But we no less want to see how his thought and action are reflected and realized in different cultures and contexts today.

His is a force that transcends the Spanish and European level where he started, precisely at the beginning of the century. The validity is explained because of the universal character of his ideas and his ability to open roads surpassing borders of different types.

Certainly in the case of Pedro Poveda it is needed, and it is beautiful, to insert at the outset his pedagogical contribution to the cultural field and understand his contribution to the history of humanity and the Church in the years that marked the turn of the century and the first third of the one that is about to end.

Pedro Poveda, Blessed Pedro Poveda, occupies a clear place in the history of educational processes. With them he committed himself to his own activity, writing tirelessly, creating institutions, and offering his cooperation to all initiatives that would lead to remedy situations and propose projects. Education of the popular classes, the professional association of teachers and social advancement, faculty training - fundamental concerns of Poveda-, as well as his achievements in the social and educational fields testify to his open and proactive spirit and the rightful place he occupies in the educational achievements of the twentieth century.

His thinking has been developed in a sequence of articulated statements about education, which together enclose an authentic humanism, which we always find attached to the concrete experience, to the test of truth which are the facts themselves, and to the survival of his ideas in countless educators of yesterday and today. We will always find in the expressions of Poveda’s style to educate the reference to the principles of personalizing education, inclusive, open, multicultural, communicative, rooted in Christian values, committed to the process of human growth for all involved in it, and social transformation. In short, guidelines that he considers indispensable for human fulfillment.

When we look today at the path followed by Poveda’s initiative in education, we find, therefore, specific embodiments which have given and give shape now to that proposal that was developed over the years and that has gained its physiognomy at various times and places.

Along with the initial achievements in the service of teacher training and collaboration in Spain, desire that has not stopped until today, we have to mention the deployment of his work and thought in America, Asia, Africa and a significant number of European countries. Today we can see various educational networks of international scope at the level of the university, the development of programs for human advancement, schooling at various levels, training of women, teacher training centers, promotion of publications, all fruit of a patient task in research, etc. Overall, a broad overview of efforts and collaborations.

Some innovation initiative has had particular impact on the educational environment, such as that developed in recent decades around personalized education.

Today we also have a multiplicity of extracurricular initiatives, involving valuable efforts to accommodate new educational situations in certain social spaces. And perhaps the biggest impact is offered by the large number of educators trained in the school of Poveda over many generations and who, in the gentle action of their daily work, serve society with true vocation.

We can say that Poveda’s initiative today takes place under the sign of globality. And perhaps this is one of the aspects that make it attractive and effective in the current interlace of proposals and perplexities that we detect in the educational field. The deepest requirement of globality is that in this historical juncture initiatives and human institutions are called to serve all human beings. Globality is both a way of being in the world, a way of seeing the world, and a way of living in this world.

Feeling part of a whole. One can understand oneself as a self-sufficient subject, like an island, or, conversely, feel and know oneself joyously a part of a whole, a whole human (the universal human family) and a cosmic whole (planet earth, the entire universe). At the same time, universality is a world view: as a community of peoples in the global human family.

Universality is also living according to the principle of responsibility: living the present with the awareness of being responsible for the future of the world. It involves a commitment of building a habitable and livable world for future generations, protecting the right to the future, while defending the rights of the future in the present.

Therefore, and with new elements that will be incorporated throughout this and other talks, we may well say that the validity of Poveda’s proposal in education participates, in its initial stages and in its present development, in the characteristics of globality because it includes an anthropology of communication among human beings, an overcoming of self-reliance, a practical sense of responsibility at this time.

But beyond the content of his proposal, we can extract from it something that makes great sense, in my view, in a Congress of these characteristics: a way to deal with large issues of educational endeavor today. Those he called "palpitating questions," or more precisely "engaging in the study of matters of throbbing interest " (P. Poveda, Alrededor de un proyecto, 1913).

It is fair that we are interested in clarifying what this means. Also those questions that today concern every educator and teacher, every responsible society not only deserve attention but willingness to enter into dialogue with them.

Poveda’s doing is made of an active capacity to intuit accurately, to question without acrimony, to propose decisively. Thus, doing in accordance with Poveda’s style is a mindset (to raise issues, to identify problems and to come into contact); a way of dealing that we can call technological (operational implementation of ways and means); a human spirit marked by responsibility and foresight, and political advocacy, that is, aware of their impact on citizenship. Surely all this involves a willingness to act. "Poveda is a famous educator, not one who studies and defines, but one of those who believe, who found, who build," someone wrote about him ("Claridades" February 8, 1917).

Thus, how should we deal, in accordance with Poveda’s style, with some fundamental issues of today’s educational reality? The series of articles collected in his publication Alrededor de un proyecto (1913) gives a good account of how to face the issue of the moment.

"The educational problem has not been granted, in general, the importance it deserves." "... Since the issue was not taken seriously, it was not studied. Had we taken it seriously, we would have done all we knew as we did for Spanish Literature, Theology, Philosophy and Natural Sciences ... It may be a wrong assessment; but I see that all our backwardness stems from not having given real importance to these issues, and we find ourselves in the predicament of treating them without knowing them, having dismissed them not to show our lack of preparation and educational background. Had we taken education seriously ... today we would have, why not! people, books, teachers, schools, methods, scientific material ..."

Pedro Poveda gives us a sign of the ability of facing the real situation and "look at it seriously,” as he would say on another occasion, that is, by doing a thorough analysis and present an active proposal. Inseparably connected to Poveda’s conception are the educational process and the transformation of society. This is highlighted in, among other studies, the last doctoral thesis centered on Poveda’s thinking on education and published under the title Pedagogy in times of crisis (Ramal, 1996). I quote:

"What he lived in Guadix would be repeated at various times in his life: a watchful eye discovering the possibilities offered by reality; a risky launch of a project; employ all forces to secure funding and collaborators for the realization of the plan; joy and vigor in daily work without discouragement; face obstacles and attacks, the negative ones received that threatened to limit the scope of his projects."

His subsequent contacts with the university sector in Oviedo during his stay in Asturias (1906-1913) allowed him to touch closely the political, educational, and religious problems that were circulating in the environment. Soon the academic world would receive the influence of his action, while he continued his incessant creation of Academies and Educational Centers. From 1914 until today Poveda’s initiative in the university arena promoted the creation of residences and student associations of all kinds, genuine opportunities for training.

And later, in Jaen and Madrid, until well into the 30s, he would keep alive his reflection and action cultivated throughout his life. His extensive epistolary for communication gives a good account of it.

Perhaps a first consequence of Poveda’s point of view to address the education issue forces us to say something of fundamental transcendence.  The time to return to education its proper place in the social dynamics has come. Surely we must place it in its entirety in the chapter on "the emerging". Whoever has a minimum sensitivity will not lack the capacity to see it. Sometimes emerging as a result of the efforts of some who are convinced more of the result than of their deserved recognition. Emerging because of the incisiveness of the issues that affect it. 

Poveda gives us the opportunity to work in this Congress so that such special place is given to education or at least so that education may earn a space, a road on public opinion and, more importantly, in the good work of many educators here present that need reinforcement and strong support to continue to play the noble role that occupies them. Hopefully this our reflection may also contribute, if only in small measure, to grant educational pedagogical concerns careful attention in educational policies.

Poveda was someone who was convinced that he understood well the determining influence of education in shaping the human stature of people, families, social spaces, and the negative consequences of its absence or minimized consideration thereof.
"When in a population there is abundant water, the municipality is not concerned if more or less amount of it is lost; but when it is limited, studies and calculations are used so that not a single drop is wasted, if possible. So it happens now with regards to the issue of education. Perhaps without being hyperbolic, he continues, we could ensure that we now have enough water to produce energy; but this energy, which is what we need to produce, cannot be produced without channeling well that which comes from all sources: effort, talent and money." (Alrededor de un proyecto, 1913).

I dare say that the main reform we need is to return to education the central place it deserves. Could our real “problem” today also be an educational "problem"?

The Teresian Association, which I preside, along with the actions being developed along this line, has looked into recent reflections on education among the emerging issues that shape society today. We wanted to do it with the sensitivity of our founder. And we have stressed the direction we need to move towards with an increasingly committed vision to a genuine understanding of education and its impact.

"It is necessary to train people to be active and participatory subjects; committed to justice, solidarity, human rights and peace. Not forgetting that the educational process takes place in everyday life and in different areas of our life: home, work, leisure, street, classroom, media, etc. "(Fe-culturas-justicia: Cuestiones emergentes, 1994).

This Congress will not alleviate the large themes of current educational issues and major areas of concern. Just look at the ambitious program that brings us together: educational engagement in the family and at school, the social reality and marginalization, the set of opportunities and risks in the world of the young, the irrevocable contribution of educational research, the right and duty of training educators, challenges of the techno-scientific society, the issue of women, the anthropological and theological roots that sustain Poveda’s pedagogical approach, etc.

As a starting point, I want to identify some of these important issues with which to dialogue in accordance with Poveda’s style to address educational concerns.

This presentation allows me to just name them, aware that each one includes within itself multiple themes and possible reflections:

• In the age of communication, the return of dignity.
• Given the phenomena of exclusion, inclusive education.
• Cultures and multiculturalism, an inescapable space.
• The schools we deserve.
• The difficult coexistence.
• The meeting of adults in the present situation.
• Educators, the methodological issue and the educational climate.

(To read the full article in Spanish, download the attachment to the bottom of this page).

ARÁNZAZU AGUADO ARRESE
President of the Teresian Association
President of the Congress on Education, Pedro Poveda educador. Vol. 2. Narcea Ed. Madrid, July 10-13, 1997