Experiencia Cooperativa de Mondragón: la educación cooperativa como un proceso de transformación social

Abstract

Este artículo pretende mostrar una propuesta de educación cooperativa potenciadora de la articulación entre prácticas productivas y prácticas educativas, o sea, entre reflexión y acción, como factor potenciador del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje para el desarrollo individual y social. La propuesta parte de una investigación cualitativa – estudio de caso y observación participante – del Modelo de Educación Cooperativa del movimiento cooperativo de Mondragon. La interpretación de los datos se ha llevado a cabo siguiendo la metodología del Discurso del Sujeto Colectivo (DSC) con ayuda del software QualiQuantiSoft®. En esta propuesta se vislumbra la educación cooperativa como factor de expresión y realización de los principios de la solidaridad y transformación social para avanzar en los procesos de desarrollo territorial sostenible.

The cooperativism is considered one of the main instruments of promotion of economic and social development that creates and distributes wealth and promotes social capital in the communities. The cooperative education in the development of competences attends to the proposals of territorial development materialized in programs and projects that begin to have meaning at the moment of its implementation. Even though the Mondragon Cooperative Experience arouses interest after six decades, this paper does not aim to analyze its history, achievements, contradictions, and challenges already analyzed and debated by literature. The objective is to analyze the proposals in the field of cooperative education as an enhancing factor in the articulation between productive and educational practices, it means, between reflection and action as a factor that intensifies the teaching-learning process for individual and social development. The proposal is based on a qualitative research, case study, and participant observation of the Cooperative Education Model of Mondragon, from an exploratory-descriptive-evaluative view that was carried out during a sandwich doctorate internship, in the years 2014-2015, resulting from the collaboration between two graduate programs of Brazilian universities - PUCPR and FURB - and the Institute of Cooperative Studies (Lanki) of Mondragón Unibertsitatea. To analyze the data was used the methodology of the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) and the QualiQuantiSoft® software. The results show the cooperativism course of the Lanki: (1) Education processes are (re) construction and strengthening of the cooperative identity in three parts: rational-intellectual, emotional-affective and action. Lanki understands education as an integral and continuous process that encompasses the development of all dimensions of the person through interaction with their social environment. Understands education as a systematic and planned action that affects not only knowledge but also attitudes and abilities through the experience of learning in a specific context. (2) Ecological sustainability is a concern in this model but its reflection in practice is still far to become reality. Responsible consumption based on ecological, ethical, and social criteria, is at the level of reflection and not of action. The initiatives in this sense are still timid and incipient. The CSDs shows difficulties with the transmission of knowledge and competence within the cooperatives as well as to the application of the apprenticeship. The competencies for the implementation of learning are, therefore, more limited. The main points based on the qualitative reading of the evaluations obtained in the course are highlighted. The participants showed a high degree of interest. It is emphasized overall, that the topics studied are of vital importance for the development of the cooperative. There is a need to invigorate shared decision spaces to create a sense of belonging. Many of the participants acknowledge this feeling as such a certain “discovery”. It is emphasized that these issues have not been properly worked on in the cooperatives and it is necessary to dedicate time to them. The dialogue generated among the participants and the methodology used is particularly valued. The cooperative course classes require more time. There is a clear demand to discuss cooperativism dynamics from the social bases of the cooperatives. The cooperative education should form, first of all, cooperative men and women and then form cooperatives leaderships. In this analysis, it is concluded that the pedagogy of social practice of cooperative education, despite having an interdisciplinary approach, has difficulties to advance from reflection to action, and from discourse to practice. The development model in which the Mondragon cooperatives are immersed is a factor that hinders progress towards the sustainability of the development model by focusing on the environmental-ecological axis. One of the main challenges of the educational model analyzed is promoting the abilities and competencies of individuals for resilience in the face of social and ecological crisis. The paradigm of sustainable territorial development presupposes a set of sustainability synthesized in the trinomial of economic efficiency, environmental and social effectiveness. Despite the efforts to revitalize the socio-cooperative project, it cannot be ignored that a socioeconomic model based on the paradigm of unlimited growth. It means, it cannot achieve a sustainable territorial development without changes in the forms of production and consumption without strengthening the socio-environmental effectiveness. The cooperative education model requires a greater strengthening of praxis (articulation between theory and practice). It is necessary in order to implement the pedagogy of social practice with inter and transdisciplinary vision, which makes clear the interrelation of economic and biosphere processes. Environmental and social sustainability will be the agenda of this century. Therefore, the cooperative education shall include the environmental issues, so that produces transformations in modes of production, consumption, and of life itself to create an awareness of the limits of economic rationality. Then, the ideal of human self-realization and social emancipation inevitably arises from the integration of the socio-ecological dimension. It can be said that cooperative education for the integral development of the person is a broad concept that encompasses from technical, to social and ethical education. Education is a central issue to the integral development and self-realization, promoting the autonomy, freedom, and responsibility, which represent an enormous potential for transforming and emancipating people. On the other hand, it contributes to the strengthening of anti-hegemonic values such as solidarity, cooperation, and autonomy, promoting critical awareness, which is the basis of the processes with an enormous transforming and emancipating potential. Arizmendiarrieta said that consciences had to be transformed in structures. It means social emancipation that is conducted through cooperative education as a critical pedagogy or for social transformation. It is concluded that new spaces are needed for cooperative reflection where cooperative education should be a tool that encourages space for debate, based on dialogical and participative dynamics to share and build cooperative meaning. Cooperative education is an interesting tool to promote the debate and the collective construction of proposals. The practice accumulated in recent years shows the lack of space to recreate the cooperative identity. An important part of the cooperative is that the members should be involved in the educational processes to assure the cooperative values. In this sense, cooperativism is characterized as a more humanized model of the economy, as the term social economy suggests. Cooperative education, in turn, allows spaces for debate to work identity and cooperative practice, develop feelings of belonging and affinity to the cooperative model. The cooperativism has the greatest challenge of incorporating intergenerational rights, not only socioeconomic but also environmental, with a more robust and resilient socio-business project in the face of climate change.