The commitment to capabilities and its pedagogical and didactic implications in the context of teaching information sciences

Abstract

This article presents the progress of an ongoing research project whose overall objective is to develop a curricular proposal that articulates the undergraduate programs of the Inter-American School of Library Science at the University of Antioquia (Colombia), based on the participation of its key actors, the analysis of the context, and the institutional seal. Articulation encompasses different degrees of links, intertwinings, and affinities between actors, knowledge, and practices from their own identities, trajectories, and historical projects. In the context of the research, articulation is expressed in four dimensions: theoretical-epistemological, pedagogical-didactic, social, and administrative. Specifically, this text presents the pedagogical and didactic dimension and its commitment to the human capabilities approach. Theoretically, the work is supported by the theory of development and quality of life of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, which assumes that capabilities refer to the substantive freedoms and opportunities that a person has to choose and act in a given context, in line with what they value and esteem. The approach is based on the idea that all human beings possess potentialities, and that education should focus on cultivating those capabilities so that people can achieve their full human flourishing. Methodologically, the work is based on the qualitative foundations of the social and human sciences, with a constructivist approach. The results are presented in terms of statements, in which the positions and decisions taken by the Inter-American School of Library Science are expressed, based on the analysis and joint reflection with the various educational actors, and guidelines, which give an account of concrete horizons for action and curricular management in pedagogical and didactic aspects. The conclusions are not taken as a definitive closure, but as an invitation and provocation to explore the possibilities offered by the capabilities approach for the design of academic programs in the field of Information Science.