This document discusses the critique of educational institutions in the 1970s and its relationship to theories of "liquid pedagogy" and "deschooling" in the 21st century. It argues that the critique of schools in the 1970s both reflected and contributed to the emergence of a new "liquid" social imaginary that was skeptical of large institutions. Further, it claims that liquid pedagogy has its roots in the deschooling theories of the 1970s, though the relationship is one of "homothetic transformation" rather than a straight line. The document examines how historians can analyze this continuity between the deschooling critique and later theories through new perspectives.

1. THE CRITIQUE OF THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
IN THE 1970´S AS AN HISTORICAL EVENT WITHIN THE
CONFIGURATION OF THE LIQUID SOCIAL IMAGINARY
IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY
Jon Igelmo Zaldívar (Universidad de
Deusto)
Xavier Laudo Castillo (Universitat de
Barcelona)
International StandingConferencefortheHistoryofEducation
GenevaSwitzerland, June 27-30,2012

2. INTRODUCTION
 Nowadays within the postmodern social
imaginary the spectrum of critical thinking in
relation to modern institutions is being expanded
in the western world.
 A new social imaginary appear when it is possible
to detect a group of changes in:
a) the validity of the truth.
b) the consistency and stability of the values.
c) the social interaction amongst human.
International StandingConferencefortheHistoryofEducation
GenevaSwitzerland, June 27-30,2012

3. TWO KEY CONCEPTS: LIQUID
PEDAGOGY AND DESCHOOLING
THEORIES
 Liquid pedagogy: a set of normative provisions on
education that propose series of means to be
adapted constantly to the context; aim to achieve to
embody a model of person able to adapt
him/herself to the uncertainty and change; and
develop hermeneutic skills to interpret the reality
without universal absolute references.
 Deschooling theories: theoretical suspicions about
the task of the educational systems in the world
after Second World War. For this trend in pedagogy
the institutionalized education is no longer
perceived as a solution for the principal problems
of humanity. Instead, education is presented as a
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4. HISTORIOGRAPHY AS A
METHODOLOGICAL TOOL.
 The post-social historiographic methodology points
out that discourse is not a simple means that leads
people to transmit an objective notion of reality
without incorporating new meanings. In contrast,
discourse is an active component in the process of
creating these meanings while participating as an
independent factor to frame historical processes.
 This school of historiography focuses on the way in
which is shaped a discourse in the historical time
and not on the impact of the practices and ideas in
the society or social structures.
International StandingConferencefortheHistoryofEducation
GenevaSwitzerland, June 27-30,2012

5. A HYPOTHESIS TO RELATE TWO
EVENTS
 The theoretical reconfigurations of the liquid
pedagogical imaginary has their genealogical
historical continuity in the deschooling theories
presented in the 1970s.
 This continuity is not an equivalent element as it is
the connection in the space between two points by
straight line. It turns out that the relationship
between the deschooling theories and the liquid
pedagogical imaginary is better represented taking
as a reference the mathematic metaphor of the
homothetic transformation.
International StandingConferencefortheHistoryofEducation
GenevaSwitzerland, June 27-30,2012

6. Deschooling

7. CONCLUSIONS
 We claim it is time to change the questions made
to the deschooling theories until now by historians
of education, and try out with new perspectives of
analysis:
- In which way can be said that the critique to
school in the 1970´s was both a symptom and a
effect for the emergence of a new pedagogical
imaginary characterized by the discredit and
doubt against the biggest educational institutions
of the western world?
- Has the liquid pedagogy got the same origin and
historical cause than the deschooling discourse?
International StandingConferencefortheHistoryofEducation
GenevaSwitzerland, June 27-30,2012