School as Laboratory of Educational-Cultural Policies (on the Aesthetic Experience of Jose Antonio Encinas)

Abstract

Based on the analysis of the experience of José Antonio Encinas (Peru, 1888-1958) as director of School Center No. 881, this essay proposes that the aesthetic experience is a productive way to rearticulate pedagogical-humanistic reflection and the design of educational-cultural policies, whose purpose is to offer students the necessary tools for their personal self-design. The first part defines and analyzes the components of the aesthetic experience that emerge from Encinas’ pedagogical project, as a product of national and international knowledge and experiences that aim at the con-struction of a democratic society; through the aesthetic experience, pedagogical praxis would play a key role in the design of educational-cultural policies that are situated and viable from the school. The second part focuses on various experiences during Encinas’ leadership (implementation of workshops; organization of plays and newspapers; and his original interpretation of the life and work of the Peralta brothers, former students of the Cen-ter) in order to show the value of aesthetic experience for social transformation. By the end of this research, it will have been demonstrated that the aesthetic component of this pedagogy should not be identified with the institution “art”, but with an organic experience of self-design and community self-government.