On the “neuro” in neuroeducation: from psychologization to the neurologization of school

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the triadic relationship between education, psychology and neuroscience within the framework of neuroeducation. To this end, an exhaustive review of the most relevant literature on the subject was carried out. The historical precedents of neuroeducation can be traced back to the introduction of psychological discourse in education, which later transformed into the psychologization of school. Arguably, the irruption of the neuro in the culture and the advent of the new neurosubjectivities ended up dethroning psychology of its privileged position in the educational context. Under promises of liberation, independence and scientificity, neuroeducation prospered precipitously without addressing the multiplicity of philosophical, methodological and ethical difficulties that still plagues it. However, the structural relationship between psychology and neuroscience reveals the inability of the latter to detach itself from the psi paradigm. Moreover, from the counterpsychology theory and considering its analog behavior, it can be argued that the neuro, rather than an independent stage, is an extension of the psi conditioned to this epoch. Under this approach, neuroeducation is not an alternative to psychological predominance but a return to it which threatens neurologization. Thus, it is imperative that learning is reconnected to culture, educational spaces are reconquered, and the teachers are made aware of their agency so that education can, without ignoring the valuable contributions of the other disciplines, recognize itself as an autonomous knowledge, eminently integrationist and independent.