Education and Human Formation in Neoliberal Society: the “learning to learn” slogan in the light of Historical-Critical Pedagogy

Abstract

This article analyzes human formation in neoliberal society, problematizing the slogan “learning to learn” as an ideological expression of education oriented toward adapting individuals to market demands. Grounded in the Historical-Critical Pedagogy and in authors such as Saviani, Duarte, Agnes Heller, and Leontiev, the study is based on bibliographic and documentary research to understand how neoliberal rationality redefines the purposes of education, shifting the focus from objective knowledge to the development of competencies and skills functional to capital. Drawing on Heller’s categories of everydayness (generic objectifications in themselves) and non-everydayness (generic objectifications for themselves), it discusses the tension between omnilateral formation and the utilitarian logic that permeates contemporary educational policies. It is argued that the slogan “learning to learn” reflects the internalization of entrepreneurial rationality within the educational field, transforming learning into an individual and permanent imperative — Life Long Learning — guided by self-responsibility and competitiveness. In contrast, the paper advocates a perspective of formation linked to the socialization of scientific knowledge and to the mediation of social practice, essential conditions for the development of higher psychological functions and critical consciousness. It concludes that overcoming the neoliberal logic in education requires a pedagogical project committed to human emancipation and to the transformation of material conditions of existence.