La question de la juste distance est un problème central, mais difficile en éducation. Cette contribution se propose de l'étudier chez les deux pères fondateurs de la pédagogie moderne: Rousseau à travers la fiction éducative de l'Émile, Pestalozzi au fil de la pratique qu'il a développée dans ses instituts. Tous deux convergent dans l'idée que la visée de construction de la liberté autonome réclame une proximité de cœur et d'intérêt avec l'enfant, mais dans le même temps une distance entretenue qui lui permette de «se faire une œuvre de soi-même». - L'auteur examine à cette lumière notre situation actuelle, où, après «l'ère de l'autorité» dans une société fermée, s'est imposée «l'ère de la liberté» qui a ouvert l'individu à tous les vents: entre ces deux limites, le temps est sans doute venu de réfléchir à une juste distance en éducation qui favorise la formation de la personne morale, intégrant le primat de la liberté (-auto) et le sens de la loi (-nomos).

The educational venue of the Rousseaunian cultural and social criticism, following a previous anthropological stage which involves the conversion of our vision from the innocence of the savage, continues in the pedagogical stage, which aims to protect the child with a view to the constitution of the free citizen. The educational operation should find a balance between being able and willing, the equilibrium where happiness would lie, by limiting the imaginary of the latter—will—to the reality of the former—ability. The condition of such accounting involves understanding the educational relationship as an economic relationship, based on the utility of things, avoiding at all costs its institution as a political relationship based on the submission of the other. Thus, the teacher loses his status as a tutor and adopts the status of a double, a partial eclipse of the authority figure that will become almost total in the Montessori classroom, where the teacher is sublimated as a ventriloquist of the educational material. This educational circumstance leaves us in suspense with a question: How does the child—whose view was evacuated to the Other—occupy its subject position?

Inspired by the thematic “distances in education”, this article intends to offer a reflective analysis focused on some of the main “distance spaces”, or gaps, that affect the central core of school education – the curriculum - , contributing significantly to the failure of schools in fully attaining their mandate as responsible and guarantee of the curriculum, expressed in expected learning processes and outcomes. The “distance spaces” that will be discussed are the following: 1. Distance from norms to decision –or the deficits of professional power of teachers; 2. Distance from discourse to appropriation – or the names and the things; 3.Distance from intention to action - or the belief in the power of principles; 4. Complexities of curriculum theory - or factors of distance between frames of analysis and their object.

The Youth Cultures study was conducted by IFCU’s Center for Coordination of Research in the spring of 2012. Over 70 universities were invited to participate, including Loyola Marymount University. The survey assessed the values, aspirations, experiences and cultural backgrounds of first and fourth year students attending Catholic universities worldwide. In this paper we will examine the relationship between students’ involvement in social-service/religious organizations and their degree of social awareness and orientation. We hypothesize that those students who are more involved in social-service/religious groups will tend to show a greater and more ethical sense of social awareness and orientation. These differences will tend to increase from first year to fourth year. The results show that student involvement in service/religious oriented groups is significantly related to increased sense of social awareness and ethical and pro-social behavior. We observe that for those involved in service/religious activities, growth appears to occur from first to fourth year in Loyola Marymount students, in not only the expression of increased social awareness of issues and concerns of social equality but also in establishing a priority in their future plans to dedicate portions of their lives to real and meaningful social action. The strengths and limitations of the cross-sectional design of the survey are discussed. The findings are interpreted as supporting the important role that a value-driven education plays in the formation of “whole students” inspired to lead and create a more just society.

The article addresses a pressing issue in Chile today, that is, the rising distance among socio-economic groups stemming from exacerbated segmentation in the country’s education system. The first part of the text focuses on outcomes in standardized testing, including the domestic SIMCE and the international PISA, which reflect the enormous differences between and among these groups. The second part grapples with the consequences of this segmentation and the distancing and fissures it produces in social cohesion and efforts to strengthen democracy. On the former topic, the text reviews recent Chilean bibliography. On the latter, reference is made to research by the author of this article on the construction and destruction of (mis)trust among Chilean students.

The article presents the reasons that led the LUMSA university of Rome to establish the School of Higher Formation “Educating to Encounter and Solidarity”. On the one hand, the positive experience of Service Learning, which began with a small group of students a few years ago and now much more widespread; on the other hand, the attention to the requests of the Congregation for Catholic Education, which has a very close relationship with the University, since its origins. The Service Learning is a pedagogical approach that combines theory and practice, study and put to the test of what has been learned in real contexts, as a possible response to problems in the community. It is neither voluntary nor apprenticeship training. With volunteering, it shares the values of generosity and service; with apprenticeship, it has in common the real context in which skills are developed. The pedagogy of the Service Learning is widespread in Latin America and North America, but today is experiencing a vast worldwide expansion. For Catholic universities it represent a model of particular interest because it offers to students (and to the entire academic community) the opportunity to give coherence to the inspiration ideal, through a living witness of generosity and solidarity. This is especially important today, in a cultural context in which seems to prevail only the logic of profit at all costs and the individual affirmation. The same Catholic universities are not immune from the risk of proposing themselves especially in terms of competition and to feel gratified by the positions of prestige in the international ranking, neglecting the underlying reasons for their presence and confining the original inspiration in the field of irrelevance. The School of Higher Formation “Educating to Encounter and Solidarity” wants to engage in research and training, both academic and school, trying to encourage the reduction of the distance between values proclaimed and practiced values, between theoretical research and real life, between learning and solidarity.

This article addresses two dimensions of being open to others, both of which are then related to inculturation, a task shared by the Church and her schools and universities. First, the micro-level of personal communication with other individuals is considered, along with the qualities and virtues that enhance such communication. Second, the focus switches to the broader level of an intelligent and sensitiveengagement with the media of communication deployed within contemporary culture. In the final section there is an indication of the bearing on inculturation and the relevance for Christian educators of both effective personal communicative relationships and a critical discernment of culture and its media of communication.

This article values pedagogy as dialogue, the founding leitmotif whose cornerstone is the initiatory word, as trans-formation (um-bildung) whilst emphasizes the importance of Looking at the Other not as a "minor", not as a “foreigner" but as my "neighbor“ like in the Gospel parable of the "Good Samaritan”. It underscores the traveling condition of the human being (homo viator), highlights the symbolism of the brotherly gesture, shows the importance of the dialogue held along the way and the pedagogical implications of this perspective. It also deals with initiation and the word in the process of awareness and growing in humanity by addressing the renewing dimension of pedagogy and the need for the Master’s initiation baton in the formative path of each student.

Catholic schools exist in a state of uncertainty between their double identity as Church and civic institutions. Political pressure to conform to the prevailing cultural climate can be a source of tension between Catholic school leaders and the educational establishment. The source of this tension often lies in the degree of ‘hostility’ shown towards religious ideas more broadly. A recent report in the United Kingdom on the place of religion in public life, while reflecting much of the prevailing secular ways of thinking, recognised that religious beliefs have an important role to play in society. This welcome commitment to religious freedom can be aligned to recent developments in Catholic educational thought towards the need for intercultural dialogue in Catholic schools. This move is not without its conceptual challenges: there remain important questions to be addressed regarding the interplay between intercultural dialogue and the mission to evangelise.