FER

The areas of Philosophy, Ethics, and Religious Education (FER) at the Instituto Pedagógico Nacional are defined as essentially humanistic fields whose fundamental premise is the promotion and development of students in their different dimensions, based on the approaches and thematic contents of the three areas that make up the core (…) Teachers in these areas at the Instituto Pedagògico Nacional hold bachelor’s degree graduates or are professionals in philosophy or theology, specialists, master’s degree holders, or PhD  in these disciplines. Guided by ethical and human convictions, they assume the vocation of accompanying and guiding students’ academic, social, and emotional development processes. They are individuals committed to building an inclusive, tolerant, and diversity-respecting society as a fundamental pillar of the Nation’s Project. They are critical, reflective, and creative educators with deep social sensitivity. They are teachers engaged in continuous learning, with a strong sense of belonging to the institution, who see research as an opportunity to innovate educational practice. (F.E.R., 2022, p. 17) 

The Philosophy area at the IPN is defined as a space for theoretical, practical, and creative knowledge that seeks to develop thought for the understanding and interpretation of contexts, texts, individuals, knowledge, realities, and problems. It is an opportunity to shape a lifestyle based on self-care, care for others, and care for things, as a discovery of wisdom, prudence, and the meaning of life. It is an openness to wonder, reflection, questioning, and research concerning one’s own existence, in a hermeneutic dialogue with the major issues of the philosophical tradition. (F.E.R., 2022, p. 24)  

Ethical education at the IPN must be understood as a whole that includes its different and necessary levels: 1. the cognitive level (the use of reason in knowledge and in establishing order and meaning in the world, for which one is responsible); 2. the affective level (self-esteem, emotional drives, loves, and hatreds); 3. habitual education or habit formation (predisposing ourselves to act in certain ways with a degree of flexibility and regularity), and character building or the construction of ways of being in response to each concrete situation faced by the individual. Therefore, ethical and moral education must be assumed by the IPN as a challenge aimed at generating changes in the relationships within the community. This challenge should also lead to “thinking of the institution as a social laboratory in which experiences are fostered for the recognition of others, the acceptance of cultural diversity, tolerance, the search for models of coexistence, and negotiation as a mechanism for conflict resolution, from the perspective of consensus-building.” (P.E.R., 2022, p. 97)  

The area of Religious Education seeks to provide students with a humanistic education that supports their personal growth process, while also presenting the fundamental epistemological, anthropological, theological, psychological, gnoseological, and spiritual elements necessary for understanding the religious phenomenon. (F.E.R., 2022, p. 46)