JOINT LABOR, COMMUNITY ETHICS AND ALIENATION AND THEIR CORRELATION IN THE CLASSROOM
Objetification Theory, Joint Labor; Communal Ethics; Alienation.
The purpose of this study is to analyze three fundamental concepts of Luis Radford’s Theory of Objectification (TO), as well as the relationships among them. These concepts are collective labor, communal ethics, and alienation. This bibliographic study, which employs a qualitative approach, is based on works by Radford and other authors who engage with this theoretical perspective. Initially, we examined the central concepts that distinguish TO from other educational theories, such as the roles of the teacher and the student, knowledge, learning, and teaching and learning activities. Based on the study of collaborative work, we identified that this category occupies a central position in TO and is characterized as a collective activity in which teachers and students work collaboratively to produce a shared work, sharing responsibilities, objectives, and modes of action. From this perspective, teaching and learning are not understood as separate activities, but as a single process developed cooperatively and oriented toward the collective production of knowledge. Next, we analyze the ethical foundation—understood by Radford as a communitarian ethic—that underpins the relationships established in teaching and learning activities and is grounded in responsibility, commitment, and care for others. This ethic seeks to promote forms of coexistence that foster participation, dialogue, respect for differences, and the construction of the common good. Studies indicate that communitarian ethics is essential for carrying out collaborative work and for the formation of critical and socially committed individuals. Thus, collaborative work and communitarian ethics offer possibilities for countering alienating practices by promoting collective, non-alienating forms of human collaboration. Alienation, on the other hand, is a phenomenon that arises in the classroom in various forms and constitutes an obstacle to learning, as posited by TO. The concluding remarks will address the relationships among these three TO concepts.