Critical Pluralism: History of Science and Debates on Education in Psychology

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an empirical analysis in historical perspective on the views of Argentine professional psychologists about the history of psychology in psychologists’ curricula. In order to provide data about the teaching of history of psychology in Argentina over the past 25 years, a content analysis was carried out on primary sources relevant to psychology’s teaching in Argentina: researches on the training and education of local and regional psychologists towards the 1990’s, dossiers on Argentinian undergraduate psychology programs’ accreditation parameters, and ministerial regulations on the accreditation processes. The aim was to characterize the historical and historiographic contents in such sources. A constant presence of historical contents was found in documents, although with dissimilar emphases and characterizations. Thus the history of science would be conceived as a basic, introductory and vital core content for promoting a pluralistic, complex view of the discipline. We conclude on certain challenges posed by future curricular revisions.