Technical Education and Humanism: The Intellectual Virtues of Receptivity and Critical Thinking in Upper Secondary Education

Abstract

The article investigates the role of the intellectual virtues of receptivity and critical thinking in humanistic education within Technical Education, focusing on Brazilian Federal Institutes (IFs). The aim is to understand how these virtues can strengthen the mission of the IFs to integrate technical training with ethical, social, and environmental values, overcoming a market-driven logic. Using a theoretical-reflective and interdisciplinary approach, the study draws on authors such as Slote (2013), Baehr (2011), Nussbaum (2015), and Slaby (2023, 2024), discussing the limitations of technical rationality when disconnected from affective sensitivity. The research is divided into two parts: the first analyzes the challenges of Vocational Education and its potential disconnection from humanistic ideals; the second discusses intellectual virtues from the perspective of responsibilist epistemology, advocating the articulation between critical thinking and receptivity as an essential axis for pedagogical practice. Structural apathy, a central concept in Slaby (2023), is taken as a symptom of the dehumanization promoted by social structures insensitive to current crises. The results indicate that these virtues, when cultivated in an integrated manner, can promote pedagogical practices that are critical, collaborative, and responsive to contemporary social and environmental issues. The conclusion emphasizes that, although the study does not include empirical research, it provides the foundation for future studies and pedagogical practices, suggesting that receptivity can be an innovative and transformative virtue in combating structural apathy and affective alienation in educational contexts.