QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT AS A HORIZON OF MEANING: BETWEEN THE SIMULACRUM OF QUALITY AND THE REDEMPTION OF TEACHING PRAXIS

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to generate an onto-epistemic approach to qualitative assessment as a horizon of meaning, enabling the redemption of teaching praxis in primary education. The study sought to transcend the simulacrum of quality to achieve a human, scientific, and ethical valuation of the being. Theoretically, it was supported by the contributions of Rodríguez and López (2023) and Freire’s critical pedagogy (1992). Methodologically, a qualitative approach was adopted under the interpretive paradigm, using a field design and phenomenological-hermeneutic method. Key informants were three teachers whose experiences were collected through documentary analysis, participant observation, and in-depth interviews. Information was processed through triangulation and discourse analysis. As a corollary, the findings reveal that qualitative assessment in primary education demands models that surpass bureaucratic techniques and move toward the formation of reflective citizens. The results evidence an epistemological anemia that renders students invisible, reducing the evaluative process to a mechanical act. This imposes the need for redeeming praxis to transform inert records into a transcendent horizon of meaning that grants purpose to pedagogical work in the classroom.