THE STUDENT AS PROTAGONIST A PERSPECTIVE FROM ACTIVE EDUCATION TOWARD COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT IN COLOMBIA

Abstract

Education in Colombia stands at a historical crossroads, facing the imperative need to transition from vertical, rote instruction models toward pedagogical approaches that recognize the student as the architect of their own knowledge. The primary objective of this article is to analyze the impact of active education on the development of competencies within the Colombian school context, identifying both the potential of student protagonism and the structural barriers that limit its implementation. The methodology employed corresponds to a qualitative research with a descriptive-documentary approach, through which the Basic Competency Standards of the Ministry of National Education (MEN) were contrasted with the operational realities of classrooms across various territories of the country. The results reveal a systemic disconnection or "pedagogy of simulation," where regulations promote autonomy, but daily praxis remains anchored in punitive evaluation and the coverage of decontextualized content. It was identified that resistance to change by the teaching staff and infrastructure deficiencies, especially in rural areas, constitute the main obstacles to innovation. Nevertheless, the study concludes that the "Living Classroom" model—focused on territorial narrative, shared leadership, and the replacement of traditional grading with evidence portfolios—represents the necessary dialectical synthesis to overcome the crisis of school demotivation. Finally, it is highlighted that active education is not merely a didactic strategy, but an essential ethical and political commitment to forming autonomous, critical, and resilient citizens in 21st-century Colombia.