Epistemology in Higher Education: foundation or debate?

Abstract

In Colombia, epistemology is usually required as a foundation for educational documents and academic processes of various kinds. For example, the Ministry of National Education so requires in the resolutions referring to specific quality characteristics that must be met for the granting of qualified records to academic programs. This is how in Institutional Educational Projects (PEI) or Program (PEP), pedagogical models, master documents for qualified registration or quality accreditation, research projects, degree works, creation of research lines, it is common to find at the beginning a section on "Epistemological Foundations" or something like that. What is not common is that an in-depth analysis is presented on the current epistemological problems facing the field to which the document refers. It seems that the purpose of such "fundamentals" was to fill a formal requirement that ascribes the document to a recognized framework and that is considered valid in the academic and institutional context of the Colombian educational system without major questions.