**4. A critical educational psychology as a means to achieve a complex educational psychology**

A critical educational psychology should be understood as a field of action, training and critical research in the face of situations that negatively affect the educational process, including discrimination in policies and the educational system, which prevent the achievement of an education for all, as well as the recognition of human diversity as a universal right of the human being. In order to achieve this, such education should use critical thinking in massive standardization processes that fail to generate good levels of meaningful or contextualized learning for the vast majority of students [6].

In addition, a critical educational psychology could provide new insights into teaching-learning techniques and processes, so that they are able to generate both a result that is appropriate for students (and that meets quality criteria for teachers), and a process that enables the experimentation of a satisfactory pedagogical relation. And, in this context, this kind of education could support the generation, promotion and prioritization of democratic, liberating and significant relationships among the members of the educational community, in order to promote actions, spaces and policies of school and social coexistence that promote happiness, participation and meaning.

As Redondo points out [30], we should not only expect from educational psychology a proposal based on scientific knowledge that enables a psychological explanation to individual and social problems, and on more than one occasion, that makes a tradition of the psychologization of social problems, but we should also expect a proposal of empowerment that allows educational communities (at any level) to collaborate in the co-construct of their own meaningful educational establishments. The foregoing is relevant due to the fact that that is precisely the purpose of inclusive education [31], which is directly linked to the search for common welfare, through meaningful and dialogued consensus, an idea that can also be achieved through critical perspective.

The school organization is a complex reality as the notion of education itself is complex, thus, its study and action should be approached from the same perspective. It is possible to find the conditions of complexity that pointed out for organizations in general (related to the productive field) [32], and characteristics of socio-affectivity, individual and group evolution, socio-cultural guidelines, political and ethical-regulatory impositions, etc., that are clearly evident in the school organization.

These purposes of critical and complex educational psychology can be achieved through the support of two tools that emerge from the reflection on new perspectives for education and psychology, posed by educators and psychologists interested in the evolution of this field. One of these tools is institutional metacognition, defined as a process of participatory reflection in the educational institution, which allows analyzing information, actions, assumptions and regulations (among others), with the participation of members of the community, in order to make people aware of the ideas, routines and actions that underlie educational decisions, enabling organizational learning and the development of learning communities [38–40].

A Critical Role of the Psychologist: A Way to Achieve Complexity in Educational Psychology

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80509

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A second element of support for the tasks outlined above is the notion of a critical friend as central role of the educational professional; this idea of a critical friend establishes the figure of an agent that questions and promotes the change of educational actors through communication and reflection, guiding these agents to impose significant changes in their decisions and actions [41–43]. The role of the critical friend is characterized by its empowering nature, to the extent that its action is oriented to promote collaborative work, potentially contributing to generate a global vision of the school [44], and above all, to favor reflective processes on the practices, make explicit assumptions and beliefs that can facilitate the transformation of

These tools, among others that can be integrated or constructed, are necessary for educational psychology to maintain the basic elements that define it as a complex and critical proposal, by prioritizing, as previously indicated, reflective, communicational and participation processes

In light of the above, it can be noted that educational psychology presents a history of respectable tradition, contributing to the development of educational processes for just over 100 years. However, nowadays, a great problem related to the relevance and effectiveness achieved by educational psychologists when trying to contribute to educational improvement

The foregoing does not imply that this discipline is no longer relevant or obsolete, or that it does not share common topics with education and the school system, but rather that it is restricted by a simplistic and technical view of the person, the community and education in general. This simplistic view specifically emphasizes what is less relevant to society and

For this reason, a way to modify that is to redirect the focus and essence of educational psychology, equipping it with tools such as critical thinking, which will provide spaces for reflection and systematic evaluation in the face of its knowledge and the actions that it undertakes

The traditional educational psychology cannot offer the answers that the educational challenges of the twenty-first century demand. Therefore, these answers should be obtained through the construction and evaluation of a critical and complex educational psychology, as the latter values the search of senses, collaboration, participatory reflection, innovation and creativity, etc.

with the purpose of establishing effective and significant changes.

educational discourses and practices [45].

in the educational community.

has begun to be considered [46].

education: The human being.

**5. Conclusions**

Complexity must be comprehended from the complex [33], which would imply abandoning certain beliefs and paradigms that have strongly marked the field of educational psychology (such as the focus of the teaching and learning process, individualization, and the pathologisation of behaviors). Therefore, the adoption of critical analysis should also be counted, so that a questioning of the concepts, actions, and meanings of those actions is developed [34].

Educational psychology, from a critical and complex perspective, provides an epistemological framework more in line with the great concerns of today's society, through the development of a disciplinary and professional field that would enable us to collaborate in participative and satisfactory social processes and institutions for professionals of the same area as well as for the community in general, and this certainly would allow us to achieve greater social and political relevance for educational professionals, both for teachers and non-teachers.

This would be achieved through well-known strategies, dialog, reflection, participation, the willingness of agreements; social tools that can be articulated with other logical (scientific and administrative) and technological (digital means of information and communication) tools. In the complex perspective all these elements have a place and are complementary, as they are all products of culture, history and society.

The social-(methodo)logical-technological articulation is carried out through the ethical and social understanding and valuation, which we must give to the educational phenomenon, instead of letting ourselves be caught in traps set by the simplistic view such as the excessive concern for the measurement and evaluation by the quality indicators that have been imposed in the majority of the educational systems in the world [35].

Looking for the meaning of education and the actions that generate learning is one of the central features of the socioconstructivist perspective of learning, and this is exactly what a complex and critical educational psychology should promote, as it is precisely in its core that such constructivist perspective is developed. However, it is necessary to recognize, that given the fact that there is a variety of interests and understandings in a society, we could have different meanings when it comes to education; but there is something that should not be forgotten in this twenty-first century, the fact that the imperative of human rights and the preservation of the environment has been established. For this reason, one of the aspects that can mainstream this disparity of interests and senses is the notion of quality of life, which leads to promote healthy and sustainable environments, respectful and reciprocal human relations, and self-care behaviors [36, 37].

Critical and complex educational psychology must value as an educational purpose the achievement of conditions that ensure a positive and nutritious quality of life for the members of the educational community. In addition, it should promote dialog and democratic consensus among the members of said community, as well as support respect and participation in political and administrative systems. Finally, it should encourage reflection, innovation and adaptation of people, groups and organizations to the incidences of the environment, promoting change at individual, group and organizational levels.

These purposes of critical and complex educational psychology can be achieved through the support of two tools that emerge from the reflection on new perspectives for education and psychology, posed by educators and psychologists interested in the evolution of this field. One of these tools is institutional metacognition, defined as a process of participatory reflection in the educational institution, which allows analyzing information, actions, assumptions and regulations (among others), with the participation of members of the community, in order to make people aware of the ideas, routines and actions that underlie educational decisions, enabling organizational learning and the development of learning communities [38–40].

A second element of support for the tasks outlined above is the notion of a critical friend as central role of the educational professional; this idea of a critical friend establishes the figure of an agent that questions and promotes the change of educational actors through communication and reflection, guiding these agents to impose significant changes in their decisions and actions [41–43]. The role of the critical friend is characterized by its empowering nature, to the extent that its action is oriented to promote collaborative work, potentially contributing to generate a global vision of the school [44], and above all, to favor reflective processes on the practices, make explicit assumptions and beliefs that can facilitate the transformation of educational discourses and practices [45].

These tools, among others that can be integrated or constructed, are necessary for educational psychology to maintain the basic elements that define it as a complex and critical proposal, by prioritizing, as previously indicated, reflective, communicational and participation processes in the educational community.
