Bureaucracy 2.0

Virtually any term can have a direct or denotative use – aseptically collected by the dictionary – and an intentional or connotative use, which 'enriches' the word with all kinds of associated values, both positive and negative.

The connotation of a term can be general and derive from the shared use of language—everyone knows that the connotation of 'white' is more positive than that of 'gray' or 'black'—or it can be more restricted and circumstantial, and derive from more contextual factors: ironic or metaphorical use, in any case, it means... in words, intonation, original linguistic fashion, which coexists peacefully with the superimposed connotations. Miracles of emotional polysemy.

However, there are cases in which the negative connotation of a word is so intense that it ends up erasing the original—neutral—meaning, and it can only be deciphered in openly pejorative terms. This is the case with 'bureaucracy.'

We tend to consider bureaucracy one of the evils of our time and a scourge that has poisoned many of our daily processes: communication with the administration, quality systems, applications and registrations, tenders and lawsuits, data protection, process protocols, mandatory plans, prescriptive inspections, acts, and statutes. We tend to think of bureaucracy as one of the evils of our time, and we end up thinking that the only good documentation is the one that doesn't exist. A mistake.

Rational documentation of plans, processes, and results is the foundation of any democratic and equal opportunity system. And only accurate and balanced documentation guarantees transparency, legal certainty, participation, and memorability, which are not minor issues.

However, any human process is prone to progressive degradation, and documentary corpora, which are no exception, tend, first, toward hyperplasia and, finally, absurdity. What should have been simple and clear becomes excessive, unnecessary, indecipherable, redundant... and, logically, useless. In this sense, bureaucracy is the ultimate alteration of the relationship between an action and its function. Following processes in a routine, repetitive, stereotyped, automated manner... without reflection or learning, without debate or review. And completely forgetting the initial objective. This is exactly bureaucracy in its darkest sense.

One of the areas where anti-bureaucratic awareness has taken root the most has been the school environment, to the point that the fight against excessive bureaucratic processes has become one of the most visible protest movements in the sector: unions are demanding it, and the Regional Ministry is overflowing with promises and good intentions. Literally, it's "unraveling," because the new templates for the "Elements of Curricular Concretion" and the brand-new "Programming Units" are a poem in itself. With acrostic and eccentricity.

However, this does not mean that the educational environment does not require a documentary record—practical and accurate, of course—that serves as the shared theoretical basis upon which to effectively build a planned, reasoned, and collaborative daily practice.

If the annual program—strategic planning and timing of objectives, resources, and activities—or the academic year report—review of the process and proposals for improvement—or the teaching councils—the ultimate expression of the school's pedagogical debate—are viewed as "bureaucracy," something seriously wrong. But not in the documentation, but in the practice.

But curiously, while we try to banish the useless paperwork that hijacks our time and attention, another absurd, but more modern and painless bureaucracy is gaining ground: artificial intelligence. It's surprising to see how it's become normal for students to prepare their homework with AI and for teachers to receive training on how to detect student homework that has been artificially generated. But it's also surprising that they receive official training to learn how to handle artificial intelligence. chatbots So that they can select content, prepare lessons, interact artificially with students and families, generate planning and assessment documents, correct assignments and homework...

If we understand bureaucracy as the ultimate dislocation between an action and its meaning, replacing school roles with AI must be its ultimate expression. No matter how modern it may seem to us and how practical it may be.

This is what Antoni Salvà explains at BlueSky: "If schools write their curricula and curriculum documents using AI, and the education administration (Inspection) processes them and generates feedback for the schools using these same tools, we will have a parallel bureaucratic world as unusual as it is useless." Likewise.