Photo by Flickr user RobotographyThe idea that to be educated is to come to know oneself and one's place in the world (and to be initiated into that privileged world of human being) has a long and distinguished history. From Bildung, through progressive and child-centred education, to the liberal, analytical tradition that flourished with the pioneering work of Peters and Hirst, it would appear that a conscious, rational and autonomous self is a sine qua non of educational philosophy. Even highly conservative theorists have been able to find common ground with progressives on this point.
Of course, the terms of such an education are hotly debated. A new book that pits itself against 'therapeutic education' claims that the new emphasis put upon personal relevance, inclusivity and the emotions in the curriculum contribute to a 'diminished' concept of the self that thereby provokes an accompanying "diminished sense of human potential" (Ecclestone and Hayes, 2009). I will no doubt offer my own views on this particular matter in a future posting. I mention it here merely to show that though the terms by which a self is to be initiated may lie in question, it still remains generally agreed that education, for its furtherance, requires successive generations of individual selves who will present themselves, willingly or not so willingly, to be tutored in the knowledge, skills and ethics that a successful human life requires.
But what is a self? One fundamental question, and one which has immense implications for educational practice, is whether the self is formed largely independently, that is, in virtue of some internal power or capacity that need only be kindled or coaxed along by some external tutelage, or if on the contrary, it is fashioned relationally, through its encounters with numerous other humans and non-humans. Jane Roland Martin seems to advocate this latter position when she writes thus: "An adequate theory of education needs to go beyond a conception of persons as autonomous individuals not simply because education ought to bind human beings to one another, but because it should bind us to the natural order of which we are a part." (Martin, 1998). Gert Biesta is even more emphatic about the relational nature of subjectivity. Following Levinas, he considers the coming into the world of individual selves to involve a primordial responsibility towards what and who is other. In such a view we seem to be inescapably entwined within the social fabric, we exist for the Other as much as for ourselves, and certainly possess no or little stable, enduring identity.
The question is, does either of these polarised views on self-formation present us with a sensible basis on which to build educational practice? One would seem to call for a classroom opened outwards, as it were, with endless opportunities to engage with other human beings, and with the world at large. The other seems to demand a classroom that favours introspection and a persistent searching for and exposing of one's own feelings and emotions (what I would class a literally self-centred education). Yet, common sense would surely suggest that an education, if it is to be balanced and well-rounded, should offer occasions both for interacting with the 'real world' and the innumerable encounters with other points of view that this entails, whilst also allowing a time and place for solitude, self-searching and self-expression.
In short, education must bring us to an understanding of ourselves at the same time as it allows us to see beyond ourselves, to that shared world in which we must, for all our sakes, learn to co-exist. It is my intention, as this blog progresses, to show that an underlying concept which grounds our experience of Self and Other, and through which we gain access to an interior and exterior reality, might lie (literally) underneath our feet. The concept in question is place. I wish to show how a curriculum built upon the underlying concept of place could initiate students into the rich mode of understanding of self and world that we are seeking.
To be continued...
References
Biesta, G.J.J. (2006) Beyond Learning: Democratic Education for a Human Future. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers.
Ecclestone, K and Hayes, D. (2009) The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Martin, J.R. (1998) 'Needed: A New Paradigm for Liberal Education', in Philosophy of Education: Major Themes in the Analytic Tradition. Volume 1: Philosophy and Education (eds. Paul H. Hirst and Patricia White). London: Routledge.
Of course, the terms of such an education are hotly debated. A new book that pits itself against 'therapeutic education' claims that the new emphasis put upon personal relevance, inclusivity and the emotions in the curriculum contribute to a 'diminished' concept of the self that thereby provokes an accompanying "diminished sense of human potential" (Ecclestone and Hayes, 2009). I will no doubt offer my own views on this particular matter in a future posting. I mention it here merely to show that though the terms by which a self is to be initiated may lie in question, it still remains generally agreed that education, for its furtherance, requires successive generations of individual selves who will present themselves, willingly or not so willingly, to be tutored in the knowledge, skills and ethics that a successful human life requires.
But what is a self? One fundamental question, and one which has immense implications for educational practice, is whether the self is formed largely independently, that is, in virtue of some internal power or capacity that need only be kindled or coaxed along by some external tutelage, or if on the contrary, it is fashioned relationally, through its encounters with numerous other humans and non-humans. Jane Roland Martin seems to advocate this latter position when she writes thus: "An adequate theory of education needs to go beyond a conception of persons as autonomous individuals not simply because education ought to bind human beings to one another, but because it should bind us to the natural order of which we are a part." (Martin, 1998). Gert Biesta is even more emphatic about the relational nature of subjectivity. Following Levinas, he considers the coming into the world of individual selves to involve a primordial responsibility towards what and who is other. In such a view we seem to be inescapably entwined within the social fabric, we exist for the Other as much as for ourselves, and certainly possess no or little stable, enduring identity.
The question is, does either of these polarised views on self-formation present us with a sensible basis on which to build educational practice? One would seem to call for a classroom opened outwards, as it were, with endless opportunities to engage with other human beings, and with the world at large. The other seems to demand a classroom that favours introspection and a persistent searching for and exposing of one's own feelings and emotions (what I would class a literally self-centred education). Yet, common sense would surely suggest that an education, if it is to be balanced and well-rounded, should offer occasions both for interacting with the 'real world' and the innumerable encounters with other points of view that this entails, whilst also allowing a time and place for solitude, self-searching and self-expression.
In short, education must bring us to an understanding of ourselves at the same time as it allows us to see beyond ourselves, to that shared world in which we must, for all our sakes, learn to co-exist. It is my intention, as this blog progresses, to show that an underlying concept which grounds our experience of Self and Other, and through which we gain access to an interior and exterior reality, might lie (literally) underneath our feet. The concept in question is place. I wish to show how a curriculum built upon the underlying concept of place could initiate students into the rich mode of understanding of self and world that we are seeking.
To be continued...
References
Biesta, G.J.J. (2006) Beyond Learning: Democratic Education for a Human Future. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers.
Ecclestone, K and Hayes, D. (2009) The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Martin, J.R. (1998) 'Needed: A New Paradigm for Liberal Education', in Philosophy of Education: Major Themes in the Analytic Tradition. Volume 1: Philosophy and Education (eds. Paul H. Hirst and Patricia White). London: Routledge.
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