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Rethinking Education
Education is the way a society produces its own future. But what sort of future is this? For more than three centuries, in the Western world, it’s been wedded to an ideal of progress. A progressive education, according to its advocates, makes it possible for advances in human knowledge, forged by bringing the powers of the intellect to bear upon the material of empirical observation, to be passed from one generation to the next. Thanks to education, they insist, each generation can stand upon the shoulders of its forbears, contributing thereby to the ascent of civilisation as a whole. Empowered by the voice of reason, the educated are authorised to speak on behalf of a world whose sheer factuality subtends the vagaries of human experience. Here, in the community of reason, everyone is interchangeable. Problems have their right answers, and it makes no difference who comes up with them.
But what if the dream of progress turns out to be a chimera? What if our much-vaunted civilisation is but a castle in the air, that leaves behind a world in ruins? Has progress, in its mission to wipe out difference, and to measure the achievements of every generation by a universal standard, been achieved at the expense of human flourishing, and more than that, of the flourishing of all forms of life? Is it too much to dream of another sort of future, not of progress but of renewal – a future that would afford room for everyone and everything to thrive in this wondrous planet we all share, both presently and forever? For in this, surely, lies the proper meaning of sustainability. Whereas progressivists imagine every generation as a layer, each adding to the one before, in an education for sustainability generations would not so much be stacked vertically as wound longitudinally, like the overlapping fibres of a rope. It would be in their very overlap that the work of education is carried on.
Could this be what education is really about: learning to live together in difference? The very word education, after all, comes from the Latin ex- (‘out’) plus ducere (‘to lead’). Education literally leads us out into the world. And as a way of leading out, it is fundamentally a practice of exposure. Its purpose is not to arm ourselves with knowledge, or to shore up our defences so that we can better cope with adversity. It is rather to disarm, to relinquish the security of established standpoints and positions, and by the same token, to attend more closely to the world around us and respond to what we find there with skill and sensitivity. Its primary commitment, in short, is to the fostering not of rationality but response-ability. If the voice of reason belongs at once to everyone and no-one, with response-ability every voice is different, yet as in a choir or conversation, it comes forth only through its participation with the voices of others.
This kind of education doesn’t separate knowledge from life, but joins with the very forces of life – forces that create ideas, ways of experiencing the world – in its ongoing fashioning. In their education, teachers and students embark together on a journey that may be difficult, even uncomfortable, with no certain outcome. This calls for care, patience and a willingness to experiment. Nevertheless, the journey is one in which generations can collaborate in finding a way into the future. It is not, then, for teachers to transmit knowledge readymade. Their task is rather to set an example, to serve as constant companions for their students and tireless critics of their work. And it is for students to follow in their footsteps while improvising a passage for themselves.
In the face of the still dominant model of progressive education, the volumes in this series explore ways of thinking education otherwise – ways that give hope for coming generations and for the renewal of life. They offer visions for the future, manifestos, experimental curricula, speculative syllabi, and case studies of alternative education at work. In line with Routledge’s Focus series, they are short and provocative, intended for academics, researchers, professionals and students alike. We hope these volumes will convince our readers that other ways are possible!
The Editors