Session Information
13 SES 03 A, Freedom and Self-reflexive Education
Paper Session
Contribution
Self-reflexivity is a term that is usually connected to the individual, as the ability to observe oneself from the outside. A further meaning, e.g. in social philosophy, sees in self-reflexivity the ability to reflect upon, assess and regulate one’s own mode of behaviour, values etc. Here, however, I want to discuss the idea of self-reflexivity in a wider setting, where self-reflexivity is used to describe a certain form of education – or rather, an approach to education – that relates to and involves not only the individual teacher and the student, but also the social organization: society and its institutions. The ideas in this paper build mostly on the thought of philosopher and psychoanalyst Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–1997). In an academic context, Castoriadis is probably best known in the fields of social theory, psychoanalysis, politics, ontology, history and Greek studies, but education played a major role in many of his works in these areas. This paper is one among a few, contemporary attempts to bring the educational aspects of his work on a more explicit form.
The paper is structured as follows: In sections 1 and 2, I introduce some central concepts such as social imaginary significations, meaning, autonomy/heteronomy and validity de jure. These concepts are then used to elucidate the notion of self-reflexive education as a specific kind of social imaginary signification (or, with a related term, a ‘social imaginary’).[1] I further argue that a self-reflexive approach to education emerges as the capacity of a society to reflect upon its own core norms and values, a capacity that belongs to what Castoriadis calls the ‘project of autonomy’. Finally, I relate the notion of self-reflexive education to some of the general tendencies in the field of education today.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Adams, Suzi (2013): “Elucidating Castoriadis: Editor’s preface”. In Adams. S. (ed) Cornelius Castoriadis: Key concepts. London: Bloomsbury, xi-xii Arnason, Johann P. (2013): “Social Imaginary Significations”, in Adams. S. (ed) Cornelius Castoriadis: Key concepts. London: Bloomsbury, pp 23-42 Biesta, Gert JJ (2006). Beyond Learning. Democratic learning for a human future. Boulder, Co: Paradigm publishers. Callan, Eamon (2014): “Autonomy”, in Phillips, D.C. (ed.) Encyclopedia of educational theory and philosophy. London: Sage Castoriadis, Cornelius (1997a): “The Imaginary: Creation in the Social-Historical Domain”, in idem., World in Fragments, trans/ed. David Ames Curtis Stanford, Stanford University Press Castoriadis, C (1997b): “Done and to be Done”, in idem., The Castoriadis Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Castoriadis, C. (1997c): The Greek polis and the creation of democracy”, in idem., The Castoriadis Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 267-289. Castoriadis, C (1987) The Imaginary Institution of Society. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press Dewey, John (1997) Democracy and Education. New York: Simon and Shuster Fisher, Mark (2013): Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative? Winchester: Zero books Goodnight, T. Undated. “Parrhesia: The Aesthetics of Arguing Truth to Power’, in H.V. Hansen et. al., eds., Dissensus and the Search for Common Ground, CD-ROM, Windsor, ON : OSSA. http://jakemachina.com/OSSA/pdf/290_Goodnight.pdf Halvorsen, Jonas (2014) Dannelsens samoanske paradoks. Master thesis, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, The University of Oslo, Norway Koselleck, Reinhart (2002): The Practice of Conceptual History: Timing history, spacing concepts. Translated by T.S. Presner and others. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Masschelein, J. and P. Simons (2008): “The Governmentalization of learning and the assemblage of a learning apparatus”, Educational Theory Vol. 58 no. 4, 391-415 Masschelein, J and P Simons (2002) “An Adequate Education in a Globalized World? A Note on Immunization against Being-Together”, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 36(4), 565-584 Ruitenberg, Claudia (2010): “Conflict, affect and the Political: On disagreement as democratic capacity”. In factis pax Vol 4, no. 1, pp 40-55 Straume, Ingerid (2013a): “Paideia”, in Adams. S. (ed) Cornelius Castoriadis: Key concepts. London: Bloomsbury, pp 143-153 Straume, Ingerid (2013b): “Danningens filosofihistorie: en innføring”. In: Straume, Ingerid (ed) Danningens filosofihistorie. Oslo: Gyldendal Straume, Ingerid (2014a): “Cornelius Castoriadis”, in Phillips, D.C. (ed.) Encyclopedia of educational theory and philosophy. London: Sage Straume, Ingerid (2014b): “Education in a crumbling democracy”, Ethics and Education Vol. 9, no. 2, 187-200 Straume, Ingerid (2015): “Democracy, education and the need for politics”. Studies in the Philosophy of Education (online first) http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11217-015-9465-4
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