Obstinate Education

Gert Biesta, PhD (1992), Leiden University, is Professor of Public Education at Maynooth University, Ireland and Professor for Education at the University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands. He writes about educational theory and policy and the philosophy of social research.

Check out the book being discussed on the New Books Network podcast here."With Obstinate Education, Biesta wrote an intellectually heeft Biesta een intellectueel, uitdagend boek geschreven. Het boek daagt uit ‘door’ te ‘denken’, niet alleen de pedagogische kwesties die Biesta in zijn boek aansnijdt en de pedago[1]giek die hij daarbij voor het voetlicht brengt, maar ook kwesties die niet besproken worden, maar er wel nauw mee samenhangen. Ik denk hier bijvoorbeeld aan de relatie tussen overheid en onderwijs [...] Ik raad het boek van harte aan."

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsNote on the AuthorIntroduction: The Duty to Resist1 Responsive or Responsible? Democratic Education for the Global Networked SocietyIntroductionThe Global Networked Society: Fact or Fiction?Education for the Global Networked Society: Responsive or Responsible?Democratic Education for the Global Networked Society?Conclusion2 How General Can Bildung Be? Reflections on the Future of a Modern Educational IdealIntroductionA Brief History of BildungBildung Lost, Bildung RegainedHow General Can Bildung Be?The Epistemological Interpretation: The General as the UniversalThe Interpretation from the Sociology of Knowledge: The General as a Social ConstructionA Critical Theory of Bildung and Critical PedagogyThe Network Approach: The General as the Asymmetrical Expansion of the LocalConcluding Remarks3 Becoming World-Wise: An Educational Perspective on the Rhetorical CurriculumIntroductionEducation, Paideia and BildungBecoming ‘Symbol-Wise’ or Becoming ‘World-Wise’?Empowerment or Emancipation?The Challenge4 Critical Thinking and the Question of Critique: Some Lessons from DeconstructionPhilosophy, Critique, and Modern EducationCritical Thinking and the Question of CritiqueCritical DogmatismTranscendental CritiqueDeconstructionFrom Critique to DeconstructionConclusion5 Philosophy, Exposure, and Children: How to Resist the Instrumentalisation of Philosophy in EducationWhat Might Philosophy Achieve?Philosophical Enquiry or Scientific Enquiry?A Performative ContradictionThe Trouble with Humanism, Particularly in EducationA Post-Humanist Theory of Education: Action, Uniqueness and ExposureConclusion: A Different Philosophy for Different Children6 No Education without Hesitation: Exploring the Limits of Educational RelationsIntroductionThe Multiple Meanings of ‘Education’‘Mind the Gap!’‘Being Addressed’‘You Must Change Your Life’Concluding Remarks7 Transclusion: Overcoming the Tension between Inclusion and Exclusion in the Discourse on Democracy and DemocratisationIntroductionInclusion and DemocracyMaking Democracy More Inclusive: The Deliberative TurnEntry Conditions and Democratic ExclusionsOvercoming Internal Exclusion: Making Democracy More WelcomingCan Democracy Reach as State of Total Inclusions? And Should It?From Democracy to DemocratisationDiscussion: Marking the Difference between Inclusion and Transclusion8 Education and Democracy Revisited: Dewey’s Democratic DeficitIntroductionConnecting Democracy and Education: The Moral ArgumentEducation as BildungFrom the Ethics of Democracy to Democracy and EducationA Democratic Deficit?From Absolutism to ExperimentalismOvercoming the ‘Crisis in Culture’Concluding Comments: The Missing Link Revisited9 Making Pedagogy Public: For the Public, of the Public, or in the Interest of Publicness?IntroductionThe Decline of the Public SphereArendt on Action, Plurality, and Freedom“The Space Where Freedom Can Appear”For the Public, of the Public, or in the Interest of Publicness?ConclusionConclusion: Looking Back and Looking ForwardAppendix: From Experimentalism to Existentialism: Writing in the Margins of Philosophy of EducationReferencesIndex