Education beyond reason and redemption: a detour through the death drive

Clarke, Matthew

doi:10.1080/14681366.2018.1447508

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 34 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…Forever reaching beyond itself, education promises what it cannot deliver whilst delivering what it would never openly promise (Allen, 2017a;Clarke, 2018). Given this level of deception, the end of education might be welcomed as much as it is feared.…”

Section: Blaming and Desiring Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The End of Education? Nietzsche, Foucault, Genealogy

Allen

2020

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This paper considers the end of education and the demands it makes upon us. It argues that the feared end of education, underpins, and unduly shackles reflection on the current crisis of education. As a spectral, abysmal prospect, it both fetters and stimulates educational critique, mobilising critique to the support of a cause it cannot question because it is committed to its rescue. In a time of crisis, we find ourselves tied only more firmly to education, forced to express or enact our faith in educational redemption. Drawing from the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault, a contrasting, genealogical critique of education is imagined, one that might defer the impulse of educational redemption and defy the limits on thought currently imposed. A genealogy of education is outlined that would strip education of its dignity, and thereby challenge its dominion. The necessary incoherence of such an approach is explored.

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Section: Blaming and Desiring Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The End of Education? Nietzsche, Foucault, Genealogy

Allen

2020

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Roland Barthes and the death of the teacher

Allen

2023

Oxford Review of Education

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The Economic Problem of Masochism in Education

Allen¹,

Bojesen

2018

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It is no secret that there is much to learn from masochism. But its lessons have yet to include the thought that educational relations might themselves be structured by a masochistic economy. Given that our claim for the existence of this economy is made from within the academy, care must be taken, unless the educational researchers who comment on it be considered exempt. Educational researchers are not above nor insulated from what they critique. Educational researchers actively participate in masochistic games of love and hate, pleasure and discomfort that define educational relationships. They participate directly as lovers and sufferers of education themselves, or indirectly by providing long, wearing critiques of education that function as so many reasons for disappointment. Everyday educators and educational researchers alike are tied, bound together, with the latter serving to reinforce this economy of pain by furnishing educators with a scholarly framework, an optional supplement, a pile of books, papers and reports within which they can somewhat pleasurably locate their suffering. But this is not all they achieve. In addition to providing lengthy disquisitions explaining what all educators already feel, and have long felt more acutely – namely, transposing into writing a sense of the ‘shitness’ of things – educational research helps sustain what it bemoans. It gives succour to that love of education, the educator’s love of what they do, that finds pleasure still in the discomfort and displeasure that education must necessarily produce. Educational research dignifies education with moral purpose and helps sustain our love for it by endlessly implying education must be worthy of morally informed critique and attention. We urge the reader to keep these discomforting ideas in mind, throughout the essay that follows.

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Education beyond reason and redemption: a detour through the death drive

Abstract: Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form.

Cited by 3 publications

References 34 publications

The End of Education? Nietzsche, Foucault, Genealogy

The End of Education? Nietzsche, Foucault, Genealogy

Roland Barthes and the death of the teacher

The Economic Problem of Masochism in Education

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