Education's Autonomy as a Utopian Polysemic Possibility: Challenges and a Path Forward

A step not beyond education’s autonomy

“…This reading resonates, in part, with Yosef-Hassidim and Baldacchino’s “weak” and “kenotic” characterization of education’s autonomy, which entails a “possible yet ungrounded (and therefore weak) notion of a “no place” where everything could happen” (Yosef-Hassidim and Baldacchino, 2021: 41). This, in turn, leads them to argue for a utopian, “polysemic character of autonomy” (Yosef-Hassidim and Baldacchino, 2021: 43), meaning that:in affirming the plural meanings and possibilities of autonomy, and in refusing to be strictly named and defined, education’s autonomy stands to free up those plural spaces of practice where, to use Dewey’s words … education becomes “free to determine its own ends.” (Yosef-Hassidim and Baldacchino, 2021: 44)…”

“…Drawing from Blanchot’s concept of the neuter, my intention is to seek an approach to ‘educational questions about education’ without residing to either internal or external forms of governance. While acknowledging that such an approach might not secure education a distinct presence in society, I claim that an antinomic conceptualization of ‘the educational’ may help to imagine a “change of education” (Yosef-Hassidim and Baldacchino, 2021: 37) far more profound than narratives of progress and development.…”

“…Granted, writing about Pilgrim’s retreat to his heart might not be the most obvious suggestion for educational thought or policy today. However, since one of the central aims of the current discussion of education’s autonomy is a “radical change in what education means” (Yosef-Hassidim and Baldacchino, 2021: 37), I see that inflicting such a change requires us to imagine education and its autonomy otherwise—sometimes in ways that might seem strange. By this, I do not mean mere daydreaming, but a careful recognition of the multiple ways that we are and, most importantly, could be with education—both in theory and practice.…”

“…Since Dewey’s The Sources of a Science of Education has provided an important background for the current discussion of education’s autonomy (Yosef-Hassidim, 2021; Yosef-Hassidim and Baldacchino, 2021), I begin my inquiry with a close reading of it. Conducting a reading that is more literary than strictly philosophical or historical, I focus on traces of language that locates the nomos of education’s autonomy within “the educational” and blurs the spatio-temporal boundaries between self-governing life and self-governing education.…”

Education’s Relative Autonomy: A Closer Look at the Discipline’s Past, Present, and Future

“…The relative autonomy of education has always been in jeopardy. To show why this is the case, we took a closer look at Pädagogik's/Erziehungswissenschaft's past, pres- Currently, only a few educational theorists seem to be interested in education as a relatively autonomous discipline that advances its questions, interests, and perspectives (e.g., Matthes, 2021, Siegel & Biesta 2021, 2022Yosef-Hassidim & Baldacchino, 2021). It would, however, be desirable for the idea of education as a field of study in its own right to gain more prominence, as this might prevent us from losing sight of distinctively educational questions.…”