Friendship and the Public Stage: Revisiting Hannah Arendt's Resistance to “Political Education”

Schutz, Aaron; Sandy, Marie G.

doi:10.1111/edth.12093

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…As explained above, this demand is grounded in the need to protect children from the dangerous pressure of the public realm, as well as on the claim that one needs to be acquainted with the world before being able to act upon, criticize and transform it. However, as various scholars (Curtis, 2001;Biesta, 2001;Schutz, 2001;Schutz & Sandy, 2015) have already pointed out, this view is untenable. Indeed, even Arendt's own understanding of political activity calls for revising it: political engagement is never a miraculous event springing forth ex nihilo; one must practice it gradually.…”

Section: Critical Traditionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tradition, authority and dialogue: Arendt and Alexander on education

Snir

2018

FdE

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In this paper I discuss two attempts to challenge mainstream liberal education, by Hannah Arendt and by contemporary Israeli philosopher Hanan Alexander. Arendt and Alexander both identify problems in liberal-secular modern politics and present alternatives based on reconnecting politics and education to tradition. I analyze their positions and bring them into a dialogue that suggests a complex conception of education that avoids many of the pitfalls of modern liberal thought. First, I outline Arendt and Alexander's educational views and discuss their similarities, arguing that both may be understood as opposed to the modern attempt to adopt a «view from nowhere» at the world. Next, I suggest that Alexander's view may benefit from adopting Arendt's conceptions of tradition and authority. In the consecutive section, I argue that Alexander sheds light on significant problems in Arendt's approach to education, problems his understanding of critical dialogue can help solve. The succeeding section joins the two views together to form an approach I call «critical traditionalism», and examines it against prevailing approaches to political education. I conclude by pointing to an important point overlooked by both Arendt and Alexander, namely the need for internal political struggle within each tradition.

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Section: Critical Traditionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tradition, authority and dialogue: Arendt and Alexander on education

Snir

2018

FdE

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“…Many educational scholars have been writing about the concept of ‘the public’ in Arendt's work, particularly in relation to democratic and political education (e.g. Biesta, ; Gordon, ; Higgins, ; Levinson, ; Schutz and Sandy, ), so it is unnecessary, therefore, to also go into the details of this here. What is necessary to point out for our purposes, however, is that in a strict reading of Arendt's work, the school neither belongs to the public nor to the private realms, but constitutes a specific ‘time and space’ where the coming generation is prepared for entering a shared world , which is the world of experiences and interpretations (Arendt, [1961]).…”

Section: Part Ii: the School And The Public/private Distinctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Where are You?’ Giving Voice to the Teacher by Reclaiming the Private/Public Distinction

Bergdahl¹,

Langmann²

2017

Journal of Philosophy of Education

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In a time of cultural pluralism and legitimation crisis (Habermas), there is an increasing uncertainty among teachers in Sweden about with what right they are fostering other people's children. What does it mean to teach ‘common values’ to the coming generation? How do teachers find legitimacy and authority for this endeavour, not as family members or as politicians, but as teachers? To respond to this uncertainty, the paper takes the public/private distinction as a starting‐point for rethinking the place of the school. Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt and of Jan Masschelein and Maarten Simons, it argues that the school is an in‐between place—a place that transforms values into ‘common goods’ and turns fostering into a teaching matter. The overall purpose of the paper is to sketch out the consequences of this ‘in‐betweenness’ for what it means to find one's voice as a teacher in fostering the coming generation.

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“…Referring to Arendt's thinking on freedom and plurality, he argues that education should not be thought of as a way of learning to exist politically (after education), but should instead be focused on how children, as well as adults, may learn from the fact that they all, already, exists politically. Schutz and Sandy (2015) claim that Arendt's insistence on keeping education and schools out of the public sphere may be problematized in light of other texts in which Arendt seems to indicate a less sharp distinction between the private and public spheres of human activities. While children should not be exposed prematurely to the conflictual "public stage", they argue that the "arena of deliberative friendship", may provide a limited public space where children may be exposed to and prepare for acquiring the skills required for public engagement already in schools.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…This is, however, an argument that has met severe criticism, not least from within the field of philosophy of education (e.g. Schutz and Sandy 2015;Biesta 2010). Arguing that the ideas set forth in her essay "The Crisis in Education" concerning the separation of education and politics are contradicted in other parts of her writings, critics often focus on what they conceive to be the untenable educational objective of keeping children sheltered from "the merciless glare of the public realm" (Arendt 2006a, b, 183).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defending a Common World: Hannah Arendt on the State, the Nation and Political Education

Lilja

2018

Stud Philos Educ

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For a long time, one of the most important tasks for education in liberal democracies has been to foster the next generation in core democratic values in order to prepare them for future political responsibilities. In spite of this, general trust in the liberal democratic system is in rapid decline. In this paper, the tension between the ambitions of liberal-democratic educational systems and contemporary challenges to central democratic ideas is approached by reconsidering Hannah Arendt's critique of political education. This will be done informed by her analysis of the tension between the concepts of state and nation. By showing how education, depending on its role as a tool of the state or the nation, may be a fundamental requirement for the establishment of a common world or the most effective tool for its destruction, the paper argues for the need to understand Arendt's educational thinking in light of her wider political analysis. Rather than downplaying the provocative aspects of her critique, the paper argues for the need to use it as a starting point for thinking again how education may become an emancipatory undertaking capable of disarming contemporary threats to human plurality and freedom.Education can play no part in politics, because in politics we always have to deal with those who are already educated. the word "education" has an evil sound in politics; there is a pretense of education, when the real purpose is coercion without the use of force.

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Friendship and the Public Stage: Revisiting Hannah Arendt's Resistance to “Political Education”

Cited by 21 publications

References 0 publications

Tradition, authority and dialogue: Arendt and Alexander on education

Tradition, authority and dialogue: Arendt and Alexander on education

‘Where are You?’ Giving Voice to the Teacher by Reclaiming the Private/Public Distinction

Defending a Common World: Hannah Arendt on the State, the Nation and Political Education

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