Philosophy of education in a new key: Publicness, social justice, and education; a South-North conversation

Abstract

Public education is not just a way to organise and fund education. It is also the expression of a particular ideal about education and of a particular way to conceive of the relationship between education and society. The ideal of public education sees education as an important dimension of the common good and as an important institution in securing the common good. The common good is never what individuals or particular groups want or desire, but always reaches beyond such particular desires towards that which societies as a whole should consider as desirable. This does, of course, put the common good in tension with the desires of individuals and groups. Neo-liberal modes of governance have, over the past decades, put this particular educational set up under pressure and have, according to some, eroded the very idea of the common good. This set of contributions reflects on this state of affairs, partly through an exploration of the idea of publicness itselfhow it can be rearticulated and regainedand partly through reflections on the current state of education in the 'north' and the 'south.' ARTICLE HISTORY

New Generation School initiative in Cambodia: Revisiting its effects on shadow education

“…At this juncture, empirical evidence about students’ well-being or mental health is nowhere. In overall, the reformers appear to be overwhelmingly pressured by standards and competitions, all of which might be the strands of propaganda for funding but also can be the inner erosions of the public education (Biesta, et al, 2021), as argued above.…”

“…That is, the assessment should be designed to evaluate students’ performances or learning activities rather than their memories (see, for example, Wiggins, 1991). In fact, the notion of learning competitions or test scores as the quality standard is not only the catalyst for the existence of private tutoring but also the threat which erodes the foundation of public education for the public goods (Biesta, et al, 2021; Tesar, et al, 2021). That means meaningful construction of learning experiences has been often unheeded in the context of teaching-for-testing.…”

“…Without attending private classes, they might not learn well or compete with private tutoring students. In addition, shadow education is apt to have become a disposition to detach the public education from its real purposes, that is, “education as education of the public, for the public, and accountable to the public” (p. 1) and thereby contributes to the set-up of a threat to the public education, seen through the lens of two erosions: inner erosion, referring to pressures of performance standards (e.g., examinations); and outer erosion, referring to “the forces of privatization, marketization, or commercialization” (Biesta, et al, 2021: 2). Simply put, when pressures of competitions and standards (e.g., examinations, school admissions) have become intense, shadow education is always there to temper such tensions.…”

“Neoliberal subjects” and “Neoliberal affects” in academia: Methodological, theoretical and political implications

“…Let me be clear. My argument that we need to be more cautious when we invoke the name "neoliberal subject" in academia does not diminish the immense contribution of work in this area; on the contrary, it highlights the importance of continuing to engage with neoliberalism (and other challenges) through exploring new ways of theorizing and doing research in education in the 21 st century (see Biesta et al, 2022;Buchanan et al, 2022;Papastephanou et al, 2022;Tesar et al, 2022).…”

Education and the Public

“…According to this tradition, liberal democracies are crucially dependent on a well-functioning public sphere, which in turn relies on the educational formation of adequately informed and educated citizens, who are able and willing to participate reflexively in the public sphere by articulating their concerns in collective deliberations about political issues. Despite significant differences in the historical development of the relationship between education and the public sphere in different sociopolitical contexts (Biesta et al, 2021) as well as competing (normative) reconstructions of the specific political functions and educational preconditions of the public sphere, there is a widespread consensus in educational theory that the relationship between education and the public sphere can be regarded as one of the central questions of educational reflection (Grümme, 2018, p. 10). The controversy over the place and role of education in the public sphere currently primarily focusses on what has been described as a 'new structural change of the public sphere' which enfolds in the context of processes of digitalization (Binder & Oelkers, 2017;Sunstein, 2007;2017;Habermas, 2021;Bernholz, Landemore & Reich, 2021).…”