Claudia Schumann

Boundedness beyond reification: cosmopolitan teacher education as critique

Certain strands of cosmopolitanism have been criticized on various occasions for merely mirroring the mental framework of a global elite that stresses positive attitudes to mobility, flexibility, and disinterested objective detachment to the detriment of ‘rooted’, local and national values.1 In this way, it is argued, it presents a one-sided opportunistic or naively affirmative picture of processes of globalization rather than taking seriously the challenges posed by the inherently normative dimension of cosmopolitan thought and practice.2 The present paper will argue for a return to the critical core of the cosmopolitan idea and proposes that the critique of reification, which recently received renewed interest by philosophers of the so-called third generation Frankfurt School, can serve as a vital tool for re-imagining cosmopolitan teacher education as critique. In particular, the discussion around the recent turn towards a standards and competencies oriented teacher education in Germany will be critically examined in this regard. Rather than presenting a mere factual description of our thinking, judgments and actions, a cosmopolitan orientation should be concerned with reminding us of the importance of a continuous critical challenge of their validity. Firstly, the concept of reification will be shown to provide the conceptual resources to describe and select relevant characteristics of contemporary social pathologies that cannot be adequately captured within liberal social philosophies. A closer analysis of reification as a deficient relation to oneself, to others, or to the world will then lead to the second question of how to conceive of non-reifying forms of relatedness, commitment and boundedness as enabling new forms of expressive freedom. Instead of one-sided, narrow and hasty reactions towards a perceived ‘global challenge’—either fetishizing borders or their transgression, an critical educational cosmopolitanism should bring into focus how educational institutions such as teacher education can provide, strengthen, and enhance the conditions for binding ourselves as citizens of the world in non-reifying ways.

Which Love of Country? Tensions, Questions, and Contexts for Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism in Education

The paper considers Martha Nussbaum’s motivation for departing from her earlier cosmopolitan position in favor of now promoting a globally sensitive patriotism. Her reasons for endorsing patriotism will be shown as exemplary for related argumentations by other authors, especially insofar as love of country as a motivating force for civic duty is understood as in tension or even as incompatible with cosmopolitan aspirations. The motivation for turning to patriotism as articulated by Nussbaum and others will be demonstrated to rely on misleading understandings of love of country as a possessive emotion. Relying on Alice Crary’s (Beyond moral judgment. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007) critique, it will be argued that sound moral judgment with regard to the patria as well as from a cosmopolitan stance is equally tied to our sensitivities and equally requires their education. Furthermore, I will discuss Axel Honneth’s notion of solidarity, a form of love inflected by justice, as a possible alternative for conceptualizing the social bonding patriotic attachment is supposed to provide. However, a critical patriotism ultimately needs to transgress this inward-directed focus and take into account how a country is seen by noncitizens, the historical relationships, and the obligations that arise in terms of historical justice in relation to other countries. If we take patriotism in this outward-looking perspective seriously, we also come to understand why it would be a mistake to skip patriotism altogether. Rather than constructing cosmopolitanism and patriotism as mutually exclusive opposites, critical cosmopolitanism and critical patriotism can be shown to have different but complementary and mutually corrective functions.

Cosmopolitanism and Globalization in Education

One of the most pervasive educational debates in recent decades, from mainstream media to educational policy, research, and philosophy, has been shaped by a concern with an apparently radical shift in the conception of public education from a primarily national to a global outlook. What authors mean by the ‘globalizing world’ to which contemporary educational institutions are supposed to adjust ranges from the emergence of new powerful supranational actors on the educational scene to globalizing economic structures, neoliberal policies, global cultural changes, to more flexible, mobile, and diverse populations as well as to the increase of worldwide communication due to the fast spreading of new media and technologies. The revival of the old ideal of the cosmopolitan can in this context be understood as an attempt to articulate an adequate response to the (perceived) demands that these new developments make on future citizens, and hence educational institutions, actors, and practices. We will address the distinction between classic cosmopolitanism and the so-called new cosmopolitanisms and the specific hopes and dangers which different philosophers of education have associated with the respective ideals of the future world citizens. Instead of naively falling into the trap of conceiving of globalization and cosmopolitanism as mere positive potential or negative threat for education, the chapter will emphasize the multiple critical approaches and the points of departure for resistance and transformation which have been articulated from ethical, social, cultural, and political cosmopolitan frameworks against the recently prevailing unilateral economic interpretations of current educational challenges.

Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Education: A Feminist Re-assessment

In the last two decades, feminist readings of Wittgenstein have produced a considerable body of work. Starting from a discussion of the challenges such endeavors meet with at a first glance, the paper will argue that these new interpretations not only prove productive with regard to our reading of Wittgenstein and feminist philosophy but can also inspire new approaches for philosophy of education . Bringing Wittgenstein into dialogue with feminist standpoint epistemology in different variations provides an interesting third path between the postmodernist rejection of objectivity and the empiricists’ defense of a narrow concept of objectivity. Furthermore, with Wittgenstein’s notion of language games, family resemblances , and aspect dawning, we can arrive at an understanding of feminist educational philosophy which turns from essentialist, foundationalist understandings to a more fluid, playful conception without losing sight of the importance of theory for the continuous renewal of our everyday educational practices .

Bildung, self-cultivation, and the challenge of democracy: Ralph Waldo Emerson as a philosopher of education

Bildung, self-cultivation, and the challenge of democracy : Ralph Waldo Emerson as a philosopher of education

Aversive education: Emersonian variations on ‘Bildung’

Abstract The paper discusses Ralph Waldo Emerson’s thought in relation to the German Bildung tradition. For many, Bildung still signifies a valuable achievement of modern educational thought as well as a critical, emancipatory ideal which, frequently in a rather nostalgic manner, is appealed to in order to delineate problematic tendencies of current educational trends. Others, in an at times rather cynical manner, claim that Bildung through its successful institutionalization has shaped vital features of our present educational system and has thus served its time and lost its critical potential. When thinking through Emerson’s variations on Bildung I argue against the nostalgic appeals to Bildung that the criticism against it has to be taken seriously. Against the cynical assessment of Bildung having run its course, I will hold that with Emerson we can develop the idea of an ‘aversive education’ as a call for Bildung to be turned upon itself, allowing to revive it as a conceptual tool for transformation, drawing particular attention to its political dimension.