Emile Bojesen

I/MLEs and the uneven return of pastoral power

Abstract Informed by the work of the work of Michel Foucault, Ian Hunter, and Ansgar Allen, this paper argues that I/MLEs are not the creation of a ‘modern’ or ‘innovative’ learning environment but rather the reclamation of an educational technique that was pioneered en masse almost two centuries ago (and based on practices many centuries older than that), where established pastoral methods were key to shaping particularly formed educated subjects. Drawing on work produced by the OECD, as well as UK and NZ education policies and school building design guidance, this argument couches two claims, the first of which is that whether or not education systems and school buildings are conforming to I/MLE models, the ubiquity of ideologically narrow conceptions of the learning subject are enforced regardless, through subtle or unsubtle means. However, the second claim is that, despite their overarching and unsurprising ideological homogeneity with other more outcome oriented forms of schooling, I/MLEs have the potential to offer a much more substantial formative experience than other schooling systems due to their implicit recovery of the traditional pastoral aspect of education.

Educational Plasticity: Catherine Malabou and ‘the feeling of a new responsibility’

Abstract This paper attempts to reintegrate the concept of plasticity into educational philosophy. Although John Dewey used the concept in Democracy and Education (1916) it has not generated much of a critical or practical legacy in educational thought. French philosopher, Catherine Malabou, is the first to think plasticity rigorously and seriously in a contemporary philosophical context and this paper outlines her thinking on it as well as considering its applicability to education. My argument is that her definition not only successfully reintroduces the concept in a way which is generative for contemporary educational philosophy and practice but that it also significantly extends the remit of educational plasticity as previously conceived by Dewey. This paper will examine the concept of educational plasticity as providing an opportunity as well as ‘the feeling of a new responsibility’ towards the plastic subject in philosophical approaches to education.

Conversation as educational research

Abstract This article introduces a form of ‘conversation’ distinct from dialogue or dialectic to the context of educational theory, practice, and research. Through an engagement with the thought of Maurice Blanchot, this paper outlines the conditions he attributes to conversation in the form of plural speech, its relationship to research, how it can be educational, and speculatively concludes by considering how it can operate productively within and around educational institutions. As such, this paper provides an original intervention into educational philosophy and theory, which relies on a close reading of key sections of Blanchots The Infinite Conversation, and reflections on the distinctiveness of his argument in relation to contemporary theoretical approaches, as well as the significance of his thought and its application here to the broader questions of what non-prescriptive theory might have to offer educational research and practice.

Minimal utopianism in the classroom

Abstract In this paper, we build on recent work on the role of the ‘utopian pedagogue’ to explore how utopian thinking can be developed within contemporary higher education institutions. In defending a utopian orientation on the part of HE lecturers, we develop the notion of ‘minimal utopianism’; a notion which, we suggest, expresses the difficult position of critical educators concerned to offer their students the tools with which to imagine and explore alternatives to current social and political reality, while acknowledging the contingent ethical constraints of the system within which they and their students are working. While agreeing with utopian theorists such as Darren Webb who have defended the need for ‘blueprint utopias’ in education in the face of the reduction of the idea of utopia to a purely process-oriented pedagogy, our focus here is on the prior educational task of providing the conceptual and communicative tools for utopian thinking to emerge. The collaborative nature of this paper is reflected in the interdisciplinary sources on which we draw in developing our ideas, including moral philosophy, literary theory, political philosophy, anarchist theory and utopian studies.

Pedagogies of Insurrection

This special issue began as a book review symposium, which attracted so much interest and sustained engagement from its contributors that the decision was made to expand the format to allow for a more dynamic response to Peter McLaren’s The Pedagogy of Insurrection: From Resurrection to Revolution. As the special issue developed it became clear that a number of the contributors engaging with McLaren’s text found both resonances and productive dissonances between their own thinking and McLaren’s position. In ‘Pedagogy of Hate’ Mike Neary points to the problematic absence of ‘hate’ in McLaren’s book, contesting that it weakens the dialectical force of his thinking. Simon Boxley finds McLaren’s utilisation of Christianity intellectually and strategically challenging, putting into question the necessity of religious faith in critical educational thought as well as the specific prioritisation of (a very particular version of) Christianity over other spiritual beliefs and ethical dispositions, despite McLaren’s professed ecumenicism. John Baldacchino offers a reading of McLaren which positions him amongst contemporary and canonical philosophers and political theorists, carefully analysing and pointing out the strengths and weaknesses in the structural integrity of McLaren’s methodology and programme. James Kirylo, on the other hand, is more fully convinced by the love and hope he finds at the core of both critical pedagogy and liberation theology. Mike Cole and Alpesh Maisuria’s article engages less directly with McLaren but traverses much of the same territory, as well as offering Mike Neary and Gary Saunders’ concept and practice of the ‘student as producer’ as one possible contribution to current educational and social ills. Curry Malott’s review provides a rationale for the imminent political and educational significance of McLaren’s text to political discourse and social practice, while Samuel Fassbinder’s review marks out The Pedagogy of Insurrection as an insurrection against our current reality. Central also to this special issue is Petar Jandrić’s long interview with Peter McLaren, which explores many of the nuanced and complex positions developed in The Pedagogy of Insurrection in great detail. The interview also continues McLaren’s ongoing exegetical readings of a broad range of Marxist and Christian texts. While McLaren’s book title implies that it offers ‘the’ pedagogy of insurrection, this special issue aims to show that there are, in fact, many; even within a group of authors at least broadly receptive to many of McLaren’s key principles. Equally, while being primarily focused on engagements with McLaren’s book, I would hope that this special issue provokes

Learning not to learn

Review essay of On Study: Giorgio Agamben and educational potentiality, by Tyson E. Lewis, London & New York, Routledge, 2013, 174 pp., £100.00 (hardback), ISBN: 978-0-41581-216-0

Education at the margins of the political

Abstract This paper argues that the political can respond to that which exceeds it without reducing it to the same, and that public education is one of the most important places where this can happen. I present a rationale for public education to assist that which exceeds the political: singularity, solitude and difference. What I maintain is that the political must welcome this excess, especially through public education, or else it would not be possible to provide the educational context for that which might be of significance to individuals without having socio-political value.

Happiness, hope, and despair: Rethinking the role of education

Peter Roberts has long been engaged in uncommon readings in educational philosophy, not only through the manner in which he reads but also in terms of the texts that stimulate his attention. He rea...

The primacy of pity: reconceiving ethical experience and education in Rousseau

Abstract For Rousseau, there are only three things he does not reason away apart from reason itself: self-interest, the good and, at least until Emile, pity. This paper argues that it is Rousseau’s original formulation of pity in the Second Discourse that is able to provide the extra-rational conception of ethics that his political and educational philosophy lacks when limited to a reading of the Social Contract and Emile. This paper will also show how the reconceptualisation of these existential predicates is usefully aligned with a reading of Derrida’s conceptions of immunity and autoimmunity. By reconceiving Rousseau’s educational and political thinking in terms of the primacy of pity rather than reason, this paper will present a kind of philosophical prototype for beginning to rethink contemporary educational and political logic in terms of the primacy of pity more generally.

Benign violence: education in and beyond the age of reason. By Ansgar Allen

conceptual work or descriptive reports of practice. Some readers may also come away disappointed to not have a precise formula for designing or measuring the impact of North–South partnerships – particularly given the pressures for this exerted by many funding agencies. Nevertheless, the discussion will provide supportive food for thought for those involved in partnerships already and those uncertain about how – or even whether – to embark on one.