The enchantment of education
How can policy bring educational adventures to life?
I base my presentation on the idea that the primary goal of education is to awaken in the student a desire to engage with the world in a grown-up and World-centered way (Biesta, 2022). The experience of world-centeredness, I will argue, is connected to the concept of resonance, explored by Hartmund Rosa (Rosa, 2019), a concept that when situated in the research field of education, is to be understood in relation to the concept of wonder. By contextualizing the discussion within a Bildung tradition I want to bring to life the possibility of beauty and magic that lies within the encounter with the not-yet-known (Wagenschein, 1999).
The study is contextualized within the theoretical framework of Hannah Arendt, Gert Biesta and Hartmut Rosa as well as within the tradition of Bildung (Klafki 2000, Friesen 2023, Wagenschein 1999).
The research design is built on the result of my doctoral thesis on upper secondary students understanding of controversial issues.
The result indicates that a question is perceived as controversial when it touches deeply existential notions of right and wrong, good and evil, beliefs that are often unconscious and culturally conditioned. The understanding of controversial issues as deep-rooted cultural beliefs have consequences for the school's work to nurture democratic citizens and it’s ability to make everyone embrace these ideal. The result of the study also shows a desire on part of the students to understand how society works and which underlying expectations society has on the newcomer (Arendt, 2006). In an Arendtian guise, it can be translated into a desire to become acquainted with, what Arendt calls the common sense which is managed by the older generations via traditions and shared knowledge.
With a new demographic landscape in our Nordic countries where students with very different experiences and worldviews coexist in the same classroom, this is a topic with a great relevance to Nordic educational research. Based on the students’ visions I try to find out how policy can meet the desire of the students and at the same time bring educational adventures to life.
2024.
NERA, Adventures of Education: Desires, Encounters and Differences, Malmö 6-8 mars 2024