Session Information
Session 10, Paradoxes in Education: Bourdieu, Foucault, Luhmann
Papers
Time:
2005-09-10
09:00-10:30
Room:
ENG
Chair:
Zdenko Kodelja
Contribution
Education between a normative and a systems theoretical approach.The figure of reflection traditionally connected with education is based on the understanding of human beings as subjects that was developed during the Enlightenment. To be a subject means to be self-determined and it implies that educational activity cannot be grasped within a fixed order and determination. In other words, the Enlightenment reflects on education from a subject theoretical perspective, which rejects the metaphysical understanding of necessity but at the same time instils an anthropological one.Consequently, education has to create a new basis for legitimacy. Education can no longer be legitimised by referring to instances outside human beings. The human constitution is a human concern, and is based, so to speak, within human beings themselves.When this kind of legitimacy can no longer be sustained, there are implications for education as a science. The rejection of the "not yet perspective" on human beings stemming from the Enlightenment means that education as a science must thematize educational issues on a new theoretical basis.In recent years some very striking positions regarding the understanding of education as a science have been observable in the discourse surrounding the science of education.Is the normative approach to education a sine qua non or can the science of education be based on an exclusively descriptive analytical perspective?The theoretical elaboration of the latter approach is most comprehensive in the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann, but also encompasses Dieter Lenzen's attempt at establishing a science of education based on the concepts of "Lebenslauf" and "Humanontogenesis" (Lenzen, 1999).Systems theory identifies human beings as autopoietic systems and education is therefore impossible: "When individual human beings are conceived of as conglomerates of autopoietic, self-dynamic, non-trivial systems, there is no reason to suppose that they can be educated." (Lenzen, 2002, p 82. My translation).A systems theoretical perspective on educational activity implies a radical confrontation with the orientation of education in its relation to human beings. It rejects the notion that human beings must be educated and that it is possible and necessary to formulate the aims of this education. It follows from this confrontation that education cannot be regarded as a first- order observation that continually tries to reduce the distance between the aims of the educational process and its actual state.Instead, education has to be reflected on in relation to the social system of education as a second- order observation, where the unstable is what is stable. This means that education can no longer be understood on the basis of a notion of what human beings are and what they are going to become. It has to be understood functionally.This functional understanding of education has been strongly criticized by Micha Brumlik, among others (Brumlik, 2000). Brumlik fundamentally disagrees with the notion that human beings can be identified as psychic systems. He thus questions the relevance of systems theory both in relation to education as a science and to the field of education.In his criticism, Brumlik focuses especially the question of education as a teleological activity. He is not willing to accept the educational consequence of regarding human beings as psychic systems, because it means that "[e]ducation as a teleological activity is no longer possible, because the environment cannot influence autopoietic closed psychic systems." (Brumlik, 2000, p68. My translation).Whereas Brumlik believes that it is impossible to exclude the teleological perspective from education, systems theory states that this perspective is simply wrong.However, abandoning the idea of a teleological perspective does not necessarily mean accepting the position of systems theory. It may just mean accepting the idea that education as a science must be dealt with based on contingency theory, which emphasizes the duplicity of education found in the coexistence of the potential for creation, but also the possibility of risks.
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