The focus of the paper is on the relation between education and solidarity and the possible futures that this might entail. Schools are often pitched as tools of social justice from all sides of the political and social spectrum – governments as well as international organisations have been all too eager in the 21st century to position formal schooling in particular as a miracle cure for societal problems, such as low social mobility, poverty, various inequalities as well as physical and mental health issues. This opportunistic but also very visible rebranding of education constitutes a new politics of educational governance, one that offers a ‘quick fix for the ills of a post-welfare state’ (Murphy, 2022: 4). While this rebranding is morally dubious at best it represents part of a more general conflation of educational and justice aims.

The discourse over education and justice is instructive as regards what it omits – this equation is presented as natural and unarguable, as if ‘justice’ operated as the only important element of democratic society.  When it comes to Enlightenment aims, solidarity has arguably been a poor relation to both freedom (liberté) and justice (égalité) as these values have embedded themselves in educational systems in Western democracies. While freedom (individualised pathways, growth of academies and free schools) and justice (comprehensivisation, more recently school improvement agendas) have tussled for top billing in educational systems, a focus on solidarity had been demoted, rearing its head if at all in the guise of civics, citizenship education or other curricular options.   

I argue in the paper that this is a mistake, for two reasons. First a concern over solidarity has been a constant in different forms over the history of European education systems - these forms have encompassed a focus on socialisation and cultural reproduction, a desire to alleviate supposed moral decay, through to a more recent sense that education should do more to tackle social division, the rise of demagoguery and post-truth agendas. A long and steady relationship has been established between solidarity and education, but it has suffered in the glare of other, possibly more pressing, imperatives.

The second reason relates to the growing sets of pressures on school systems emanating from civil society, in the guise of organised advocacy and activist groups that together question the values and even existence of formalised school systems. While these encompass a wide range of ideological positions (home schooling movements, decolonising curriculum), together they constitute a formidable challenge to whatever is left of the education/solidarity relationship.      

These two issues form the backdrop to this paper, which offers a ‘rethinking’ of the solidaristic nature of education. In order to expand on this topic, I draw on a number of intellectual resources, including the work of Hegel (bildung, socialised conceptions of freedom), and the 20^th century debate between Richard Rorty and Nancy Fraser over the possibilities of creating and maintaining social solidarity in an increasingly fragmented world. I conclude that a rethinking of educational aims along solidaristic grounds requires both a moral and a practical assessment of the issues at work in educational solidarity, especially in the context of 21^st century governance agendas seemingly intent on dismantling the democratic foundations of education.    

The paper is embedded in a philosophical discourse that begins with the work of Hegel, using this as a platform to engage more contemporary thinkers, such as Rorty and Fraser, on the topic of education and solidarity. Education and specifically bildung is a recurring theme in Hegel’s work and is arguably central to his overall philosophy (Dum and Guay, 2017: 299). While often translated as cultural formation, bildung has a number of components specific to Hegel’s thought. It is the main mechanism via which geist or spirit is collectively achieved – bildung acts as a bridge between self development and a shared collective cultural understanding. Another element is the importance of experience to self development, that through experiential learning, individuals can overcome their limitations and develop into rational agentic beings to determine their own place in the social order. The paper uses this solidaristic conception of bildung to set the scene for a more detailed examination of educational solidarity and what this means in the 21st century in the context of globalised neo-liberalism, marketisation and privatisation.

There are two main expected outcomes to this study of solidarity and education, and these relate to: first of all, the importance of educational institutions to solidarity building; and secondly, the role of civil society in the formation or otherwise of solidarity. The institutions of education – schools, colleges, universities – play a significant role in the promotion of democratic life, one that is easy to overlook given their ubiquity. Their significance, however, was never a core component of Hegel’s interest in bildung or education more generally. The process of bildung was one in which schools ‘were not distinctively important’ (Dum and Guay, 2017: 299). This neglect of institutions is an oversight on the part of Hegel; given the emphasis he places elsewhere on institutions and their importance to ethical life, it is also surprising. While institutions are a vital element of solidarity building, they should not be viewed as static elements of the construction of solidarity. Institutions such as schools and universities are subject to change and transformation like any other – much of this change can be generated by policy and markets, but it is also emanates from civil society; it is easy to forget that schooling is itself a product of social movements determined to create avenues for democratisation, self-improvement and social mobility. Educational institutions are both the products and producers of the drive to solidarity – they are unique in the sense that they provide formal mechanisms for doing so.

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