The political system, culture and economy is in a period of transition, which I call Gramsci’s term interregnum. Education is also found in it: its ideals are dying and new ones are just emerging. I analyse their decline using the notion of expiration, mutation and bifurcation. The analysis shows that liberal democratic ideals (plurality, difference, diversity, universality, egalitarianism) undergo mutation and bifurcation. Collective identities, particularism, inequality are not the antithesis of liberal democratic ideals, but their mutation. Liberal democratic education therefore fails. New educational ideals that are inspired by Alain Badiou are emerging. I present arguments why this “pedagogy of truths” charts the way forward.  

Metaanalysis of research outcomes in the fields of liberal democratic education, pedagogy of truths, and postcritical pedagogy. Sources (selection: den Heyer, K. 2010. Alain Badiou: 'Becoming subject' to education. Thinking Education Through Alain Badiou, Edited by, Kent den Heyer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell den Heyer, K. 2009. „Education as an Affirmative Invention: Alain Badiou and the purpose of teaching and curriculum.“ Educational Theory, 59 (4), 441-463; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2009.00330.x den Heyer, K. and Conrad, D. 2011. „Using Alain Badiou's Ethic of Truths to Support an 'Eventful' Social Justice Teacher Education Program.“ Journal of Curriculum Theorizing Volume, 27 (1): 7-19 Lefebvre, A. 2012. Human Rights in Deleuze and Bergson's Later Philosophy. In Deleuze and Law, edited by Laurent de Sutter and Kyle McGee. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Lefort, C. 1986. „La question de la démocratie.“ Essais sur le politique (XIXe-XXe siècles). Paris: Seuil, 17-30. Leiviskä, A. 2024. „Political polarization, legitimacy and democratic education.“ Ethics and Education, 19 (4): 467-484 https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2024.2414628 Masoud, N. 2024. „A Badiouian Look at Education: Event and its Potential Effect on Curriculum.“ Education Quarterly Reviews, 7 (3): 189-198. http://dx.doi.org/10.31014/aior.1993.07.03.606 Oral, Ş, B. 2023. „Can we imagine a new telos for democracy in a non-teleological world?“ Ethics and Education, 18 (3-4): 242-264 DOI: 10.1080/17449642.2023.2261344 Parziale, F. and Vatrella, S. 2019. „Education and Universalism in Europe: When Education Supports Democracy.“ Athens Journal of Social Sciences, 6 (2): 113-138 https://doi.org/10.30958/ajss.6-2-3 Peterson, Th., E. 2010. Badiou, Pedagogy and the Arts. Thinking Education Through Alain Badiou, Edited by, Kent den Heyer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Strand, T. 2022. „Educational justice in viral modernity. A Badiouan reading.“ Ethics and Education, 17(2), 240-253 https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2022.2054560 Taubman, P., M. 2010. Alain Badiou, Jacques Lacan and the Ethics of Teaching. Thinking Education Through Alain Badiou, Edited by, Kent den Heyer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Vlieghe, J., Zamojski, P. 2017. „The event, the messianic and the affirmation of life. A post-critical perspective on education with Agamben and Badiou“. Policy Futures in Education, 15(7-8): 849-860

Philosophers of education who deal with the pedagogical significance of Badiou's work convincingly demonstrate that we can draw from it new ideals of education that are a response to the crisis phenomena of the contemporary world and to the failure of liberal democratic education. In my article I have conducted a meta-analysis of the relevant articles and books using my conceptual tools. The meta-analysis confirms that education is in a situation of interregnum, in which the existing ideals of education are „dying“ and new ones are just emerging. The pedagogy of truths and its concepts (event, encounter, truth, ekklesia, schole, love) show the way for the further development of pedagogical thought. The main argument is that these concepts are a response to the decline of liberal democratic ideals.

The article draws on my books on liberal democracy, populism, Badiou, etc. that were published in renowned publishing houses.