Essays on radical educational philosophy

Abstract

Dissertation consists of six internationally published articles which were originally published as book chapters and journal articles. Three articles were written by the author of the dissertation (Max Horkheimer on the Mimetic Element in Education, Wat it means to be a Stranger to Oneself, and As Heard in Silence – Listening and to-be-heard in Education) and two (Hope and Education in the Era of Globalization, Critical Pedagogy and Ideology Critique as Zeitgeist Analysis) were joint articles with professor Juha Suoranta (University of Tampere) and one (Don’t You See, How the Wind Blows?) with Suoranta and lecturer Robert FitzSimmons (University of Lapland). In each joint article, Moisio was the first author. To frame the point of reference in this dissertation we can use the concept of critical analysis of our times (critical Zeitgeist analysis). It is argued that in education we need an attitude that is sufficiently open to the given historical situation. One question that educational sciences should address is the question of the potential of education in addressing various social maladies of the present era. Methodologically, critical Zeitgeist analysis is argued to be of value in demonstrating how to both utilize and expand the possibilities of writing normative social and educational theory. One of the central themes in critical analysis of the given times is to reflect critically on the state of the present historical world. In this task it has always combined analytical, political and moral languages, as well as the languages of critique and hope. It is argued that education should be aimed at change and this is methodologically done in the form of critical knowledge of the present age. This means that the relationship between teacher and student should be seen from the viewpoint of care and respect of student’s person and corporeal being. Also teaching material becomes practical when teaching and learning are seen as fundamentally cooperative processes. With these we are able to promote autonomous and critical thinking. But as the articles show this aim of critical educational philosophy is filled with paradoxes that must be met when thinking about the possibility to promote the autonomy and full development of an individual human being.