The aim of education is a key question; in a certain sense it is a traditional question — viewed by some as a given. Indeed, perhaps because it appears to be self-evident, it has long since ceased to ...be a focus, with a number of undesirable consequences. Education invariably remains an action that is explicitly or implicitly imbued with intentionality, but if it loses sight of its goals (or, worse still, does not acknowledge them expressively), it risks becoming ethically and politically ambiguous, if not downright corrupted or distorted.
In this paper I argue that there is a need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education, particularly in the light of a recent tendency to focus discussions about education almost ...exclusively on the measurement and comparison of educational outcomes. I first discuss why the question of purpose should always have a place in our educational discussion. I then explore some reasons why this question seems to have disappeared from the educational agenda. The central part of the paper is a proposal for addressing the question of purpose in education—the question as to what constitutes good education—in a systematic manner. I argue that the question of purpose is a composite question and that in deliberating about the purpose of education we should make a distinction between three functions of education to which I refer as qualification, socialisation and subjectification. In the final section of the paper I provide examples of how this proposal can help in asking more precise questions about the purpose and direction of educational processes and practices.
It is likely that the process of global climate change will continue to accelerate. There is a lack of political will to confront the problem and the consequences for humanity — including widespread ...suffering and institutional destabilization — will be disastrous. How should educators respond to a catastrophic future? Here, Bryan Warnick argues that two criteria should guide the educational response. The response should not (1) undermine efforts to find an “unprecedented solution” to climate change, or (2) leave students unprepared to adapt to a global catastrophe. Using these criteria, he analyzes several possible ways to help students adapt to disaster, including teaching survivalism, encouraging forms of emotional resilience (like the Stoic apatheia), and helping students to appreciate the current moment. These adaptive responses seem to violate the first criterion. At the same time, an educational response focused entirely on climate activism seems to violate the second criterion. Warnick ends by exploring ways to accommodate the need for both adaptation and social engagement, finding promise in the idea of a tragic activism.
El presente artículo analiza la evolución de los discursos acerca de la universidad moderna a partir de la revisión reflexiva de textos clásicos y actuales sobre el tránsito desde la ...universidad como torre de marfil a la universidad emprendedora, examinando las tensiones que esta evolución genera en términos de principios formativos y organización del conocimiento. Para ello, este ensayo comienza argumentando que la universidad se hace parte de la Ilustración y accede a la modernidad cuando la Facultad de filosofía deja de ser conceptualizada como sierva de la Facultad de Teología y cuando deja, por lo tanto, de llevar su cola (philosophia theologiae ancilla), según ironiza Kant, para pasar en cambio a comprenderse como responsable de iluminar con una antorcha su camino. En las décadas siguientes el nuevo rol que asume la filosofía en la división del trabajo académico transforma las relaciones de la institución universitaria con el poder político y el poder religioso, abriendo las puertas, al mismo tiempo, hacia el Estado nacional y, más adelante, hacia la subordinación de sus actividades al capitalismo global. Consecuencia de lo anterior, los referentes normativos tradicionales de la universidad propiciados por Kant y Humboldt como responsable de la evolución de la sociedad moderna pierden plausibilidad y son sometidos a la crítica de las ideologías. El artículo concluye examinando futuras tendencias de la educación e investigación realizadas en las universidades contemporáneas y argumenta que la crisis de la idea moderna de la universidad es, de hecho, expresión de su carácter moderno que ahora se vuelve contra la misma institución.
“Educational equity” is universally lauded but equally ill-defined. At least five contrasting meanings of equity are in current use: equal distributions of outcomes across populations; equal outcomes ...for every child; equal resource allocations across students, schools, districts, states, or nations; equal experiences for each child; and equal levels of growth by each child. Furthermore, these conceptions are themselves often subsumed to concerns for benefiting the less advantaged, ensuring educational adequacy, or prioritizing short-term benefits versus long-term structural change. Researchers, educators, and policy makers alike will benefit from understanding these distinctions and trade-offs, not least in order to reimagine and restructure the unjust conditions that make some of those trade-offs unavoidable in the first place.
Perpetuating the discipline of philosophy is
the main educational responsibility of philosophers. Instead, it is to equip students with those distinctively philosophical intellectual resources that ...will serve students in serving the public good through participation in the economy (broadly conceived) and democratic life. Given this responsibility philosophers, individually and collectively, have a duty to take teaching and learning more seriously than they do. The paper offers some confident ideas about what this means when it comes to approaching training and professional development and some more tentative ideas about what it means, specifically, for the Philosophy curriculum and the pedagogical strategies philosophers should adopt in the classroom.
In this paper I argue that there is a need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education, particularly in the light of a recent tendency to focus discussions about education almost ...exclusively on the measurement and comparison of educational outcomes. I first discuss why the question of purpose should always have a place in our educational discussion. I then explore some reasons why this question seems to have disappeared from the educational agenda. The central part of the paper is a proposal for addressing the question of purpose in education—the question as to what constitutes good education—in a systematic manner. I argue that the question of purpose is a composite question and that in deliberating about the purpose of education we should make a distinction between three functions of education to which I refer as qualification, socialisation and subjectification. In the final section of the paper I provide examples of how this proposal can help in asking more precise questions about the purpose and direction of educational processes and practices.
Employability is becoming increasingly central to the mission and functioning of universities, spurred on by national and supranational agencies, and the demands of marketisation. This article ...provides a response to the normative dimensions of the question, progressing through four stages: first, there is a brief consideration of the meaning and manifestations of employability and the historical conditions underpinning its emergence; second, the question is addressed of whether employability is a desirable societal and individual aim per se; third, there is a discussion of the fundamental purpose of the university, drawing on the well-known accounts of Newman and Collini, before – fourth – addressing the principal question of whether and in what way employability might fit within that purpose. It is argued that employability is a valid aim of universities only in so far as it is consistent with the central purpose of the institution to foster human understanding through open-ended enquiry. Further questions are discussed, namely, whether other social institutions are better equipped to promote employability, possible costs for the university, the ethical dimension and differences between public and private institutions.
La educación para la participación ciudadana es fundamental para Europa en este momento. La propia Comisión Europea y el Consejo lo reconocen en varios informes acerca de la hoja de ruta en materia ...educativa. Sin embargo, existen múltiples barreras de aprendizaje y de participación en los sistemas educativos de los estados miembros, lo que se dibuja un doble itinerario. Todos los ciudadanos europeos necesitan unos mínimos educativos que les permitan formar parte de proyectos comunes, pero esto implica una educación para todos, en equidad, con igualdad de oportunidades para desarrollarse y aportar a la sociedad las capacidades particulares que cada persona tiene. En otras palabras: esto requiere aceptar que la educación, o es inclusiva, o no es educación. A lo largo del artículo se revisa la literatura sobre este tema, realizando una interpretación crítica con el fin de argumentar cómo la Educación Inclusiva para la ciudadanía europea beneficia a todas las personas. De hecho, la segregación o dejar de tomar en consideración a determinados ciudadanos con ciertas limitaciones nos perjudica a todos y no conviene a nadie. El trabajo concluye con propuestas de mejora para implementar el modelo educativo europeo vigente.
Within the recent rise in the incorporation of contemplative practices in higher education, mindfulness stands out as the most studied and implemented practice. However, most of its studied ...implementations have been focused on interventions associated with mental health. Very little attention has been given to the study of mindfulness's potential broader educational impact. This study is based on the analysis of final assignments from the course ,,mindfulness and education,,, taught to 673 students at three Faculties of Education between 2011 and 2018 and on a retrospective questionnaire. Results show that in addition to common effects of mindfulness (e.g., stress-reduction), many students recognised mindfulness as an educational practice that had transformed their view of the nature of education and sometimes of life itself. The paper lends support to the understanding and framing of mindfulness as aformative educational practice that accords with aims of higher education.
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