Tradition, authority and dialogue: Arendt and Alexander on education

Itay Snir

Resumen


In this paper I discuss two attempts to challenge mainstream liberal education, by Hannah Arendt and by contemporary Israeli philosopher Hanan Alexander. Arendt and Alexander both identify problems in liberal-secular modern politics and present alternatives based on reconnecting politics and education to tradition. I analyze their positions and bring them into a dialogue that suggests a complex conception of education that avoids many of the pitfalls of modern liberal thought. First, I outline Arendt and Alexander’s educational views and discuss their similarities, arguing that both may be understood as opposed to the modern attempt to adopt a «view from nowhere» at the world. Next, I suggest that Alexander’s view may benefit from adopting Arendt’s conceptions of tradition and authority. In the consecutive section, I argue that Alexander sheds light on significant problems in Arendt’s approach to education, problems his understanding of critical dialogue can help solve. The succeeding section joins the two views together to form an approach I call «critical traditionalism», and examines it against prevailing approaches to political education. I conclude by pointing to an important point overlooked by both Arendt and Alexander, namely the need for internal political struggle within each tradition.


Palabras clave


Hannah Arendt; Hanan A. Alexander; tradition; authority; dialogue; critique

Texto completo:

PDF (English)

Referencias


Alexander, H.A. (2001). Reclaiming Goodness: Education and the Spiritual Quest. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.

Alexander, H.A. (2015). Reimagining Liberal Education: Affiliation and Inquiry in Democratic Schooling. London: Bloomsbury.

Alexander, H.A. (2017). What is Critical about Critical Pedagogy? Conflicting Conceptions of Criticism in the Curriculum. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1-14.

Arendt, H. (1998). The Human Condition. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Arendt, H. (2005a). The Tradition of Political Thought. In The Promise of Politics (pp. 40-62). New York: Schocken.

Arendt, H. (2005b). The End of Tradition. In The Promise of Politics (pp. 81-92). New York: Schocken.

Arendt, H. (2005c). Reflections on Little Rock. In Responsibility and Judgment (pp. 193-213). New York: Schocken.

Arendt, H. (2006a). Tradition and the Modern age. In Between Past and Future (pp. 17-40). London: Penguin Classics.

Arendt, H. (2006b). What is Authority?. In Between Past and Future (pp. 91-141). London: Penguin Classics.

Arendt, H. (2006c). The Crisis in Education. In Between Past and Future (pp. 170-193). London: Penguin Classics.

de Beauvoir, S. (1956). The Second Sex. London: Jonathan Cape.

Biesta, G. (2010). How to Exist Politically and Learn From It: Hannah Arendt and the Problem of Democratic Education. Teachers College Record, 112(2), 556-575.

Buber, M. (1996). I and Thou. New York: Touchstone.

Callan, E. (1985). McLaughlin on Parental Rights. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 19(1), 111-118.

Callan, E. (1988). Autonomy and Schooling. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Curtis, K. (2001). Multicultural Education and Arendtian Conservatism: On Memory, Historical Injury, and Our Sense of the Common. In Gordon, M. (Ed.), Hannah Arendt and Education (pp. 127-152). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Dewey, J. (1997). Experience and Education. New York: Touchstone.

Dorff, E. (1996). Conservative Judaism: Our ancestors to our descendants. New York: United Synagogue of America.

Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin.

Fröbel, F. (2005). The Education of Man. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.

Gordon, M. (2001). Hannah Arendt on Authority: Conservatism in Education Reconsidered. In Gordon, M. (ed.), Hannah Arendt and Education (pp. 37-66). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Higgins, C. (2010). Education, Crisis and the Human Condition: Arendt after 50 Years. Teachers College Record, 112(2), 375-385.

Husserl, E. (1977). Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Kincheloe, J.L., & Steinberg, S.R. (1997). Changing Multiculturalism: New Times, New Curriculum. Buckingham: The Open University Press.

Lane, A. (2001). Is Hannah Arendt a Multiculturalist?. In Gordon, M. (Ed.), Hannah Arendt and Education (pp. 153-174). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Levinson, N. (2001). The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness. In Gordon, M. (ed.), Hannah Arendt and Education (pp. 11-36). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Levinson, M. (2009). Mapping Multicultural Education. In Siegel, H. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education (pp. 428-450). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

MacIntyre, A. (2007). After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

Nagel, T. (1986). The View from Nowhere. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Noddings, N. (2002). Educating Moral People: A Caring Alternative to Character Education. New York: Teachers College Press.

Pestalozzi, J.H. (2007). How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing LLC.

Popper, K. (1992). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Routledge.

Rawidowicz, S. (1957). On Interpretation. In Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Religion, Research 26 (pp. 83-126). American Academy for Jewish Research.

Sacks, J. (2003). The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Sandel, M. (1998). Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge University Press.

Schutz, A. (2001). Is Political Education an Oxymoron? Hannah Arendt’s Resistance to Public Spaces in School. In Rice, S. (Ed.), Philosophy of Education (pp. 324-332). Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society.

Schutz, A., & Sandy, M.G. (2015). Friendship and the Public Stage: Revisiting Hannah Arendt’s Resistance to ‘Political Education’. Educational Theory, 65(1), 21-38.

Snir, I. (2015). Bringing Plurality Together: Common Sense, Thinking and Philosophy in Arendt. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 53(3), 362-384.

Snir, I. (2016). Re-politicizing the Scholastic: School and Schoolchildren between Politicization and De-politicization. Ethics and Education, 11(2), 117-130.

Taylor, C. (1992). Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.14516/fde.598

Enlaces refback

  • No hay ningún enlace refback.




e-ISSN: 1698-7802

DOI prefix: 10.14516/fde

URL: www.forodeeducacion.com

FahrenHouse: Salamanca, España 

Licencia de Creative Commons
Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 3.0 España.