K–12 Education as a Hermeneutic Adventurous Endeavor: Toward an Educational Way of Thinking PDF
Preview K–12 Education as a Hermeneutic Adventurous Endeavor: Toward an Educational Way of Thinking
K–12 Education as a Hermeneutic Adventurous Endeavor Considering the role of compulsory mass education and schooling in a dem- ocratic society, this book introduces an alternative vision for K–12 education as an “adventurous endeavor.” Grounded in a strong theoretical frame- work, Yosef-Hassidim reveals the negative impact of instrumentalization of schools: when education is considered a social and political instrument, it serves dominant social forces’ interests rather than students’ or humanity as a whole. Offering conceptual and pragmatic frameworks to limit political influence on schooling, the author proposes a new hermeneutical structure that restores education’s agency and separates it from external social forces and provides the foundation for regarding K–12 education as a sovereign social sphere in its own right. Doron Yosef-Hassidim is a visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. 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Popkewitz Edited by Miguel A. Pereyra & Barry M. Franklin K–12 Education as a Hermeneutic Adventurous Endeavor Toward an Educational Way of Thinking Doron Yosef-Hassidim K–12 Education as a Hermeneutic Adventurous Endeavor Toward an Educational Way of Thinking Doron Yosef-Hassidim First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Doron Yosef-Hassidim to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-06230-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-16169-3 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC To My Parents Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii 1 An Educational Way of Thinking? 1 2 Late-Modern Instrumental Approach to Education 17 3 Analysis of Instrumentalization 47 4 From Social Servant to Agent for Humanity: An Adventurous Education 77 5 Hermeneutic Structure: Meaning Making as an Educational Goal 125 6 An Educational Goal of Examining the Meaning of Being Human 159 7 Toward a Sovereign Education 171 8 Implications for Selected Areas 203 9 Conclusion: From Vision to Reality 221 Index 233 Preface There are almost no real adventures left in our lives. Far from adventures created by Disney or Pixar producers and artists—in which we participate only as listeners and viewers—most events we consider as having adventur- ous features are actually planned in detail and involve careful suspension of the busy flow of our daily lives. Imagine a vacation, for example; people talk about going on an adventure, but in reality, they know exactly where they are going, their hotel is booked, they have read and learned about the desti- nation (for some, including the best shopping places), and perhaps they have a tour guide booked to visit popular attractions and partake in ‘canned’ adventures such as white water rafting or zip lining. Moreover, tourists may become disappointed when the reality they encounter is different from what they expect. Going to school, on the other hand, might seem the furthest one can possibly get from an adventure; after all, being in school is not just planned in time and space, but it is also mostly perceived as an unpleasant experience for students because they are expected to master things they are not necessarily interested in or care about. Many teachers, as well as school administrators, hardly find the enterprise to be an escapade but rather—and more likely in these times of neoliberal agendas and policies—a stressful and dissatisfying experience. Nevertheless, in this book, I propose to per- ceive K–12 education as an adventurous endeavor that is exciting both to students and educators. This adventurous character is founded on being human and is articulated through meaning making that seeks to imagine alternative social arrangements and alternative ways of life. K–12 education is logistically and administratively a huge and complex social endeavor. In terms of employment, for example, the public education system is one of the biggest employers and probably the most populated sys- tem in society.1 Whether students like it or not, schools constitute a signifi- cant part of their life; schools are sites where they spend significant portion (if not most) of their weekday waking hours and where they are under con- stant supervision and influence of adults and peers. K–12 education is also a public good that attracts broad interest; what students undergo and the impact on them is of interest not just to them and their parents (or guard- ians) but also to every person who has any interest in the young as young or
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