Toward an Imperfect Education: Facing Humanity, Rethinking Cosmopolitanism

178 Pages·2009·1.511 MB·English

by  Sharon Todd

Toward an Imperfect Education
Interventions: Education, Philosophy & Culture
Michael A. Peters & Colin Lankshear, Series Editors

Education, Globalization, and the State in the Age of Terrorism
edited by Michael A. Peters (2005)

Beyond Learning: Democratic Education for a Human Future
by Gert J. J. Biesta (2006)

Democracy, Ethics, and Education: A Thin Communitarian
Approach
by Mark Olssen (2007)

Toward an Imperfect Education: Facing Humanity, Rethinking
Cosmopolitanism
by Sharon Todd (2009)
Toward an Imperfect Education
Facing Humanity, Rethinking
Cosmopolitanism
Sharon Todd
First published 2009 by Paradigm Publishers
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Todd, Sharon, 1962–
Toward an imperfect education : facing humanity, rethinking cosmopolitanism / Sharon Todd.
p. cm. — (Interventions : education, philosophy, and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59451-621-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-59451-622-1 (paperback : alk. paper)
1. Education—Social aspects. 2. Cosmopolitanism. I. Title.
LC191.T54 2008
306.43—dc22
2008028754
ISBN13: 978-1-59451-621-4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-1-59451-622-1 (pbk)
Designed and typeset by Straight Creek Bookmakers.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii

Prologue Education and an Imperfect Garden 1

Chapter 1 Facing Humanity: Crisis and Inevitability 7

Chapter 2 Rethinking Cosmopolitanism Along the Fault Lines of
a Divided Modernity 23

Chapter 3 Not Just for Myself: Questioning the Subject of
Human Rights 51

Chapter 4 Promoting a Just Education: Dilemmas of Rights,
Freedom, and Justice 66

Chapter 5 Whose Rights? Whose Freedom? 78

Chapter 6 Educating Beyond Consensus: Facing Cross-Cultural
Conflict as Radical Democratic Possibility 98

Chapter 7 Educating the Sexed Citizen: Irigaray and the
Promise of a Humanity That Is Yet to Come 117

Chapter 8 Teachers Judging Without Scripts, or
Thinking Cosmopolitan 138

Epilogue Toward an Imperfect Education 152

References 156

Index 165

About the Author 169
v
Page Intentionally Left Blank
Acknowledgments
This book has been conceived at a juncture of my own grappling with upheavals
of identity, place, and language. In some respects, my recent move to a new
country, and all that such relocation entails, has brought home to me the urgency
of thinking through the borders of belonging and what kind of demands we
make on ourselves and others to make a new place in the world. I have benefited
enormously from conversations with colleagues and students, friends and fam-
ily, which have challenged my own thinking across borders. In particular, I
would like to thank the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of
Canada under whose auspices I conducted research into human rights education
and social justice, some of which is reflected in chapters 3, 4, and 5. In this con-
nection, I extend my gratitude specifically to Sharon Sliwinski and Trent Davis,
whose work as researchers on the project has proved invaluable to my discus-
sion here. I also am indebted to the Swedish National Research Council whose
funding for the project “Gendering the Cosmopolitan Ethic: A Feminist Inquiry
into Intercultural and Human Rights Issues in Education” enabled me to under-
take a large portion of the writing. In particular, I wish to thank Lovisa Bergdahl
for her thoughtfulness and astute conversations about the ongoing complexities
of cosmopolitanism, feminism, and cultural and religious diversity.
Without the time spent at University of Glasgow in the fall of 2007, this
book would not have seen the light of day. I particularly wish to acknowledge
the hospitality afforded me by Jim Conroy, Penny Enslin, and Bob Davis. It was
the kind of sojourn that has left me with a desire to return. I also extend my
thanks to Michael Peters for inviting me to contribute to his and Colin Lank-
shear’s series, to my first editor, Beth Davis, whose attentiveness and under-
standing went beyond the call of duty and to Carol Smith whose smooth edito-
rial support in the final stages of production I counted on to get me through
some difficult weeks.
Many parts of this book have been the subject of seminars, conference pres-
entations, and lectures in various venues. But it is the fine collegiality of our
Post-structural Studies group (DICE) at Stockholm University, which has been
of tremendous intellectual support and source of creativity. For their comments
on various chapters I thank Lovisa Bergdahl, Klara Dolk, Silvia Edling, Bodil
Halvars-Franzén, Karin Hultman, Elisabet Langmann, Hillevi Lenz-Taguchi,
Margaret Obondo, Anna Palmer, and Cathrine Ryther. Finally, to Carl Anders,
my colleague and partner—with love and gratitude.
Parts of various chapters have been published previously and are reworked
here with kind permission from the publishers:
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Chapter 4 appeared as “Promoting a Just Education: Dilemmas of Rights,
Freedom and Justice” in Educational Philosophy and Theory 39, no. 3 (2007):
592–603.
Chapter 8 appeared as “Teachers Judging without Scripts, or Thinking
Cosmopolitan” in Ethics and Education 2, no. 3 (2007): 25–38.
Parts of chapters 2 and 5 have drawn on “Ambiguities of Cosmopolitanism:
Difference, Gender and the Right to Education.” In Education in the Era of
Globalization, ed. Klas Roth and Ilan Gur Ze’ev. 67–84. Dordrecht: Springer,
2007.
Parts of chapter 6 were drawn from an article coauthored with Carl Anders
Säfström, “Democracy, Education and Conflict: Rethinking Respect and the
Place of the Ethical” Journal of Educational Controversy 3 (1: 2008):
http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/.
Prologue
Education and an Imperfect
Garden
The humanist enterprise could never bring itself to a halt. It rejects the dream of
a paradise on earth, which would establish a definitive order. It envisages men
in their current imperfection and does not imagine that this state of things can
change; it accepts, with Montaigne, the idea that their garden remains forever
imperfect.
Tzvetan Todorov, Imperfect Garden

Todorov (2002), in his conversation with the legacy of French humanism, re-
minds us of a crucial insight: that human beings are imperfect. A rather simple
thought that would seem to be so self-evident that one could legitimately ques-
tion whether a sustained discussion on the topic is indeed even warranted. After
all, we live with our imperfections daily, in petty envies, sharp words and indif-
ference to others. On a larger scale, of course, we are reminded of the great
heights to which such imperfection can accede: civil breakdown, enforced pov-
erty, racist hatred, and the sheer murderous violence which threatens to erupt on
streets, in schools, and at work. Such imperfection, it seems to me, has been the
reason why education has taken upon itself various projects that focus on social
justice and more peaceful forms of coexistence. For it is because of our imper-
fection that we seem to need the civilizing force that education appears to offer.
To be taught virtuous habits of mind, to develop our capacities for concern for
others, to learn how to become subjects that can make the world a better place to
live in, are all commonsensical renderings of what education can do for us. Edu-
cation tenders the hope that we can be rescued from the bed of destruction.
Yet, we lie in the bed we made for ourselves. No one knew this better than
Nietzsche, perhaps, who insisted on our “all too human” propensity for creating
the very conditions of life which we continually seek to overcome. I realize that
in saying this I seem to be dismissing the ways individuals do not usually choose
to live in violence or strife, that such conditions are inflicted upon them, with
little regard for their integrity as persons. However, my point is to suggest here
that there is something unsettlingly human about that violence which we live
with—albeit against our will.
1