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Positions within the educational field: the Utopian, the `Bildung` anarchist, the Technocrat and the Market fundamentalist

Positions within the educational field: the Utopian, the `Bildung` anarchist, the Technocrat and the Market fundamentalist

It is possible to combine two fundamental dimensions in order to describe a phenomenon. Such a combination yields four types of the phenomenon. The Swedish scholar Svante Beckman e.g. combined the two dimensions a) relation to the outside world (governed from within/governed from outside) and b) level of hierarchy (high/egalitarian) in order to characterize four (ideal) types of Universities: The Temple (governed from inside, high hierarchy), the Oasis (governed from inside, egalitarian), the factory (governed from outside/high hierarchy) and the bazaar (governed from outside/egalitarian).

I will explain below how I arrived at the four types of positions in the educational field mentioned in the heading above.

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The first dimension – The meaning of education

When the meaning of education is discussed some people focus on knowledge acquisition. Such knowledge is considered to be formulated a priori and teachers and researchers should fine the best methods in order for learners to reach the predefined knowledge goals. The acquisition of knowledge is thus seen as the dominating purpose of education.

On the other hand, there is a view with ancient roots that education involves much more than the acquisition of knowledge. This ultimate goal of education has been labelled as Paideia in ancient Greece and as Humanitas in Rome. I will use the German word “Bildung” in order to characterize this position regarding the meaning of education. To put it very simply, “Bildung” means that education strives to develop the whole person, not least his/her moral virtues. Moreover, the outcome of education cannot be stipulated in advance, the learner has to find his/her own way through the landscapes of knowledge.

We can understand this first dimension as an opposition between the poles of humanism and instrumentalism.

 

The second dimension – Trust in a public educational system

Schools are the societal institution that has the responsibility for basic education. My second dimension concerns the trust than one puts into a public educational system,. This dimension varies between high and low. Even if many people are critical as regards the functioning of schools there is a tremendous difference between those who believe that such problems can be solved within the present frames and those that are sceptical that the present public school system should continue to exist.

Thus, there are thus those that are fundamentally critical towards the possibilities of a public school system and view schooling as an expression of societal coercion and/or as an institution that is used by the upper- and middle- classes in order to secure their power and privileges. To conclude, the second dimensions spans between those who have high trust in a common school system to those that lack such trust.

 

Two dimensions – four positions

In this way we have four positions. Those who believe that education should be centred around “Bildung” and that a public educational system could in principle be geared towards this end. The second position encompasses those who believe that a public schools system is fundamentally a constructive force and who want to focus on the transmission of predefined knowledge. In this way, the public school system will foster employable persons.

Then we have those who at heart are sceptical towards a common school system. Among these, we can discern between those that take their point of departure in “Bildung” but doubt that the public school system will ever be instrumental in realizing this idea. Finally, there are those that believe that a public school system hinders the acquisition of knowledge. Individuals should be educated with as little public influence as possible.

I choose to label the positions according to what I consider characterize typical representatives of the position. The Utopist (´Bildung`, strong trust in a public school system), the Technocrat (knowledge acquisition, trust in the system), The `Bildung´ anarchist (`Bildung`, low trust in the system) and the Market fundamentalist (knowledge acquisition; low trust).

The choice of the label ´Bildung` anarchist needs some further explanation. In this context, anarchism refers to the fact that this position involves a somewhat problematic relation to democracy since it has been decided that children have to attend schools and also that there are preformulated goals that pupils should achieve. “Anarchism” can also refer to the fact that it is something unruly in this position since it is not shown/displayed how “Bildung” can be realized.

It becomes important to consider the relations between the positions. The Utopian consider the Technocrats view of education to be barren. The `Bildung` anarchist believe that the Utopian partly share the instrumentalism of the Technocrat. And so on. There are of course varied positions within each position, there are e.g. Technocrats who open up for education that have a wider range of goals than knowledge acquisition and Utopians who are more sceptical of public education than others.

It is also possible to combine each position with a particular view regarding who the pupil should develop into. The Utopian want to educate a Citizen, the ´Bildung´anarchist a Critic, the Technocrat Employable individuals and the Market fundamentalist an Entrepreneur. This entrepreneur will work on a market with minimal governmental control.

It is, at least in Sweden, hard to find pure Market fundamentalists. Still market thinking has been very influential in the Swedish school system. The idea that individual choice is the primary value in the long run de-legitimizes a public school system. Why, the market fundamentalist asks, should the individual have to choose schools geared by the state?

 

A final word

Creating educational positions in this way of course simplifies matters. I believe that a “map” like this should mirror the most important aspects of the educational terrain and I hope it helps the reader to navigate in this terrain. But of course one could proceed in other directions, choosing other and more dimensions. However, I hope I have evoked the readers´ interest to pursue explorations of the educational terrain further.

 

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