Description:
The 'postmodern condition, ' in which instrumentalism usurps all other considerations, has produced a kind of intellectual paralysis in the world of education. It is difficult to take issue with such shibboleths of our time as 'standards', 'effectiveness' or 'quality', or the transmission of a nation's 'heritage', yet many people sense that important values are being lost as the education systems of the developed world increasingly devote themselves to managerialism and 'performativity', the quest for efficiency and effectiveness that can be quantified.
This book shows how a sustained and telling critique of current educational policy and practice can be developed from the writings of such postmodern thinkers as Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault, and Lacan. These thinkers show us new directions, making what has become over-familiar in education seem strange, and they shake us out of established ways of thinking and writing. The book reveals how very different certain aspects of education--for instance, literacy, moral education (in the home as well as the school), curriculum policy and planning--look in the light of these ideas. The book makes many of the central ideas of postmodern theory accessible by demonstrating their relevance to familiar aspects of the practice of education.Brief description: PAUL STANDISH is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.
Review Quotes: "This sharply written book, edited by Blake, argues that a discerible postmodern perspective, most generally associated with Derrida, Foucault, Lacan, and Lyotard, remains relevant to the examination of contemporary educational matters...They are particularly trenchant in articulating the theoretical legacy of critiques on structuralism and foundationalism...It is difficult to imagine a more lucid analysis, and this collaborative effort may well serve as a primer for advanced undergraduate students looking to venture into this terrain....Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy of education courses."-Choice