Critical Pedagogy, Culture, and the Question of Universals: Another Forgotten Connection?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Culture and Upbringing: Introducing a 20th-Century Classic to Theory and Practice

Abstract

The publication of the English translation of a book that originally came out in the early 1980s either signifies that the book is a classic, or that the English speaking world is very slow in catching up with developments happening in other languages and traditions. Perhaps both are true. The book was an important and rather surprising addition to an already impressive and influential line of scholarly work published by Mollenhauer from the late 1950s onwards, and in that sense deserves to be seen as a classic (its translation in a number of other languages attests to this). The fact that it took so long for any of Mollenhauer's texts to become available in English – and it is important to stress that still very little of German theory and philosophy of education is available in English today – indicates the ongoing gap between two important but significantly traditions of educational scholarship and research (e.g., see: Gundem & Hopmann 1998; Biesta 2011). In this context Mollenhauer's book has interesting "bridging potential." Rather than engaging in an argument about education with other scholars from his own tradition, he (re)turns to what we might call the phenomenon of education by exploring a number of its "constants" in a much more direct, accessible and inviting way, using sources from literature, art, history, anthropology, and education. By looking at the phenomenon of education through the lens of culture he seeks to highlight some of the more enduring aspects of education – aspects that may pose themselves in any situation where the old and the new generation meet. While for this reason Mollenhauer's book is able to speak across particular disciplinary and linguistic borders, it also poses a problem. The problem partly can be phrased in a theoretical way, and has to do with the question whether in education there are indeed universals that appear across time, space and culture. Yet what makes the question particularly significant is that in his earlier writings Mollenhauer contributed actively and explicitly to the development of a critical approach to educational thought and practice, precisely in response to the a-political universalism of the tradition of educational scholarship that had dominated the education scene in Germany well up to the Second World War. While some have therefore criticized Mollenhauer for giving up his critical credentials, I wish, in my contribution, explore this issue more "slowly" by asking whether the universal "tone" of the book is indeed in contradiction with what critical approaches to educational thought and practice seek to achieve, or whether it is precisely here that Mollenhauer's book shows us another 'forgotten connection' – one that may actually be quite crucial for contemporary discussions about critical pedagogies and their future.

References

Biesta, G.J.J. (2011). Disciplines and theory in the academic study of education: A Comparative Analysis of the Anglo-American and Continental Construction of the Field. Pedagogy, Culture and Society 19(2), 175-192.

Gundem, B.B. & Hopmann, S. 1998. Didaktik and/or curriculum. An international dialogue. New York: Peter Lang.

Author

• Gert J. Biesta, Brunel University London