Re-politicizing the scholastic: school and schoolchildren between politicization and de-politicization

This paper addresses the question 'what is school?', and argues that the answer to this question has an essential political dimension. I focus on two very different attempts to characterize school - Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society and Jan Masschelein and Maarten Simons's In Def...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEthics and education Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 117 - 130
Main Author Snir, Itay
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 03.05.2016
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Attendance
Children
deschooling
education
Educational Philosophy
Educational Theories
Educational theory
Foreign Countries
Ideology
Israel
Phenomenology
political subjectivity
Politics
Politics of Education
Privatization
Role of Education
School
Schools
Israel
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Summary:This paper addresses the question 'what is school?', and argues that the answer to this question has an essential political dimension. I focus on two very different attempts to characterize school - Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society and Jan Masschelein and Maarten Simons's In Defence of the School - and demonstrate that both texts miss the political potential which is inherent in school. The two texts are analyzed along two relational axes: relations between school and society, and relations between children and political subjects. Illich rejects children's de-politicization while accepting the assumption that school operates according to a similar logic as society in general. Masschelein and Simons, on the other hand, advocate a separation between school and society, but also accept the separation of children from politics. I aim to integrate Illich's analytical categories into Masschelein and Simons' discussion, in order to mark important directions for political struggles both over and within school.
ISSN:1744-9642
1744-9650
DOI:10.1080/17449642.2016.1160522