Biesta, Gert
(2018)
What is the Educational
Task? Arousing the Desire
for Wanting to Exist in the
World in a Grown-up Way.
Pedagogía y Saberes, 50.
pp. 51-61.
ISSN 0121-2494
Abstract
Discussions about education often focus on the purposes that should be achieved or the outcomes that should
be produced. In this paper I approach the question of the purpose of education differently, by asking what the
work of teachers and other educators should focus. The answer I propose is that this work is about arousing the
desire in children and young people for wanting to exist in the world in what I refer to as a “grown-up” way. I
explain my use of the idea of “grown-up-ness,” where I argue that we should not think of this as the outcome of
a developmental trajectory but as a way in which human beings can try to exist in and with the world. This suggests, as I explain, that central to the work of education is the interruption of ways in which children and young
people are entirely self-centred and self-focused, thus turning them towards the world in which their existence
as grown-up subjects can only take place. Education that is focused on this has a task to provide time, space and
curricular forms through which children and young people can work “on” their grown-up-ness. And education
needs to provide sustenance so that children and young people can be supported and nourished in their task of
trying to exist in a grown-up way.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Additional Information: |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en . Cite as: BIESTA, Gert. What is the Educational Task? Arousing the Desire for Wanting to Exist in the World in a Grown-up Way. Pedagogía y Saberes [online]. 2019, n.50, pp.51-61. ISSN 0121-2494. |
| Keywords: |
education; teaching; grown-up-ness; egocentrism; interruption; curriculum; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Education |
| Item ID: |
13163 |
| Depositing User: |
Gert Biesta
|
| Date Deposited: |
05 Aug 2020 11:48 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Pedagogía y Saberes |
| Publisher: |
Universidad Pedagógica Nacional |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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