When I met you in the laundromat
You said, ‘be cool’
I said, ‘I can't do that
No, no, no’
Tocotronic – 22 No
Critical theory is about the paradox of reason within an unreasonable, brutish and random history. Methodologically, critical theory operates as an instrument to find the traces of … 
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reply: undinge, coffee cup lids, and reinhabiting spaces: some notes on a register of a (post-)critical philosophical life
If being asked to briefly recap what the analyses in this issue on post-critique have to say about critique, a partial account of it would include what I sensed to be the presentation of critique as an Unding.[1. The title is inspired by one of the later works of Stanley Cavell, Cities of Words. …
reply: the alleged (de)politicization problem of post-critical pedagogy reconsidered
Having co-authored the Manifesto for a Post-Critical Pedagogy (Hodgson et al., 2017) with Joris Vlieghe and Piotr Zamojski, Naomi Hodgson responds to subsequent theory developments regarding the relationship between education and politics (Vlieghe & Zamojski, 2019; 2020). Hodgson’s critique is …
reply: notes on post-critique
It is such a treat to read a collection of brilliant essays that takes up ‘post-critique’ inspired by Hodgson et al.’s (2017), Manifesto for a Post-critical Pedagogy in the ninth issue of on_education (2020). Latour’s (2004) influential piece: Has critique run out of steam? as well as the work of …
reply: transformation and participation – a reply to Niebert and Van Dijk
Niebert (2019) argues against sustainability education and points out that a higher amount of political education is the instrument to realise a change towards more sustainability. He concludes that steps towards sustainability have always been moderated by political and economic decisions. In order …
reply: the critical potential of learning about money: a response to donald gillies
According to Donald Gillies’ (2019) argument, the EU’s education policy focuses on the “monomanical mission of money-making” (p. 3) since the Lisbon Strategy. Economic growth is the primacy and ultimate purpose of European education policy, despite the influence of other educational goals, such as …
Reply to Nina Hood’s ‘Manifestations of Autonomy and Control in a Devolved Schooling System: The Case of New Zealand’
In ‘Manifestations of Autonomy and Control in a Devolved Schooling System: The Case of New Zealand’, Nina Hood explores tensions and contradictions that have characterised the education system in New Zealand showing how these affect teachers’ control and autonomy. Much has been written in relation …
Reply: Response to Kwok Kuen Tsang’s ‘Ideological Disempowerment of Teachers’
Kwok Kuen Tsang argues that teachers are emotionally negatively impacted by ideological disempowerment. Ideological disempowerment goes beyond technical disempowerment, which is related to deskilling work, as educational ideologies reflected in an institution can alienate teachers’ sense of the …
reply: playing the long game: rethinking education for sustainability: a reply to Su and Su and Niebert
Both Su and Su (2019) and Niebert (2019) in this issue have argued against sustainability education.[1. Different terms are used, such as environmental education, sustainability education, education about sustainability, and education for sustainability. For simplicity and consistency reasons I used …
reply: a response to cultivating reasonableness in future citizens by elizabeth edenberg
In “Cultivating Reasonableness in Future Citizens,” Edenberg (2018) posits that developing the Rawlsian conception of “reasonableness” (p. 2) in students has the power to eventually “cultivate a citizenry that has robust respect for all people as free and equal” (p. 2) and to encourage discussion …
reply: education and politics: a reply to Su and Su
In their article, “Why solving intergenerational injustice through education does not work,” Hanno Su and Shia Su present at least two claims. The first claim is that the fact of climate change refutes the “progressive” bias in modern educational thought and shifts the task of education away from …
reply: anthropocentrism, education and the (post-)anthropocene
One of the greatest challenges – if not the greatest – facing humankind at the beginning of the 21st century is arguably the state of our planet and, coupled with this, our relationship with the natural environment. Most, if not all, other concerns – however significant – are necessarily secondary …
reply: towards “collectively rethinking ourselves”: a response to eric lybeck
The primary purpose of this reply is to build on Lybeck’s insights, picking up in particular his suggestion that we must “collectively rethink ourselves”. However, in order to do this, I need to establish a more controversial narrative of academia’s culpability in preventing social change, which I …
reply: three arguments why post- and transhumanism need to be viewed from a long-term historical perspective: a commentary on issue no. 2
This reply to the second issue of On Education asks whether the current debate on post- and transhumanism does not merely reflect and repeat cultural patterns of the human-machine relationship. My question is based on the observation that frequently, in the context of technology-related trends or …
reply: posthumanism = posteducation: a reply to siân bayne
I have long been an interested observer of the emergence and development of posthuman, actor-network and socio-material approaches to education and educational technology in the UK and elsewhere. I have seen friends and colleagues whom I respect devote a great deal of their time and effort to these …
reply: state-run schools reconsidered: a reply to merry
In this reply, I consider some major points of Michael Merry’s article, “Citizenship, Structural Inequality, and the Political Elite.” Specifically, I discuss how his distinction between civic education and political education raises an important question about the relationship of state-run …
reply: The Value of Liberal Theories of Citizenship Education: A Response to Merry
In his article ”Citizenship, Structural Inequality and The Political Elite”, Michael Merry criticizes liberal theories of citizenship education in relation to the political landscape of contemporary European democracies. His critique is based on two primary arguments: first, according to Merry, …
reply: why we owe it to students to take partisan stands: a response to levinson and reid
In their article “The Paradox of Partisanship,” Meira Levinson and Ellis Reid take up the daunting issue of teaching controversial issues. Much has been said on the topic in recent years and most of what has been said has focused on the question of what exactly constitutes a controversial issue.[1. …
reply: response to michael merry´s ‘citizenship, structural inequality and the political elite’
Michael Merry makes some insightful criticisms of Citizenship Education (CE) and its claims to promote deliberative reasoning and critical thinking which are associated with liberal democracies. However, he extends the scope of his criticism to include schooling and education in general. While I …
reply: a brief comment on the interpretation of humboldt
Johannes Giesinger writes:
„A radical account of the independence of education was developed by Wilhelm von Humboldt (1980). In an early work on the outlines of the liberal state, Humboldt claimed that education should not be under state control. He thought that the state would inevitably use the …