Education enframed and "real"

pp. 31-46

in: Steven Hodge, Martin Heidegger, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

Heidegger's philosophy abounds with implications for education. He addressed a number of perennial concerns of education theory, such as the nature of human being, of our intellectual traditions and of the social world. He made direct contributions to educational thought too. For instance, he worked toward a program of higher education reform that reflected his theory of the relationships between Being and the academic disciplines. This chapter spells out key implications of his philosophy for education and considers some of his contributions to educational thought. Education scholars and researchers have analysed his ideas about education and have made a number of implications clear. The chapter discusses the research of scholars such as Noddings and more recent work by Peters and Thomson. These recent contributions draw attention to the threat to education posed by the dominant paradigm of instrumental, calculative thinking which Heidegger analysed and labelled "enframing." The chapter concludes with an attempt to clarify Heidegger's vision for a "real" education to overcome the spell of instrumental thought.