Beyond perfection: Reclaiming death in and for education
In associating death with education, this paper explores how the death register, and in particular the denial of death, is reflected in the treatment of contemporary education, aiming to construct the future as an object of knowledge for providing certainty and authority. Through a reading of Gert B...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Liverpool John Moores University
2022-03-01
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| Series: | PRISM |
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| Online Access: | https://openjournals.ljmu.ac.uk/index.php/prism/article/view/413/381 |
| _version_ | 1818006590819663872 |
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| author | Juliette Clara Bertoldo |
| author_facet | Juliette Clara Bertoldo |
| author_sort | Juliette Clara Bertoldo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In associating death with education, this paper explores how the death register, and in particular the denial of death, is reflected in the treatment of contemporary education, aiming to construct the future as an object of knowledge for providing certainty and authority. Through a reading of Gert Biesta’s theoretical considerations, I discuss how educational systems scientifically explained and measured are created to be fixed (or healed), in pursuit of a type of education as a social apparatus to enable or reach for a perfect future. I argue however, that such medical-like treatment runs the risk of negating the complex, relational, and fragile qualities of educational life. Into the second part, I offer new perspectives on death and loss to be imagined as occasions for emancipation within pedagogical encounters between subjects; giving space for unpredictability, riskiness, ambiguity, and messiness to occur. My overall contention is that when desires of immortality overpower an appreciation of the finitude and fragility of all things, a part of life is denied. When education is not confronted with important and challenging questions on its purposes, this should be considered dangerous or even lethal for a safe system to thrive; we miss out on what is educational in education, we miss an encounter with reality. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T05:03:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f53e41dbabc34d1da691ee3edefb77af |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2514-5347 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T05:03:13Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | Liverpool John Moores University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PRISM |
| spelling | doaj.art-f53e41dbabc34d1da691ee3edefb77af2022-12-22T02:10:51ZengLiverpool John Moores UniversityPRISM2514-53472022-03-01411528https://doi.org/10.24377/prism.ljmu.0401212Beyond perfection: Reclaiming death in and for educationJuliette Clara Bertoldo0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2013-9742School of Education/Education Department, Maynooth University, Maynooth, IrelandIn associating death with education, this paper explores how the death register, and in particular the denial of death, is reflected in the treatment of contemporary education, aiming to construct the future as an object of knowledge for providing certainty and authority. Through a reading of Gert Biesta’s theoretical considerations, I discuss how educational systems scientifically explained and measured are created to be fixed (or healed), in pursuit of a type of education as a social apparatus to enable or reach for a perfect future. I argue however, that such medical-like treatment runs the risk of negating the complex, relational, and fragile qualities of educational life. Into the second part, I offer new perspectives on death and loss to be imagined as occasions for emancipation within pedagogical encounters between subjects; giving space for unpredictability, riskiness, ambiguity, and messiness to occur. My overall contention is that when desires of immortality overpower an appreciation of the finitude and fragility of all things, a part of life is denied. When education is not confronted with important and challenging questions on its purposes, this should be considered dangerous or even lethal for a safe system to thrive; we miss out on what is educational in education, we miss an encounter with reality.https://openjournals.ljmu.ac.uk/index.php/prism/article/view/413/381purposes of educationdeathlosssubjectificationstudent-teacher relation |
| spellingShingle | Juliette Clara Bertoldo Beyond perfection: Reclaiming death in and for education PRISM purposes of education death loss subjectification student-teacher relation |
| title | Beyond perfection: Reclaiming death in and for education |
| title_full | Beyond perfection: Reclaiming death in and for education |
| title_fullStr | Beyond perfection: Reclaiming death in and for education |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond perfection: Reclaiming death in and for education |
| title_short | Beyond perfection: Reclaiming death in and for education |
| title_sort | beyond perfection reclaiming death in and for education |
| topic | purposes of education death loss subjectification student-teacher relation |
| url | https://openjournals.ljmu.ac.uk/index.php/prism/article/view/413/381 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT julietteclarabertoldo beyondperfectionreclaimingdeathinandforeducation |