Loading...
Publication
The (Un)bearable educational lightness of common practices: On the use of urban spaces by school children
| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 172.72 KB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The present paper is about the author’s current research on children’s education
in urban contexts. It departs from the rising offer of programmes for school children in outof-
school contexts (e.g. museums, libraries, science centres). It asks what makes these
practices educational (and not just interesting, entertaining and/or audience building).
Based on Biesta (2006a, 2010) theory of education, the author frames and analyses
the educational characteristics of, and possibilities of articulating, in and out-of-school
educational practices. This paper aims at understanding if the occasional outing from
primary school premises promotes interruptions in the humanist foundations of school. In
order to analyse relations between different institutions and professionals (to be) engaged
in educational activities and programmes, No´voa (2002, 2009) essays will be brought to
the discussion, namely his conception of the ‘Public Space of Education’—as a space
where culture, education, arts, sports and leisure are shared responsibilities, and where
diverse institutions are networked aiming towards societal pluralism. I argue for the
possibility of using cities’ public spaces as contexts with a worldly quality to complexify
children’s education. Nevertheless, I draw attention to the unbearable educational lightness
that these practices may carry if they do not go beyond the praise of chance; as well as to
their unsustainable weight if they perpetually repeat school’s normal orders and add up
rational discourses.
Description
Keywords
Pedagogy of interruption Public space of education Children’s education Urban spaces
Citation
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 31(3), 289-302 Doi: 10.1007/s11217-012-9289-4
Publisher
Springer Netherlands