ERIC Number: EJ972114
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Aug
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
Reference Count: 72
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1857
Judging Teachers: Foucault, Governance and Agency during Education Reforms
Stickney, Jeff A.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, v44 n6 p649-662 Aug 2012
Over a decade after publication of "Thinking Again: Education After Postmodernism" (1998) contention still emerges among Foucaultians over whether discursively made-up things really exist, and whether removal of the constituent subject leaves room for agency within techniques of caring for the self. That these questions are kept alive shows that some readers have not rethought Foucault, finding what possibly comes after postmodernism. Using Wittgenstein to "reciprocally illuminate" Foucault (after Tully and Marshall), I open teacher inspection and reforms to problematization, as relations to bedrock rules governing games of truth. "How, upon entering classrooms, do inspectors know "teaching" is taking place and not crazy and fuzzy things in its name?" Taking up Hirst's vexing question, I move beyond liberal-analytic concept-mapping and neo-liberal individualism to more fully assay the political ground for judging teaching practices through genealogy. Epistemological, political and ethical concerns intersect as we approach the problem through Foucault's three axes of an historical-ontology of the present: knowledge(s), power relations, and arts of the self. Drawing on recent "Governmentality Studies in Education" (Peters "et al.", 2009), we aver the impasses of postmodern relativism while finding limited ranges of agency along each axis, as teachers practice freedoms by critiquing and renegotiating rules.
Descriptors: Caring, Postmodernism, Educational Change, Governance, Teaching Methods, Educational Philosophy, Ethics, Politics of Education, Educational Practices, Genealogy, Power Structure, Self Concept, Teacher Attitudes, Criticism
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A

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