Conditions de l'Education

The consensus on the objectives and values of education has never been so broad: everyone agrees with the ideal of an education that would strive to be truly democratic. Yet the incertitude has never been as acute as it is now to the means to attain these objectives. Profound divisions have emerged amongst the professionals of the field. Some advocate the return to practices that have proved efficient in the past, others try to adapt existing theories and approaches to a new and confusing social reality. This book offers a radical rethinking of the link between democracy and education through a questioning of the conditions of education. For, if we all agree that the role of school is to transmit knowledges, we do not know what the word stands for. What does knowledge mean in a world that values all viewpoints equally? What is authority in a world that asserts that all individuals are equal? What does transmission of knowledge signify in a world characterized by immediacy and generation gaps? As long as these questions have not been asked and given at least a tentative answer, we will not know what education entails. Marcel Gauchet is convenor of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, and chief editor of the journal Débat. He is a specialist in political philosophy.Marie-Claude Blais is lecturer in education sciences at the university Rouen. She has published Au principe de la République, Le cas Renouvier and La solidarité (Gallimard, 2000).Dominique Ottavi is lecturer in education sciences at the university of Paris VIII. She has published, amongst other books, De Darwin à Piaget, pour une histoire de la psychologie de l'éducation (CNRS Editions, 2001).These three authors started their common reflection on education in Pour une philosophie politique de l'éducation. Six questions d'aujourd'hui, first published in 2002 (new edition in 'Pluriel').