Much educational utopianism revolves around the "real versus blueprint utopia" dichotomy and the prescriptive normativity that utopian education involves. In this paper, I suggest that the "real and blueprint" distinction should not be dichotomized and that a richer set of normativities, apart from prescription, should operate…

This paper engages with Italo Calvino's lecture on Visibility, included in his last--and testamentary--volume "Six Memos," by understanding it in an educational and pedagogical key. While the question of pedagogy is expressly addressed by Calvino himself in his lecture, the interpretation here provided is not merely an application of his…

In his book "World-Centred Education," Biesta discusses two themes fundamental for the emergence of subjectivity as a desirable existential humane state of being and for an education that aims to achieve it. The first theme is about freedom and the importance of distancing education and teaching from any act of objectifying students. The…

We propose a semiotic framework to underpin a posthumanist philosophy of education, as contrasted to technological determinism. A recent approach to educational processes as semiotic phenomena lends itself as a philosophy to understand the current interplay between education and technology. This view is aligned with the transhumanist movement to…

Through readings of Jacques Derrida's "Of Grammatology" and 'The Age of Hegel', attention is given to two of the problematic types of relationships that philosophy can have with education (exemplified through Derrida's readings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and G.W.F. Hegel). These engagements, alongside a reading of 'The Antinomies of the…

The recent appearance of generative artificial intelligence (AI) platforms has been seen by many as disruptive for education. In this paper I attempt to locate the source of tension between educational goals and new information technologies including AI. I argue that this tension arises from new conceptions of epistemic agency that are…

The essay draws on Michel Serres' writings on education in order to derive from them a general theory. Though the polyglot philosopher never presented his philosophy of education as a formal system, it was a lifelong concern that he addressed from the perspectives of mathematics and physics; literature and myth; art and aesthetics; justice and the…

Two recent lines of inquiry that have emerged in educational philosophy and research are the turn to affect theory and the call for decolonising education. Although there have been some efforts to bring these two lines of inquiry together and inform educational philosophy and research, there is still important conceptual work to be done,…

Calvino's apology of multiplicity starts with the exposure, revealed by his take on typically modern novels, of some fundamental contradictions underlaying the modern quest for knowledge, which are definitely not alien to our day education. Then, when Calvino goes on to explore how twentieth century literature transcended those difficulties, he…

Should education serve external goals, or should it be non-instrumental? In this paper, I recognize a tension between these two views with respect to the question of the end and the means in education, and I suggest conceptual and practical ways to handle this tension. The paper comprises two parts: the first part discusses the problem, and the…

This article is part of a special issue which builds on Italo Calvino's memos for the next millennium. More specifically, this paper gives an educational reading of the quality of exactitude. This quality is at the heart of what education is all about, viz. learning to give an adequate response to what things in the world demand of us -- students…

Dealing with conflicts seems to be a great challenge in society today. But not only in society. Higher education displays an air of resoluteness with certainty and security that disguises the conflicts and the fear of conflicts in a substantial number of subjects. If not in a state of denial, higher education avoids taking up conflicts over…

The phrase 'teaching and learning' has essentially replaced the word 'teaching' in educational discourse. The linguistic shift occurred as part of a wider movement in the 1980s and 1990s to give greater attention to learning in the educational process, and the phrase served a sloganistic function. With the learning paradigm now largely…

The information explosion and digital modes of learning often combine to inform the quest for the best ways of transforming information in digital form for pedagogical purposes. This quest has become more urgent and pervasive with the 'turn' to online learning in the context of COVID-19. This can result in linear, asynchronous, transmission-based…

This paper explores how touch is key to understanding education--not as an achievement or an instrument of acquisition, but as a process through which one becomes a subject capable of both living and leading a life that matters for ourselves and others. As a process, it is concerned with how we encounter things and others in the world and not…