Reason and Dialogue in Education

Rupert Wegerif

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511499937.017

14 - Reason and Dialogue in Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 August 2009

Edited by

Ed Elbers and

Rupert Wegerif: Affiliation:
School of Education, University of Exeter, United Kingdom; formerly at the Centre for Language and Communications, Faculty of Education and Language Studies, Open University, United Kingdom
Bert van Oers: Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Wim Wardekker: Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Ed Elbers: Affiliation:
Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
René van der Veer: Affiliation:
Universiteit Leiden

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Summary

A concern with reason has always been at the heart of European educational theory. For the ancient Greeks, reason was considered the defining characteristic of humanity. Both Aristotle and Plato argued that the promotion of reason should be a central aim of education. The movement for universal education that began in eighteenth-century France was at least in part inspired by the belief that education for all would expand the influence of reason in society and therefore fuel social progress. Harvey Siegel (1997) argues that thinking skills programmes are a continuation of this Enlightenment project to promote reason by means of education. Some “postmodernist” thinkers, such as Lyotard and Foucault, have strongly criticised this Enlightenment project. However most postmodern theory applied to education, when examined closely, does not involve a rejection of the ideal of reason so much as a redefinition of reason in terms of local dialogues (e.g., Parker, 1997). The important question is not so much, should education promote reason but, rather, which model of reason should it promote. In this chapter I tentatively put forward the suggestion that the idea of “dialogue across difference” (Burbules, 1993) offers a coherent model of reason that could serve as an ideal within education.

THE DIALOGIC TURN

Recently there has been an increasing number of studies in education and psychology informed by dialogical rather than monological theoretical assumptions.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Transformation of Learning
Advances in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory
, pp. 273 - 286

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499937.017 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

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14 - Reason and Dialogue in Education

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