LIBERTARIAN LEARNING

Specific Foundation / Core

The course is also offered to exchange programme students.

In this module the students will practice in tracing, researching and presenting particular issues/questions in the field of Libertarian Learning

The organization of practices concerning education and learning keeps step with rich reflections and practical initiatives aiming in challenging and improving them. Even a fast look on the sources makes clear that the reflections and initiatives on libertarian learning in the last 200 or so years are grounded and simultaneously are grounding two logically discrete and fundamental pillars. The “issue of power/liberty” in learning is, as it seems, always double based, has a double reference: 1. Power before and after learning – referring to the exclusion from and the access to knowledge, dealing with the distributions of knowledge into society and posing the simple/difficult question: which knowledge and for who? 2. Liberty and coercion during and via the learning practices “Libertarian Learning” aims with these two interwoven pillars to the arsis, the cancelation of the historical and geographical concrete hindrances for learning posed upon subjects, precluding them from societal produced wealth (here: knowledge – as being the “object” of learning/education). The two pillars of Libertarian Learning do not refer only to the process, but also to the content of learning. The attempt to nullify the hindrances includes thus also the – for us unfortunately self-understanding – segregation between content and process of learning, which is a major lever in hindering subjects learning. The theoretical and practical initiatives addressing the issue of power (and dominance) in learning are thus treating both: content and learning. “Power” is not some – external – element for the integrative educational process which influences negatively or ex post the success of learning. “Power” is a constitutive moment in the core of every organized educative process/practice. The core of society’s demands from learning is itself comprised out of a contradictory unit(y). The module aims in creating space for discovering, researching, discussing, studying and presenting particular theoretical or/and practical initiatives and reflections referring to a) persons, b) issues, c) concrete initiatives/operations of Libertarian Learning in the world. Because of the international character of the material we will have to use all available language skills for discovering and studying the different sources.

Libertarian Learning, power, schooling,

23-02-2020