Nietzsche’s New Dawn Educating students to strive for better in a dynamic professional world Henriëtta Joosten © 2015 Henriëtta Joosten All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author. Please do not hesitate to write if you would like to share material from this dissertation. For contact: see www.henriettajoosten.nl Cover design by Willem Joosten Cover illustration by Otie van Vloten Printed by CPI Wöhrmann, Enschede ISBN: 978-94-6203-949-0 NIETZSCHE’S NEW DAWN Educating students to strive for better in a dynamic professional world NIETZSCHES NIEUWE DAGERAAD Studenten leren streven naar beter in een dynamische beroepspraktijk Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam op gezag van de rector magnificus Prof.dr. H.A.P. Pols en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties. De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op donderdag 12 november 2015 om 11:30 uur door Henriëtta Joosten geboren te Lienden Promotiecommissie Promotoren: Prof.dr. L.M. Huijer Prof.dr. J. de Mul Overige leden: Prof.dr. G.J.J. Biesta Dr. H.A.F. Oosterling Prof.dr. D.J. de Ruyter CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .....................................................................................….7 ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................9 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................11 1. Professional higher education .............................................................................. 22 2. The need for A Nietzschean perspective on professional higher education......... 28 3. Nietzschean philosophers on contemporary higher education ............................. 36 4. Nietzsche’s educational philosophy..................................................................... 39 5. Five elements of striving for better ...................................................................... 41 6. Philosophical methodology.................................................................................. 43 7. Overview of the chapters ..................................................................................... 46 CHAPTER 1: UNCERTAINTY.................................................................................51 1. Today’s pedagogic dualism.................................................................................. 54 2. The Apollinian tendency to order......................................................................... 56 3. The Dionysian tendency to disorder..................................................................... 61 4. Interaction between the Apollinian and the Dionysian ........................................ 63 5. The Apollinian and Dionysian in professional higher education......................... 64 6. Uncertain? Sure! .................................................................................................. 69 CHAPTER 2: EXCELLENCE...................................................................................71 1. Self-transcendence, self-control and self-styling according to Nietzsche............ 74 2. Nietzsche’s pedagogical ideas.............................................................................. 79 3. A Nietzschean perspective on excellence in the twenty-first century.................. 83 4. Excellence for all: A vital perspective for professional higher education............ 87 5. Excellence for all! ................................................................................................ 89 CHAPTER 3: CRITICAL THINKING.....................................................................91 1. Nietzsche’s critical thinking................................................................................. 94 2. The importance of being embedded................................................................... 100 3. Teaching critical thinking requires active stimulation ....................................... 103 4. Levels of critical being....................................................................................... 108 5. A contemporary notion of critical thinking........................................................ 115 6. The art of an experimental ‘yes, but!’................................................................ 118 CHAPTER 4: FRIENDSHIP....................................................................................121 1. Plato’s ideal of friendship, as described in Socrates’ Symposium ...................... 124 2. Nietzsche, friendship and truth........................................................................... 126 3. Prevalent metaphors in professional higher education....................................... 133 4. Teacher and students as truth seeking friends.................................................... 138 NIETZSCHE’S NEW DAWN 5. Benefits of short-term, truth seeking friendships............................................... 143 6. Friends rather than learner-friendly manners!.................................................... 146 CHAPTER 5: LEARNING THROUGH UPS AND DOWNS...............................147 1. The ideal of a meritocratic society..................................................................... 149 2. Nietzsche’s critique on cultures of measurement and his answer ...................... 155 3. Learning through ups and downs in professional higher education................... 159 4. Nietzsche’s strategy of withdrawal from society ............................................... 164 5. Learning environment ........................................................................................ 166 6. Ups and downs! ................................................................................................. 169 CHAPTER 6: VERSUCHEN WIR’S! – NIETZSCHEAN EXPERIMENTS......171 Case 1: Close reading............................................................................................. 172 Case 2: Students designing a course in project management................................. 176 PRO TEMPORE…....................................................................................................183 1. Retrospection ..................................................................................................... 186 2. Recommendations.............................................................................................. 190 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................195 SAMENVATTING ....................................................................................................211 CURRICULUM VITAE ...........................................................................................221 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It was a great joy to work on this thesis. This project allowed me to look at professional higher education through different eyes than I was used to and to share this new, excellence promoting perspective with many colleagues. First of all, I want to thank my promotor prof. dr. L.M. Huijer and promotor prof. dr. J. de Mul. It was a real honour and pleasure, Marli, to work with you. Time and again, you scrutinised my sometimes premature and wandering texts thoroughly. Your comments, questions and demands for better were helpful and inspiring. Your critique and compliments showed great commitment. Jos: I thank you for sharing your broad knowledge and experience. I appreciate the good-humoured and light-hearted atmosphere you create as well. I also want to thank Gert de Ruiter and Ineke van der Meule of The Hague University of Applied Sciences for having faith in my project and offering me the opportunity to write this thesis. The Department of Philosophy and Professional Practice at The Hague University of Applied Sciences was my warm home while working on the dissertation. The enthusiastic and committed colleagues of this department examined almost all chapters. I want to thank you for thinking along: Anne de Ruiter, Bert van den Bergh, Frank Meester, Gerben Bakker, Ids Everts, Jean Janimon, Martine de Lange, Mathijs Fleurke, Meggie Williams, Paul de Regt, Peter van Hekke, and Sieglinde Seijffer. I was in favourable circumstances that many teacher colleagues, administrators and students attended my presentations about my work or participated in the Socratic dialogues that I facilitated. During these activities, they asked me a wide range of inspiring questions, and they gave me critical comments and fresh ideas. Also, the colleagues and students who participated in the close reading sessions helped me deepening and sharpening my thoughts on the subject of striving for better. I want to mention three persons explicitly. First, I want to thank Sandra van Steenvelt for enthusiastically embracing my project, reading many chapters and continuously searching for ways to implement the insights of this underlying study in the educational practice in the faculty of IT&Design. I also want to thank Ed Meijer for his enthusiasm 7 NIETZSCHE’S NEW DAWN for close reading. Last but not least, I want to thank my dear colleague and paranimf Loes Tromp for taking ample time for reading and discussing my texts. I really enjoyed these moments. There was attentive support from the academic world as well. I am grateful for the spicy feedback of my fellow