K-12 Education as a Hermeneutic Adventurous Endeavor: Theorizing the Instrumental Approach, Education as a Sovereign Agent for Humanity, and the Relationships with Philosophy by Doron Yosef-Hassidim A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Doron Yosef-Hassidim 2015 K-12 Education as a Hermeneutic Adventurous Endeavor: Theorizing the Instrumental Approach, Education as a Sovereign Agent for Humanity, and the Relationships with Philosophy Doron Yosef-Hassidim Doctorate of Philosophy Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto 2015 Abstract This work introduces and discusses my vision for education as a response to a dominant instrumental approach to education. Situated within a broader discussion of the place and role of public education and education research in our lives and in society, I touch upon several key components of foundations of education in order to point at what I consider a problematic and dangerous approach to education as a social and political instrument. This approach, which has become prevalent and taken for granted, divorces education from its deep human capacities and as a result damages students’ humanity and humanity as a whole. From theorizing the instrumental approach I argue for the need for stronger statements about public K-12 education and to the necessity to protect it, and propose a shift in perceiving its role from a social servant to an agent for humanity based on the guideline that we are all human beings. This characterization is meant to make schooling an adventurous endeavor, both for teachers and students, that enables and encourages imagining alternative ways of life and alternative social arrangements. To support this kind of education, I propose to incorporate basic human features alongside the curriculum, namely experiences, understandings, and meanings. As a step towards restoring education’s agency I propose to ii establish a sovereign education that will depoliticize schooling and will reconsider its associations with other spheres. Particularly, I examine education’s ties with philosophy and argue for non-committal relationships between them in the form of distilling educative ideas from philosophical discussions. Practical measures and policy implications, as well as several expected objections, are discussed and comparisons are made to other views and educational programs, especially to Dewey’s. By way of conclusion, this work offers several ideas about school as a social organization and about public education as human enterprise. iii Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the kind support of many to whom I am in debt for guiding me in this academic journey. John Portelli was supportive of my philosophical ideas about education even before my arrival in Toronto. He helped me to link the area of educational administration with philosophy of education and to see how the two mutually influence each other. John has showed me how exciting and fun philosophy of education can be, and has inspired me to go further and deeper in my work. Through critical questions he continuously challenges me to think deeply and consider the unthought. He is a true mentor and a friend. Lauren Bialystok encouraged me in my pursuit of looking at the big picture of public education and was invaluable in providing wide philosophical support. She was always available to discuss difficulties and concerns. In many long conversations and with endless patience, Lauren helped me to examine difficult dilemmas and to propose novel solutions to what otherwise seemed as impasses. I am thankful for her careful and accurate critique. Mario Di Paolantonio has provided crucial broad commentary on an earlier draft of my work and his contribution is decisive with regard to several maneuvers I made in developing my thinking and in stressing central ideas. I thank Mario for his wise observations and recommendations. Eric Bredo has assisted me to examine my ideas vis-à-vis Dewey and has enriched me with helpful insights that contributed to my ability to situate my work. I am also grateful to him for his warm welcome upon my arrival to OISE. iv Ori Eyal, my MA supervisor who has become a good friend, has continued his support and mentorship deep into my doctoral studies. In contributing his critique and ideas to course papers in which I examined preliminary ideas, he helped shape my thinking about public education and its relationships with philosophy. Ian Thomson has assisted me to link my ideas to Heidegger through fresh philosophical eyes. I also thank him for the opportunity to present my ideas about education to an audience of philosophers while hosting me as a visiting scholar at the University of New Mexico. I also wish to thank those who have dedicated their time and offered important advice that led me to explore new directions and new areas in my work. I wish to mention Natasha Levinson, Gert Biesta, Sam Rocha, and Abigail Bakan. I thank Joanne Bacon for her assistance in reading my texts and offering suggestions that make my writing clearer. Lastly, but certainly not least, I thank Manu Sharma for her support in crucial milestones of my doctoral studies and accompanying me in times of accomplishments as well as in times of doubt. Beyond her wise ideas, I am grateful to Manu for teaching me humility in life and in my writing. v Preface There are almost no real adventures left in our lives. Far from adventures created by Disney and Pixar producers and artists, in which we participate only as listeners and viewers, most events we consider as having adventurous features are actually planned in detail and involve careful suspension of the busy flow of our daily lives. Think of a vacation, for example; people might say they “go on an adventure” while they already know exactly where they are going, their hotel is booked, and they are equipped with a tour guide after learning about the popular attractions on site (including, perhaps, the best shopping places). Moreover, tourists become disappointed when the reality they encounter is different from what they expected. To go to school, on the other hand, might seem the farthest one can think of from an adventure; after all, being in school is not just planned in time and space, but it is mostly perceived as an unpleasant experience for students as they are bound to master things they are not necessarily interested in or are not versed in. Many teachers, too, as well as administrators working at schools, hardly find this practice an escapade but a stressful and dissatisfying experience. In this work, however, I propose to perceive public education as an adventurous endeavor that is exciting both to students and educators. This work is a step in my development as an educator. It follows other important steps such as my teaching experience and my MA research, and it is the fruit of years of contemplating practical and theoretical matters that go back to my undergraduate engineering studies even before I thought about switching to education. Although a product of broad thinking, it reflects changes in attitudes towards education that took place not just before my doctoral studies but also during the writing of this work. vi Perhaps the most dramatic change in my thinking has to do with how I perceive education’s status in our lives. I have realized that in order to let education be what we—educators who care about our students and our world of education—want and hope it to be, we have to take the lead with regard to education, to take responsibility about education, and claim our authority over it. While at an early stage of my doctoral studies I sought to ‘base’ education on philosophy and attempted to formulate what Heideggerian education is, I find myself today arguing and calling for an education with its own agency and its own consciousness that is allowed to think for itself and conduct itself by virtue of its own sovereignty. Several professional and academic stations in my life are sources for the ideas laid out in these pages. Working as an engineer and programming for hours every day, to being a student teacher and then serving as a full time teacher for several years with experience in curriculum design and policy making, as well as being a researcher in educational administration and focusing on educational in-house entrepreneurs (champions), were all crucial positions that together with the people I met along the way assisted me in developing a vision for education that is anchored both in concepts and theory as well as in the daily, dull, and exhausting experience of being a teacher or a researcher. Only later in my evolution as a scholar, when I deeply engaged with philosophy and philosophy of education literature, did I become aware of the part I played in the education system without fully understanding the forces that influence and manipulate schooling. Thus, my motivation for this work stems both from personal disillusionment and learning from others who in their insights put into words feelings that I was not able to articulate. Indeed, I stand on the shoulders of others, a few of them I even had the delight to meet or work with. vii Ideas presented here have been developed for quite some time and were negotiated with many. However, converting ideas to meaningful lights and points on the screen as well as addressing critique—friendly and supportive as it is sharp and thorough—is an arduous and painstaking work that requires a great deal of effort and endurance and is accompanied by doubts, frustrations, and sleepless nights.