Synopsis "Thinking About Education With Jacques Rancière (in English)"
In the last decade or so, considerable attention has been given by educational theoriststo the works of Jacques Rancière. Most commentators on Rancière's educational thought, which is based on the writings of Joseph Jacotot, believe that it provides us with a novel wayof thinking about emancipatory forms of education that can serve to confront the forces ofoppression, inequality, nihilism, and compliance we find ourselves confronted with today.The general purpose of this study is to assess whether and, if so, to what extent this belief isjustified. This task is approached by taking up and testing out Rancière's adventuring methodof contingency, which is interpreted to be a form of education and a form of researchsimultaneously. Style is a central aspect of the argumentative force of Rancière's approach.Following this, a characteristic of the thesis is the development of three stylistic forms ofwriting: connecting scenes, spiralling, and weaving. The point of departure for the adventureis Rancière's book The Ignorant Schoolmaster. This book then functions as a portal into theworld of Rancière's works as a whole, which in turn function as a portal to the world beyondRancière's works yet implicitly present in those works. In order to test the educational valueof the adventuring method, an attempt is made to understand Rancière's works. Reflectionson this process further allow for the development of a way of thinking about researchadventures as a form of education. The argument made in this thesis lies partly in its aestheticand stylistic force, but several conceptual claims are also developed. One claim entails theproblematisation of the dichotomy between will and intelligence maintained by Rancière.Another claim is that the concept of emancipation - which is fundamentally political innature - is not applicable to education. As an alternative, a way of thinking about educationis developed, infused by a reading of Spinoza's Ethics, as sensible configurations of spaceand time which urge children to persevere and increase their power to express and to thinkunder the mark of equality. Two notions play a central role in these configurations: fascination and the demand to persevere. The first is developed through the reflections onthe thesis' adventure and coupled to Rancière's understanding of the will as a power to bemoved. It is a way to think the self, that is, the will, as fundamentally relational in nature.The second relates to Rancière's notions of unconditional exigency and equality ofintelligence. A prevalent interpretation of that latter notion is problematised in theobservation that understanding Rancière cannot be done without having prior knowledgeand understanding. Finally, the concept of the weight of words is developed as areformulation of Rancière's reading of Aristotle's distinction between expression and noise.
