Some (provocative) educational researchers have recently asked for all of Education and teachers to make a turn:
"...we hope to re-orient [make a turn in] the educational project...one with lower stakes, a shift from immortality to more 'goodness.'"
(van Kessel & Burke, 2020, p. 216). [1]
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Whoa! that's a mighty 'Call.'
On what basis is it made? The simpler interpretation perhaps is my own take from reading this paper carefully. They ask Education (all its stakeholders), but specifically teachers of school teachers, to: 'Be Humble, Be More Courageous' --a slogan for a T-shirt, don't you think? What do they mean by "de-escalation of teaching as an immortality project"? [2]
Where I got that slogan from was specifically from p. 226, where the co-authors wrote, "We posit an educational disposition [turn] that is humbler, which, paradoxically requires more courage."
The implicit assumption behind their 'Call' is a critique, more or less, that all stakeholders in Education (specifically, teachers of school teachers, and teachers themselves) have been not humble enough, not courageous enough-- which, is a critique worthy to consider, and I have thought of it myself for over four decades (albeit, I might use different conceptual language and discourses). They are saying nearly everyone to do with Education is too arrogant (acting brave) but (paradoxically) also too fearful (i.e., they've been cowards, more or less). Strong stuff... they are going to raise a lot of 'hackles' I would imagine. Time will tell.
On my part, I have taken their assumption and claims (and use of Terror Management Theory, via Ernest Becker's thought) very seriously. Only recently, in the past few weeks am I chewing and stewing over their papers; the other one is on "evil" [3].
For brevity here, lest it be said, in the field of Education, from my point of view, we have before us a 'turn' that is called out loud and clear by two contemporary North American-based educators of a good deal of breadth and depth, and it ought to be heeded--at least, to take up the "conversation" as they would say. I encourage any one to read these, albeit, they are rather academic works. I am particularly interested in this project of theirs, which I am now calling the van Kessel-Burke Hypothesis (i.e., 'Be humble, Be More Courageous' --and, that will lead to nonviolence and non-evil --that is, what they call "more 'goodness'" --in the world).
The vK-B Hypothesis is particularly interesting to me because of its boldness (to say the least), paradoxically, while calling for more humbleness--in that it is their offering of what I will call from here on Terror Management/Education (TME), and that initiative needs to dialogue [4] with my own 31 years promoting Fear Management/Education (FME) [5]. Curiously, we as researchers and teachers, as writers and educators, have not prior to this last few weeks encountered each other before.
Let the conversation begin... all are invited.
Notes
1. van Kessel, C., & Burke, K. (2020). Teaching as an Immortality Project: Positing weakness in response to terror. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 52(2), 216-29. Both of these authors are professors in faculties of Education (Canada, and USA, respectively).van Kess Burke 2020.pdf
2. There's a large body of thinking (theorizing) on "immortality" relevant to Ernest Becker (and others), of which I'll not say more here, but "immortality project" has a deep historical and evolutionary, cultural and political, importance--for simplicity, re: van Kessel & Burke, the notion involves a meta-motivational drive/seeking, which is universal to human beings (theoretically)--brought on as a defense mechanism to ward off the "fear of death" (i.e., mortality awareness).
3. Burke, K. J., & van Kessel, C. (2020). Thinking educational controversies through evil and prophetic indictment: Conversation versus conversion. Educational Philosophy and Theory. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857. 2020.1767072
4. I began this dialogue with TMT theory (and Sheldon Solomon) recently; see a summary of these engagements in Fisher, R. M. (2020). Dialogue between terror management theory and fear management education. Tech Paper 94.pdf In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute.
5. E.g., a summary of near 25 years of my research on fear and fearlessness is put together in a first tome (a beginning synthesis) in Fisher, R. M. (2010). The world's fearlessness teachings: A critical integral approach to fear management/education for the 21st century. University Press of America/Rowman & Littlefield.
