Defending a Common World: Hannah Arendt on the State, the Nation and Political Education

Abstract

For a long time, one of the most important tasks for education in liberal democracies has been to foster the next generation in core democratic values in order to prepare them for future political responsibilities. In spite of this, general trust in the liberal democratic system is in rapid decline. In this paper, the tension between the ambitions of liberal-democratic educational systems and contemporary challenges to central democratic ideas is approached by reconsidering Hannah Arendt's critique of political education. This will be done informed by her analysis of the tension between the concepts of state and nation. By showing how education, depending on its role as a tool of the state or the nation, may be a fundamental requirement for the establishment of a common world or the most effective tool for its destruction, the paper argues for the need to understand Arendt's educational thinking in light of her wider political analysis. Rather than downplaying the provocative aspects of her critique, the paper argues for the need to use it as a starting point for thinking again how education may become an emancipatory undertaking capable of disarming contemporary threats to human plurality and freedom.Education can play no part in politics, because in politics we always have to deal with those who are already educated. the word "education" has an evil sound in politics; there is a pretense of education, when the real purpose is coercion without the use of force.

Evil, thinking, and emotions in Hannah Arendt’s political philosophy: Implications for the teaching of democratic citizenship

“…see Mason, 2019), the work of Hannah Arendt has gained huge popularity in recent years, especially after Trump and other right-wing populist leaders around the world came to power and racism, xenophobia, sexism, and nationalism have plummeted to new heights (Scatamburlo-D'Annibale, 2019). Rather than evaluating Arendt's arguments according to how well they fit into our contemporary ideas of education (Lilja, 2018) or overstating the limitations of her thinking compared to current events, my argument in this paper has been that educators can benefit from her insights, because her theorization provides a basis for reconsidering the processes leading up to the rise of totalitarianism and evil-doing. These insights enrich how educators understand contemporary and historical evil and its ethical and political consequences; in turn, this enriched understanding can be helpful to educators' efforts to introduce evil in pedagogically productive ways to students.…”

“…for re-imagining school and education. Similarly, Lilja (2018) argues for the need to understand Arendt's thinking on political education in the context of her wider political analysis, thus using her critique 'as a starting point for thinking again how education may become an emancipatory undertaking capable of disarming contemporary threats to human plurality and freedom' (537). The point, then, is not to dismiss Arendt's thinking because of her skepticism toward emotion or political education, but rather to examine how the lessons of her political analysis force us to reflect more deeply on what we are doing in education.…”

The Risk and Potentiality of Engaging with Sustainability Problems in Education—A Pragmatist Teaching Approach

“…This is very different from laying something on the table accompanied by the message ‘this is important, so you have to handle it this way’ (Ibid., p. 87). Designing education instrumentally with the intention to teach students how they are to act in the future would deprive them of their own opportunity to renew the world (Lilja, 2018). The two aspects of this pedagogic responsibility, bringing something to the table and making it free, are thus inseparable.…”

Diving for Pearls. Thoughts on Pedagogical Practice and Theory

“…For other sources on this discussion, see, for example, Aaron Schutz and Natasha Levinson's debates in the Philosophy of Education Yearbook and , and the 2010 Special Issue of Teacher's College Record on Arendt's educational thinking. See also Topolski, and Lilja, .…”