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ABSTRACT
Neoliberalism is a force that seeks to commodify the time of education. Time must be productive. We rank journals and reward scholars who produce work published in those highly ranked journals. In the process of commodifying the work of scholarship, we lose time to the logics of neoliberalism. In search of this lost time, we need allies and resources that allow us to resist and reclaim that which replenishes value. This paper makes the case that a vision of progress connected to Dewey’s thought may preclude us from appreciating sources of value that deserve further attention. The paper is not an exercise in nostalgia and does not seek a return to values undergirded by tradition or traditional ways of thinking, but it does ask that we exercise vision so that we don’t turn our back on sources of resistance that lie waiting to be cultivated.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. This, in many ways, is the main theme of his Experience and Education (in Dewey Citation2008).
2. After the election of Trump, Rorty’s (Citation1998) Achieving Our Country has been seen as prophetic.
3. This comes out especially strong in Wolin (Citation2016).
4. It is worth wondering if the religious spirt can exist outside of the frameworks provided by religion. For example, David Wong (Citation2006) argues for the importance if not necessity of ritual in pluralistic societies. One must wonder if we can ever generate something like secular rituals that will be as compelling as religious ones.
5. Here I am thinking especially of Rorty. For a more nuanced and sympathetic understanding see Philip Kitcher (Citation2014), though Kitcher makes clear that his brand of pragmatism has no room for traditional religious belief.
6. Berry’s (Citation2015) most recent collection of essays is a nice place to start if unfamiliar with is work.
7. For an excellent discussion of the political implications of Berry’s thought, see Kimberly Smith (Citation2003).
8. Though Schaar’s work is not often cited in education literatures, I find his Legitimacy in the Modern State deeply insightful. He and Wolin share similar lines of thinking, and their co-written The Berkeley Rebellion and Beyond is also an underappreciated work.
9. Wolin is in fact a very sensitive reader of Dewey. See esp. Wolin (Citation2016) 503 ff.
10. Berry’s conservatism is apt here. His essay ‘Two Minds’ in his Citizenship Papers is a good starting place for an alternative to pragmatism based on scientific method.
11. Wolin (Citation1989) has a beautiful essay on tending.
12. An interesting story could be told here about how Wolin’s language may help us appreciate dimensions of Jane Addams’ life and thought that are neither Deweyan pragmatist nor communitarian. For an example of good recent scholarship on Addams, see Nora Hanagan (Citation2013).
13. I note, though cannot go into detail, how this position diverges – in not being ironic – from Richard Rorty (Citation1989).
14. See David Hansen (Citation1995) and Sheldon Wolin (Citation1969).
15. Susan McWilliams (Citation2015) makes an interesting suggestion that Wolin’s vision of the good society may have been deeply influenced by Wolin’s time as a student at Oberlin. She suggests that there is something about the small liberal arts college that maintains its transformative potential even as it becomes more deeply enmeshed in neoliberal logics.
16. Introductions to Vanier’s work are now available, but I find his own work the best introduction. One good place to start is Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier (Hauerwas and Vanier (Citation2008).
17. Nouwen’s work on hospitality deserves more attention in educational literatures. For one of the few treatments in philosophy of education, see AG Rud (Citation1995).
18. Vanier notes that he is unhappy with many of the ways in which the people he lives with are described, but settles on this terminology (Vanier Citation2013, Citation1989).
19. For a very brief overview of what he learned, see Vanier (Citation2010).
20. And, as Vanier would note, distorted visions of Christianity.
21. See: Community and Growth and Signs, where he addresses the evil of sexual abuse in the church.
22. This is not to claim, as I hope to make clear at the outset of this paper, that religion is not the cause of injustices, some very significant and ongoing. Fundamentalism of all varieties continue to do tremendous harm. But, Dewey’s solution to take the religious spirit while leaving organized religion doesn’t seem to be a livable solution, at least for thinkers like Berry and Vanier. For an interesting discussion of the ways in which we need to reject fundamentalism while not swinging to a narrow secularism, see Bilgrami (Citation2014).
23. For a great discussion of this issue, see Stanley Hauerwas and Romand Coles (Citation2008).
24. This is obviously a big issue. For a related discussion, see Kieran Setiya (Citation2010).
25. This is what Robert Frost does in relation to Emerson. For a discussion, see Jeff Frank (Citation2011).
26. For a brief editorial exploration of this point, see Frank (Citation2018).
27. Here I am thinking especially of Marilynne Robinson (Citation2015).