An elementary educational issue of our times? Klaus Mollenhauer’s (un)contemporary concern

Jan Masschelein

doi:10.29173/pandpr23423

Abstract

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Highlights

I can say that the seminar covered a decade in which German philosophy and theory of education (“Allgemeine Pädagogik” or “Allgemeine Erziehungswissenschaft”), after the emergence and tremendous flourishing of critical and emancipatory pedagogy in the sixties and seventies, felt itself increasingly colonized by sociology and critical social theory
Mollenhauer’s Forgotten Connections was one of the first attempts to explicitly deal with these issues
In a short passage in the introduction and in an extensive footnote in the German version of ‘Forgotten Connections’ Mollenhauer explicitly states that the so-called “AntiPädagogik” (Anti-Pedagogy) – which he connects with the work of Miller and von Braunmühl, and with a ‘bad’ reading of Foucault that ended up in the characterization of educational theory (“pädagogische Theorie”) as ‘power forming technological drill’ (“herrschaftsförmigtechnologische Dressur”, Mollenhauer, 1983, p. 174) – offered one of the reasons for writing the book (“Die sogenannte ‘Anti-Pädagogik’ war einer der Anlässe für dieses Buch” ibid.)

Summary

Introduction

I can say that the seminar covered a decade in which German philosophy and theory of education (“Allgemeine Pädagogik” or “Allgemeine Erziehungswissenschaft”), after the emergence and tremendous flourishing of critical and emancipatory pedagogy in the sixties and seventies, felt itself increasingly colonized by sociology and critical social theory (reducing education in one way or another to ideology or socialization and disciplinary power). In a short passage in the introduction and in an extensive footnote in the German version of ‘Forgotten Connections’ (which has not been translated in the English version) Mollenhauer explicitly states that the so-called “AntiPädagogik” (Anti-Pedagogy) – which he connects with the work of Miller and von Braunmühl, and with a ‘bad’ reading of Foucault that ended up in the characterization of educational theory (“pädagogische Theorie”) as ‘power forming technological drill’

Results

Conclusion