Hegemonic and Marginalised Educational Utopias in the Contemporary Western World

Abstract

This article discusses whether utopian thinking in education has really disappeared, as is often argued. The argument is here made that while overtly utopian thinking has lost its legitimacy among social sciences and education theorists and practitioners, the influence of various utopian discourses on educational policies and practices remains strong. The first part of this article contextualises the present state of utopian thinking by overviewing its historical development. The second part discusses this in the context of education. The third part raises the issue of hegemonic utopias that present as ‘realist’ discourses about the future. The fourth section brings into discussion marginalised utopias, and asks the question if there are any spaces left for utopias that most deeply challenge patriarchal and Western assumptions about what constitutes knowledge, history, future and ideal education. The article concludes by arguing that all ‘regimes of educational truths’ whether labelled ‘realistic’ or ‘utopian’ draw their inspiration from a particular image of the future, an image that always includes at least some elements of the utopian.