Rethinking Bildung in the Anthropocene: The Case of Wolfgang Klafki

Ole A Kvamme

doi:10.4102/hts.v77i3.6807

Abstract

In this article, I discuss education in a time in the history when the human impact on Earth is massive and pervasive, with devastating consequences on the conditions for life. Within various academic fields, this era is increasingly distinguished as the Anthropocene. The term highlights the new, dominant position of the human species in Earth’s history, but is contentious, hiding as much as it reveals. Humanity is surely not one, but many, participating in a complex web of relations constituted by other species and the material world. Moreover, the Anthropocene is also a time of global corporate capitalism, when the magnitude and the consequences of human activities are unequally distributed among humans and more-than humans alike. The ethical and political dimensions involved in this determine the reflections in this article. Specifically, I examine Wolfgang Klafki’s educational theory as an expression of and a response to the Anthropocene. Klafki is a salient contributor to the rethinking of North European general didactics in the 20th century, in which Bildung, formations of the self, plays a key role. In Klafki’s later works, epochal key problems are integrated in his concept of Bildung, addressing environmental crisis, social inequity, and threats to peace on Earth, in a global outlook that transcends Bildung’s traditionally national scope. At the same time, Klafki’s educational response expresses an anthropocentric outlook, which calls for rethinking. In such a rethinking I suggest to see the mediating element of the common, crucial in Klafki’s Bildung theory, not as limited to human interests but as including concerns for life on Earth, and to conceive of historical situatedness as an aspect of the commonality of Bildung.

Highlights

The current landscapes of identity are in vital ways marked by challenges emerging in the time of the Anthropocene
In Klafki’s later works published in the 1980s, under the influence of critical theory, he addressed the main societal and political challenges of his time, namely the global issues, such as environmental crisis, social and economic inequities, violence, and threats to peace. Klafki presented these concerns not as an explicit response to the UNESCO agenda or as contributions to the field of environmental education. They emerged from his reflections on the possible impact of current, societal challenges on Bildung, or formations of the self, a key concept in Klafki’s account, as well as in North European educational theory since the early 19th century (Horlacher 2016)
In the concluding part of this article, I address some key elements in Klafki’s account, which call for rethinking, well aware of how Klafki himself throughout his life demonstrated that an educational theory as historically situated should be open continuously to changes and further development

Summary

Introduction

They emerged from his reflections on the possible impact of current, societal challenges on Bildung, or formations of the self, a key concept in Klafki’s account, as well as in North European educational theory since the early 19th century (Horlacher 2016). A closer, critical examination of Klafki’s account demonstrates the persistence of hegemonic structures involved in transforming the educational theory and practices in the Anthropocene.

Results

Conclusion