Teaching Freedom? Postmodern Perspectives

Abstract

Postmodern theory is often seen as a realm either of totally, free play– where anything goes and there are no rules at all–or of despair where all visions of equality, and democracy are equated with totalitarianism. Coherent ways of talking about “actors” or “responsibility” can appear to be entirely' repudiated. Further perceived as elitist, obscure, convoluted, and entirely removed from any kind of practical reality, postmodernism is often viewed as having nothing relevant to say to teachers or those interested in concretely improving education. This paper attempts to show that these visions are not entirely fair to the ways many “postmodern” theorists strive to explore carefully the myriad tensions invariably involved in politics and pedagogy or to the (perhaps surprising) egalitarian commitments that generally undergird their projects. Taking advantage of the fluid and ultimately undefinable character of the idea of the “postmodern,” this paper draws from an eclectic group of thinkers, teasing out a range of different perspectives that might inform, complicate, and contest efforts to “teach freedom”.