Conference Agenda

The idea of education focuses on passing what is good in our world to the generations that arrive as newcomers. With the newcomers, the world is renewed (Arendt 1961): changed while preserving what is valuable in it. This view has recently been re-invigorated in the debate on instrumentality in education. In one instance, Hodgson, Vlieghe and Zamojski (2017) evoke the notion of "love to the world" (as opposed to "hate," which they ascribe to critical pedagogy) as the foundation of post-critical education, focused on things of concern around which passionate teaching can unite students and teachers.

In this symposium, we juxtapose this way of seeing education with the global situation in which more and more children are displaced. In most cases, education for newcomers who are refugees and asylum seekers is planned with repatriation in mind (Dryden-Peterson & Reddick, 2017; Ferede, 2018). However, in the face of climatic catastrophe and prolific wars, repatriation frequently becomes impossible. If those children stay in receiving countries, "things of concern" of their new teachers may differ radically from those of their parents or themselves. How do we conceive of education for next generations in this context?

Next, as typically construed in trans-generational pedagogical narratives, is one who arrives later. In this symposium, we are exploring "nextness" in a broader sense, both in temporal and spatial terms. We want to stress that ”next” also arrives spatially, as "next to us", neighbour or alien. This perspective opens to broader ethical and political issues. What is education when its next generation – one to inherit the world -- is both temporal and spatial? When its newcomer children are not only arriving after us but are, at the same time, neighbors or aliens to us? What is it, then, that needs passing on, what can be passed on, and what is worth passing for the sake of "us”, or for "them," and for the world itself?

The symposium proposed to the Philosophy of Education Network will be organized in two sessions.

In Session 1, we explore what next generation means, in times of existential threats when having children is becoming an ethical issue, by interrogating the concept of "nextness" in spatial and temporal terms (Kalisha). Children who arrive, arrive “thrown”, while the challenge for educators is creating conditions for their dwelling (Parker). We ask whether education can provide space for educators taking ethical responsibility which requires that what we know as pedagogical tact in Herbart becomes multicultural tact (Hilt & Rompianesi). Finally, we discuss empirical data on teachers' ethical dilemmas and possibilities while teaching newcomers in an introductory class in Norway (Gudmundset & Brøvig Østby).

In our understanding, the critical issue for this symposium is that the notion of "next generation," which legitimises pedagogical efforts of passing the world on to newcomers, needs at least a doubling gesture of complication. We should read "nextness" in temporal and spatial terms when considering who the next generation is. "Next" as typically construed in trans-generational pedagogical narratives, arrives later, but it also means "next to us", it arrives as neighbour or alien. At the same time, Edelman (2004) describes western countries as sometimes driven by a "death drive" rather than by a "reproductive futurism". With this description, the "spatial nextness" gains unprecedented weight in the dream of renewal by education. We believe that the categories of reproductive futurism and death drive proposed by Edelman in the context of queer theory can be re-contextualized fruitfully to map the terrain of refusal or procrastination of parenthood in most Western countries where young adults decide not (or not yet) having children; not only because they pursue their individual achievement, but also for ethical reasons. Having children may seem irresponsible in the world that is falling apart. We claim that "spatial nextness," concerning the newcomers from elsewhere, needs to be installed as permanent within the idea of education as renewal, as means to pass what is good in our world to those who arrive. If that renewal is to be viable, it should be conceived responsibly in response to the world driven by climatic catastrophe, wars and massive migration.

Arendt, H. (2006). Between past and future : eight exercises in political thought. Penguin. Edelman, L. (2004). No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Duke University Press. Eide, K. (2020). Barn p? flukt : psykososialt arbeid med enslige mindre?rige flyktninger (2. utgave. ed.). Gyldendal. Hilt, L. T. (2015). Included as excluded and excluded as included: minority language pupils in Norwegian inclusion policy. International journal of inclusive education, 19(2), 165-182. Hirvonen, K. (2013). Sweden: when hate becomes the norm. Race and Class, 55(1), 78-86. Hodgson, N., Vlieghe, J., Zamojski, P., Lewis, T., & Ramaekers, S. (2017). Manifesto for a Post-Critical Pedagogy. Kalisha, W. (2020). While We Wait: Unaccompanied Minors in Norway – Or the Hospita(bi)lity for the Other. In T. Strand (Ed.), Rethinking Ethical-Political Education (pp. 67-84). Springer International Publishing. Labaree, D. F., Tröhler, D., & Popkewitz, T. S. (2011). Schooling and the making of citizens in the long nineteenth century : comparative visions (Vol. 57). Routledge. Mollenhauer, K. (2014). Forgotten connections : on culture and upbringing (N. Friesen, Trans.). Routledge. Seeberg, M. L., & Goździak, E. M. (2016). Contested Childhoods: Growing up in Migrancy : Migration, Governance, Identities (1st 2016. ed.). Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer.

Presenting and representing the world to the students is a foundational issue in educational research (Mollenhauer, 2006). Recently, Gert Biesta (2021) has called for a world-centered education, encouraging teachers to turn the pupils' gaze toward the world, to be educated by the world itself. However, introducing the student to the world within increasingly diverse societies and educational settings constitutes a challenge to national educational systems. From the perspective of intercultural education and post-colonialism, the domination of Eurocentric orientations might result in unfair and exclusion conditions for minority pupils in schools (Banks, 1993; Bennett, 2001). With the words of Willbergh and Aasebø (2022), representing the world in multicultural classrooms might generate "the multicultural paradox": should teaching represent the perspectives of particular minority groups to provide recognition, inclusion, and empowerment, or should teaching rather aim at representing universal aspects in teaching, where culture, race, privilege, etc. are irrelevant? This essay will investigate the foundational question of how we are to represent the world in multicultural schools and societies, thus facilitating Bildung processes for all children. Although we acknowledge the difficulty in defining the social and cultural world in an inclusive manner in multicultural schools, we will argue that this is an essential feature of good education and that conscious selection of content and teaching materials should be at the forefront of educational practice today. The essay concludes that we need to focus on the teacher as an agent of inclusion and Bildung, exercising judgment in the encounter between the curriculum and the multicultural pupils. As a further development of the concept of educational tact from educational philosopher J. F. Herbart (2012), the essay calls attention to the necessity of teachers developing what we conceptualise as multicultural tact. Regarding our theoretical framework, we position ourselves within the discipline of general pedagogy (Allgemeine Peädagogik) and the European Bildung tradition. Although theories of Bildung are manifold, we acknowledge that Bildung concerns the result and the very process by which subjects encounter the world through education. In this frame, we understand inter/multicultural education as an epistemologically and theoretically complex field (Holm & Zilliacus, 2009). Started as an ethical-political project in the context of International Organizations, it aims at developing peaceful coexistence in contemporary pluralistic societies and mutual exchange between different cultures.

Banks, J. A. (1993). The canon debate, knowledge construction, and multicultural education. Educational Researcher, 22(5), 4–14. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X022005004 Bennett, C. (2001). Genres of research in multicultural education. Review of Educational Reserach, 71(2), 171–217. https:// doi.org/10.3102/00346543071002171 Biesta, G. (2021) World-centered education: A view for the present. Routledge. Aasebø, T. S. & Willbergh, I. (2022). Empowering minority students: a study of cultural references in the teaching content. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 54 (5), 618-631. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2022.2095877 Herbart, J. F. (2012) ABC of sense-perception and minor pedagogical works. Ulan Press Holm, G., & Zilliacus, H. (2009). Multicultural Education and Intercultural Education: Is There a Difference? In M.-T. Talib, J. Loima, H. Paavola, & S. Patrikainen (Eds.), Dialogues on Diversity and Global Education (pp. 11-28). Peter Lang. Mollenhauer, K. (2006) Glemte sammenhenger [Forgotten Connections]. Ad Notam Gyldendal

Norway is becoming a more multicultural/ multilingual society and with this comes an added challenge for all teachers who adapt the curriculum and provide an inclusive education for all pupils, within the confines of the existing system. An increasing group of pupils within the education system are those who have newly arrived in Norway (Dewilde & Kulbrandstad, 2016). They come from various cultures and backgrounds and speak many different languages, but politically they are treated as a single entity when offered provisions within the education system (Hilt, 2016). The introductory classroom is one type of educational provision available to these newly arrived pupils. Here they are offered one to two years, by law, in which to acquire the rudiments of the Norwegian language. They are then deemed to have a 'sufficient proficiency' in the language to continue their education within the mainstream (Opplæringslova, 1998, §2-8). There are high expectations placed upon these teachers working in introductory classrooms to teach these pupils Norwegian, as quickly and effectively as possible "for the sake of integration" (Utdanningsdirektoratet, 2016). In this presentation we wish to highlight some of the challenges and ethical dilemmas these teachers face, based upon empirical data from interviews. The teachers were from several different introductory classes ('innføringsklasser'), 3rd to 10th grade. Some of the fundamental questions we ask are: 'In what ways do these teachers reflect upon their pedagogical and personal interactions when engaging with these pupils, who are in their care for such a short time?', 'What kinds of dilemmas are they faced with?'. In the continental tradition of pedagogikk Biesta approaches the art of teaching as finding the right balance between the three educational functions of qualification, socialization, and subjectification (Biesta, 2012; Biesta, 2014). Our informants have experience in adapting their methods of teaching to 'fit the pupil', they regard the 'uniqueness' of their pupils and how education impacts upon them. This has implications in the way they meet these pupils and the need to establish a relationship with them quickly. The teacher's unique insight, experience, and reflections in this field may also provide valuable professional insight into teacher judgment in inclusive education.

Biesta, G.J.J. (2014). The Beautiful Risk of Education. Paradigm Publishers Biesta, G.J.J. (2012). Receiving the Gift of teaching: From 'Learning from' to 'Being taught by'. Stud Philos Educ 32: 449-461 Dewilde, J. & Kulbrandstad, L.A (2016). Nyankomne barn og unge i den norske utdanningskonteksten. Nordisk tidsskrift for andrespråksutvikling. 11(2): 3-13. Fagbokforlaget. Hilt, L. (2016). Kategorisering som hinder for sosial inkludering? En kritisk diskusjon av kategorien «nyankomne minoritetsspråklige elever» i lys av målet om inkludering. In: F.B. Børhaug & I. Helleve (red.) Interkulturell Pedagogikk som Motkraft. I en monokulturell praksis. Fagbokforlaget. Opplæringslova. (1998). Lov om grunnskolen og den videregåande opplæringa (LOV-1998-07-17-61). Lovdata. Lov om grunnskolen og den vidaregåande opplæringa (opplæringslova) - Lovdata Utdanningsdirektoratet (Department of Education) (2016). Veileder. Innføringstilbud til nyankomne minoritetsspråklige elever. Innføringstilbud til nyankomne minoritetsspråklige elever (udir.no)

Migrant and refugee children live through a rupture that non-migrants will never know: they experience a reset of the circumstances of their lives (Haas, 2017). These children carry with them gifts of language, experience, family, and memory, but are often forced into conditions that fail to recognize their worth as such. The growing numbers of these children, a function of the destruction of homelands due to war and pervasive climate change, present education with urgent questions, including: What kinds of ethical dilemmas arise in caring for and educating these children? What constitutes the generational "passing on" of learning amidst such exponential heterogeneity? In this chapter, I draw upon two concepts to highlight the uniqueness of the migrant or refugee child's experiences. First, I discuss Heidegger's rendering of "thrownness" and facticity to better understand the ontological condition of migration. In his writing on Dasein in Being and Time, Heidegger (1996) delineates the qualities that characterize a human's unique being in the world. One dimension of Dasein highlights the facticity of our birth at this time and in this place, our thrownness into the circumstances of our unique lives. I argue that this aspect of thrownness is significant to understanding the fundamental disruption of migration as an ontological (and epistemological) upheaval. I contextualize this analysis by drawing on literature on thrownness in the multicultural condition (Lai, 2003), as well as facticity and colonialism (Marino, 2021; Price, 2021). Second, with a view to responding to the questions posed above, I turn to Levinas's (1979, 1989, 1998) thinking about "dwelling" to present education's responsibilities to these children and the possibilities of wisdom they entail, and to recast the horizon of presence and futurity. I suggest that Levinas's premise of ethics as first philosophy engenders responsibility expressed as vulnerability—not of the child, but of the countries, educators, and classrooms receiving them as the Levinasian Other. I further describe how Levinas's critique of Western philosophy opens the door for an intersubjective epistemology that holds us open to listening as the only pathway to wisdom. This has implications for learning, but also for how, through the potentials of education, migrant children might find the "freedom to move" (Ansems de Vries et al., 2017) as participants in, contributors to, and inheritors of their new societies. Finally, I assert that the ethical relation changes how we experience presence in the classroom and enlivens possibilities for a yet-to-be-imagined future.

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