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From human capital to flourishing. A more humane aim of education
No full textDit hoofdstuk presenteert een alternatief voor de dominante meritocratische en neoliberale opvatting over wat we van mensen zouden moeten waarderen in onze samenleving en daarmee op scholen. Volgens deze opvatting zouden we het menselijk kapitaal van leerlingen moeten vergroten door hun cognitieve vermogens te vergroten en leerlingen te stimuleren om hoge prestaties op toetsen te leveren. Daarmee kunnen leerlingen een goede bijdrage leveren aan economische groei en bloei. Verdedigd wordt dat niet het floreren van de economie het ultieme doel of de bedoeling is van onderwijs, maar het floreren van mensen. Mensen floreren als ze hun potenties kunnen ontwikkelen en hun capaciteiten kunnen inzetten om activiteiten te ondernemen en relaties aan te gaan die zinvol en waardevol zijn. Het hoofdstuk licht toe waarin dat doel zich onderscheidt van meritocratie en wat als verdienste (‘merit’) geldt. Dit wordt verbonden aan de nieuwe onderwijsvisie van de Organisatie voor Economische Samenwerking en Ontwikkeling (OESO), waarin ook floreren als doel van onderwijs wordt voorgesteld
Betekenisvol ouder worden:Over het grijze gebied tussen ouder worden en samenleven
No full textIn the light of increasing appeals to consider meaningful ageing as a societal rather than a personal issue, both in public discourse and in academia, this paper discusses how De Beauvoir recasts life in society through the prism of ageing. I argue that De Beauvoir herewith provides an important corrective to tendencies to ‘under-socialize’ or ‘over-socialize’ meaning in later life. These tendencies can be traced back to the traditional conceptualization of old age as decline but also play out in recent critical phenomenologies of ageing. Through a critical discussion of the problems hereof, I elucidate how we can address these problems by articulating with De Beauvoir the grey area between ageing and life in society. By juxtaposing De Beauvoir with Arendt, I flesh out the implications for the politics of meaningful ageing
Meaningful evaluation of citizenship education: The co-construction of a framework
No full textAssessment is a focal point in current discussions on and practices of democratic citizenship education. To what extent is it possible and desirable to assess citizenship education, especially in standardized ways (Daas, Ten Dam & Dijkstra 2016)? In a learning community of seven Dutch high schools we developed an alternative form of evaluation, informed by a critical review of available assessment methods in the Dutch context. Dutch schools and teachers are struggling with the citizenship assignment in general, and the obligation to monitor outcomes in particular (De Groot, Daas & Nieuwelink 2022). This is often framed in terms of incompetence, to be remedied by clearer guidelines and professionalization. The learning network started from the premise that teachers’ experiences, opinions and possibly critical stances towards assessment of citizenship education should be taken more seriously, also in light of epistemic justice (Fricker 2007). In a process of co-creation, we investigated how schools could comply with the Dutch law (mandating monitoring of citizenship education outcomes) in a way that did justice to their own (critical) views on citizenship education and assessment. In five meetings we discussed experiences with and concerns over standardized assessment of citizenship education and worked on an alternative called ‘Meaningful evaluation of citizenship education’. This alternative focusses on the meaning of educational, democratic and citizenship experiences of pupils and teachers and their developing citizenship narratives and orientations (De Groot & Lo 2022). The paper places the experiences and results of the learning community in the international debate on the assessment of citizenship education, focusing on the relation between content (alternative perspective on citizenship education and evaluation) and the method of co-creation (asserting teacher and student agency and the struggle with top-down educational policies)
Meaning making as a process of orientation in life
No full textIn this chapter, the focus is on developing an interdisciplinary perspective on existential meaning making as a process of orientation in life. It is argued that this allows for a holistic understanding of existential meaning making which highlights not only its spiritual character but also its physical, relational, and socio-cultural dimensions. Disorienting experiences are an inherent part of processes of orientation in life, interrupting habitual modes of meaning making. Such interruptions may be experienced as a threat to meaning making or as an opening towards new meaning. An existential meaning making model is presented, explaining how people (re)orient in life in the context of disorienting experiences
