Papers by Stefan Ramaekers
In deze bijdrage spits ik me toe op opvoeden en opvoedingsondersteuning. Ik vertrek bij een actue... more In deze bijdrage spits ik me toe op opvoeden en opvoedingsondersteuning. Ik vertrek bij een actueel feit: de verschuiving van het decreet opvoedingsondersteuning naar een decreet preventieve gezinsondersteuning. Die verschuiving zegt veel over hoe we kijken naar opvoeding, opvoedingsproblemen en het voorkomen ervan. De decretale verschuiving van opvoedingsondersteuning naar preventieve gezinsondersteuning is een verbreding van het aandachtsterrein. Op het eerste gezicht kunnen we dat alleen maar toejuichen. De focus is niet meer beperkt tot opvoeding, maar wordt verruimd naar de bredere context waarbinnen opvoeden plaatsvindt. Ondersteuning van opvoeding wordt verlegd naar ondersteuning van gezinnen. Zo krijgen ook andere elementen dan opvoeden meer expliciete aandacht. Die aandacht was er natuurlijk al met het vorige decreet, maar met de naamswijziging wordt meteen duidelijk dat het als uitgangspunt van heel het gebeuren fungeert. En toch juicht niet iedereen: “Van een decreet opvoedingsondersteuning naar een decreet preventieve gezinsondersteuning: puur qua woordgebruik vind ik dat een verschraling (…)” (Haerden in Bossaert, 2013, p.39). Blijkbaar is er ook een keerzijde. De angel zit in de toevoeging van het begrip ‘preventief’. Het gaat namelijk niet over ‘gezinsondersteuning’, maar wel over ‘preventieve gezinsondersteuning’. Door de toevoeging van het preventieconcept komt dezelfde verbreding in een heel ander daglicht te staan. Dat dreigt opvoeden en de ondersteuning ervan in een nog engere hoek te duwen dan onder het vorige decreet al het geval was. De wijze waarop opvoeden in het nieuwe decreet voorkomt, maakt opvoeden eigenlijk voor een stuk onmogelijk. Of om het met een boutade te stellen: het voorkomt dat mensen nog kunnen opvoeden. In wat volgt beargumenteer ik dat scherp oordeel door verschillende perspectieven op opvoeding in de weegschaal te leggen.status: publishe
Journal of Philosophy of Education, Aug 1, 2004
But then doesn't our understanding reach beyond all the examples?'-A very queer expression, and a... more But then doesn't our understanding reach beyond all the examples?'-A very queer expression, and a quite natural one!-But is that all? Isn't there a deeper explanation; or mustn't at least the understanding of the explanation be deeper? (Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, # 209
Power and Education, 2009
Educational situations, in the context of the family as well as in the context of the school, can... more Educational situations, in the context of the family as well as in the context of the school, can be conceived in terms of power relations. Often the focus of interest is the outcome of the educator's involvement with the child. Though in general the instrumental way of thinking, in which a certain state of human well-being is an end to be reached, has been criticised, it seems to be presupposed by parents who express that what they want is that their children are happy. This may either refer to well-being later on in life or to the earlier period of childhood itself. The article questions the assumptions that lie behind both narratives of happiness. By using examples from literature it is made clear that much more than control, the person of the educator him or herself and what they stand for is at stake. Thus the concept of integrity and what this amounts to in the context of child-rearing are highlighted.
Journal of Philosophy of Education, May 1, 2001
To understand Nietzsche's view of education requires us to grasp the importance Nietzsche attache... more To understand Nietzsche's view of education requires us to grasp the importance Nietzsche attaches to being embedded in a particular historical and cultural frame. Education is, at least in the early stages, a matter of teaching the child to see and to value particular things or, in Nietzsche's way of putting this, teaching the child to lie. Here I develop an interpretation contrary to those who emphasise Nietzsche's radical individualism and thus view his Overman in subjectivistic terms. I argue that Nietzsche's most important lesson is not that we are to create anything radically new, but rather that we are to take up a serious engagement with respect to what we stand for.
Educational Theory, May 1, 2005
In this paper I focus on what is called ''educational support,'' as this is understood in the Net... more In this paper I focus on what is called ''educational support,'' as this is understood in the Netherlands and the Flemish-speaking region of Belgium. My purpose is to demonstrate how the dominant contemporary conceptualization of educational support, because of the very language in which it is expressed, fails to aptly express the professional educator's contribution to the educational process and invites the idea that the professional educator should assume an attitude of abstinence. Two risk-related issues stand out in this analysis: first, the position of the professional educator seems to entail an evasion of the risks that inhere in defining oneself as an educational expert; and, second, there is the risk that parents' voices, under the current conceptualization of educational support, are being appropriated by a societal discourse hooked on efficiency. I argue that the professional educator must speak-that is, contribute his or her own voice and embrace the risks of venturing it-in order to elicit voices (e-vocation) that might otherwise remain inarticulate or disabled under the pressure of the discourse of efficiency.
Springer eBooks, 2019
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Educational Theory, Aug 1, 2021
The red fish in a shoal of greenish blue fish? A critique of the biomedical model of autism spect... more The red fish in a shoal of greenish blue fish? A critique of the biomedical model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
The separation between family and school as pedagogical sites as classically understood has been ... more The separation between family and school as pedagogical sites as classically understood has been compromised by the demands of the intensive parenting culture and the increased focus on parental engagement in children’s schooling. While the defence of the common school and its separation from the familial and social order provides important reminders of the specificity of school practices and their democratic import, it overlooks the reality of the figure of the parent who needs to find a way to engage with them today. A key aspect of this is the support of children’s homework. Today, where children are required to do it, parents are encouraged not only to provide support but also evidence of this. Through a discussion of what we see and what we hear in the film Deux Cancres [Two Dunces] we explore the idea and experience of the common school in terms that recentre a political, pedagogical understanding of the parent
Many philosophers in recent years have turned their attention to the ethics of parenting and the ... more Many philosophers in recent years have turned their attention to the ethics of parenting and the moral status of the family. This is, primarily, a book about what it means to be a parent, not a book about "parenting." But it is also a book about films. The bulk of the book is devoted to a discussion of three films:
Parents and their relationships with their children rarely feature in the work of philosophers wr... more Parents and their relationships with their children rarely feature in the work of philosophers writing about education. When they do, I argue, they are discussed in a language that draws primarily on the political concepts of rights, duties and obligations. Often, in this context, the parent-child relationship is seen as posing interesting or troubling conceptual problems for our political or moral theories, rather than as a subject for philosophical reflection in itself. At the same time, talk of “parenting” and notions of “good parenting” are increasingly prominent in government policy on families and children, as well as in the popular media and self-help books. The language and logic of this discourse in overwhelmingly drawn from the field of developmental psychology, using supposedly neutral, descriptive concepts in a manner that both masks their evaluative aspects and makes it difficult to talk about parentchild relationship in any other way.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2008
It is not uncommon to hear parents say in discussions they have with their children ‘Look at it t... more It is not uncommon to hear parents say in discussions they have with their children ‘Look at it this way’. And called upon for their advice, counsellors too say something to adults with the significance of ‘Try to see it like this’. The change of someone's perspective in the context of child rearing is the focus of this paper. Our interest in this lies not so much in giving an answer to the practical problems that are at stake, but at disentangling the issues on a conceptual level. Within the so‐called second part of his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein deals with shared practices and with concepts such as ‘seeing’ and ‘seeing as’. What he says there is in terms of content linked with his earlier Tractatus position concerning ethics, a matter which will first be dealt with. After that, the relevant sections of his later work are discussed. Following Cavell, it is concluded that to try to get someone to see what one sees, necessarily presupposes giving it out of one's hands. The passivity this points at highlights what Erziehung in the end comes down to.
Educational Theory, Nov 1, 2008
Theorists often take a condescending stance when speaking about the educationalization of social ... more Theorists often take a condescending stance when speaking about the educationalization of social problems. Given their confidence with postmodern and poststructuralist perspectives, the educationalization of social problems is easily perceived as a set of questionable interventions by governments into educational practices. In this essay, Bert Lambeir and Stefan Ramaekers question the extent to which one can conceive of social problems without an understanding of education or, put more sharply, the extent to which social problems are conceivable without some form of educationalization. After describing four meanings of the concept of educationalization, Lambeir and Ramaekers discuss three popular criticisms of it. With these criticisms as context, the authors use the example of concerns about and initiatives in health education to investigate whether education can be completely freed from the educationalization of social issues. They conclude that it cannot.
Uploads
Papers by Stefan Ramaekers