Abstract
It is commonly agreed that education has been intimately connected to capabilities. However, several questions remain unanswered about the way in which knowledge promotes the real freedoms that people enjoy. The aim of this paper is thus to situate education in the human capabilities approach. This argument unfolds in three stages. The first will discuss how, historically, education has been regarded as a force capable of enriching the lives of individuals. The second will explain how both Amartya Sen’s and Martha Nussbaum’s approaches complement each other, allowing a deeper understanding of the links between knowledge and capabilities. Despite this, a more comprehensive approach is needed. Therefore, in the third stage, in order to examine to what extent education contributes to the expansion of capabilities, it is necessary to look at four dimensions: (1) philosophical (how education modifies human agency or “personal autonomy”); (2) pedagogical (how knowledge is constructed/transmitted); (3) institutional (how schools in particular and education system in general function in order to enable the expansion of freedoms); and (4) policy issues (how the educational problem is formulated and how policy outcomes can be evaluated).
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© 2007 Melanie Walker and Elaine Unterhalter
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Flores-Crespo, P. (2007). Situating Education in the Human Capabilities Approach. In: Walker, M., Unterhalter, E. (eds) Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach and Social Justice in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230604810_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230604810_3
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