Introduction
Education is, in many ways, premised on hope (Bloch 2000/1918; for a more recent treatment, see Papastephanou 2009). Hope for the future; hope for the next generation. This accounts in part for our willingness to continue to invest in shared practices, even in the face of pressure, disappointment, and pessimism. Our investment in educational practices today is governed by a sense of an uncertain, precarious future, which requires flexibility, mobility, and maximally efficient and effective use of resources. In postmodernity, the grand narratives of modernity – of progress, freedom, and emancipation that drove the development of the nation-state and its institutions – are no longer credible. Lyotard’s notion of performativity, elaborated in The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1984/1979), captured the logic of what replaced them.
Lyotard’s work often informs critical accounts of education that express pessimism in the face of managerialism, accountability, and...
Keywords
- Educational Philosophy
- Ordinary Language
- Educational Theory
- Language Game
- Dominant Discourse
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Hodgson, N. (2016). Lyotard, Hope on the Dark Side. In: Peters, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_494-1
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