Gert Biesta

Maynooth University Ireland & University of Edinburgh · Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy (Maynooth) & Moray House School of Education and Sport (Edinburgh)

Introduction: The return of perfectionism A case could be made that for a relatively long period in the history of the West, education was a luxury. The idea of paideia, which in ancient Greece stood for a process of broad cultivation of the human individual towards virtue (ἀρετή) and, more specifically, towards civic virtue, was, after all, only a...

In this episode we welcome professor Gert Biesta as our guest. Gert is author of the book “The Beautiful Risk of Education” and a well-renown scholar in the field of educational theory. In our talk with him, he explicates why the shift of focus from teaching to learning is unfortunate and why a world-centered approach in education is to be chosen o...

In this chapter I raise the question what kind of thoughtfulness should support and inform the practice of education. I discuss how in recent years the idea has taken hold that educational practice is served best by empirically generated evidence about ‘what works,’ that is, about which interventions are most effective in generating desired (measur...

In July 2022 Gert Biesta gave an invited keynote lecture at the 2022 EDULOG International Conference on Teacher Education: Building an Agenda for the 21st Century in Porto, Portugal[1]. In the following interview Gert Biesta shares key ideas from his lecture, particularly highlighting that any discussion about the future of teacher education needs...

Con la palabra “subjetivación” Gert Biesta pretende acentuar la idea de sujeto en la educación. Resaltar la subjetivación, la existencia como sujetos y no como objetos, consiste en intentar existir como adultos en el mundo. Así, intentar vivir la vida de una manera adulta significa no seguir simplemente tus deseos, lo que te apetece, sino tratar de...

This paper provides a critical discussion of Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education, which was published by the Scottish Government in 2022. After reconstructing the case made in the report for putting learners at the centre of Scottish education, I raise critical questions, both about the idea that learners...

What kind of education is needed for democracy? How can education respond to the challenges that current democracies face? This unprecedented Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the most important ideas, issues, and thinkers within democratic education. Its thirty chapters are written by leading experts in the field in an accessible format....

This chapter provides an outline of a theory of teaching through a discussion of three questions: what teaching is, what it is for and how it works. I discuss two popular myths about teaching: that teaching is outdated and that teachers should rather focus on supporting students’ learning, and that teaching is the most important factor in the produ...

The chapter brings together the individual chapter perspectives on theorizing teaching and thus initiating exchanges among the authors on outstanding issues and discrepancies to provide insights for how research on teaching may move forward. The Delphi study conducted for this aim was based on summaries of the answers of all individual chapters on...

There is a significant amount of literature in which the educational question concerning intercultural communication is seen in terms of providing students with the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and competencies that will enable them to become effective intercultural communicators. While this line of thought seems to have become the ‘common sens...

The Making of Teachers in the Age of Migration aims to unravel entrenched hegemonically-induced hindrances and barriers to internationally acquired teaching competencies' recognition processes. With curricula of teacher education – like school curricula – remaining highly affirmative of localized traditions and styles of reasoning, in times of migr...

In contemporary societies, there is a strong push toward seeing education as an instrument for the delivery of particular societal agendas. On such a view, the only questions that remain are how effective education is at delivering such agendas and how its effectiveness can be increased. While this might be a desirable way forward for those who bel...

The question whether teaching should be understood as an art or a science has been posed many times. Contemporary calls for educational effectiveness, for evidence-based teaching, and for the close monitoring of measurable learning outcomes are strongly pushing education and the work of teachers toward the technicist end of the spectrum. This artic...

Some of the main goals that education strives to achieve are certification and socialization. To achieve these goals in the best interest of the individual and society is a demanding challenge for all involved. In what context is the certification going to be used? Into what society are those educated expected to socialize? Teacher education is at...

Some of the main goals that education strives to achieve are certification and socialization. To achieve these goals in the best interest of the individual and society is a demanding challenge for all involved. In what context is the certification going to be used? Into what society are those educated expected to socialize? Teacher education is at...

This paper is one of two which bring together leading educational researchers to consider some of the key challenges facing democracy and education during the twenty-first century, including rising social and economic inequality, political instability, and the existential threats of global pandemics and climate change. In this paper, key educationa...

In this invited commentary for the special issue on ‘How built spaces influence practices of educators’ work: An examination through practice lens,’ I discuss how insights from the theory of practice architecture and the theory of practice ontology are helpful in exploring the complexities of educational practices, particularly with reference to th...

In this editorial we explore how diversity might matter for educational research and educational practice. We highlight that diversity constitutes a value in itself and can be valued for its consequences. We suggest that valuing diversity doesn't mean that any diversity is simply acceptable. Diversity, so we argue, requires a criterion, and we sugg...

This chapter is a conversation between Lisbet Skregelid and Gert J. J. Biesta. The point of departures are texts by Biesta that touch upon issues related to art and art education. In the conversation, Biesta tells about his concerns and worries about art and also education disappearing from art education. He refers to how art in education tend to b...

Fifty years after UNESCO’s publication of Learning to be: The world of education today and tomorrow, the author of this article provides an assessment of this seminal report, commonly known as “the Faure report”. He characterises the educational vision of the report as humanistic and democratic and highlights its emphasis on the need for educationa...

Esta entrevista arroja luz sobre varios desarrollos actuales que amenazan el «núcleo» disciplinario de la educación. Partiendo de la «configuración» continental del campo, Gert Biesta y Stefan T. Siegel argumentan que existen formas de teoría consideradas distintivamente educativas. Basándose en esta premisa, discuten por qué resulta tan difícil de...

This interview sheds light on current developments threatening the disciplinary ‘heart’ of education. Taking a starting point in the continental ‘configuration’ of the field, Gert Biesta and Stefan T Siegel argue that there are forms of theory considered distinctively educational. Based on this premise, they discuss why defining educational theorie...

Public education is not just a way to organise and fund education. It is also the expression of a particular ideal about education and of a par- ticular way to conceive of the relationship between education and soci- ety. The ideal of public education sees education as an important dimension of the common good and as an important institution in sec...

Vijftig jaar huisartsopleiding – dat is 50 jaar onderwijs over alles wat toekomstige huisartsen moeten weten, kunnen, doen en zijn. Het doel daarvan? Leren. We zullen beargumenteren dat ‘leren’ geen handige term is als we willen beschrijven wat er nu eigenlijk tijdens de huisartsopleiding gebeurt. De preciezere taal van professionele vorming op 3 d...

In this chapter I discuss recent transformations in higher education against the background of the history of the modern university. I focus on the idea of the ‘useful university’ as the manifestation of a university that is geared towards giving its stakeholders what they desire. I suggest how this ambition is part of a bigger tendency in modern s...

No presente ensaio, o filósofo Gert Biesta aprofunda-se na análise das relações entre educação, aprendizagem e democracia. Sua abordagem teórica tem contribuído significativamente para as teorizações pedagógicas contemporâneas, tanto no Brasil, quanto no cenário internacional.

Landelijk Symposium Cultuuronderwijsbeleid - 5 februari 2021 De aanleiding voor LKCA, de Boekmanstichting en de Erasmus Universiteit om samen dit symposium te organiseren is meerledig. Naast de dissertatie van Piet Hagenaars over het cultuuronderwijsbeleid van Den Uyl tot Rutte-III - Opdracht & Onmacht (2020) zijn er het Dashboard Bestuursakkoord...

Issue: In medical education, teaching is currently viewed as an intervention that causes learning. The task of medical education research is seen as establishing which educational interventions produce the desired learning outcomes. This ‘medical model’ of education does not do justice to the dynamics of education as an open, semiotic, recursive sy...

Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to ‘normality’, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to...

Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to ‘normality’, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to...

Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to ‘normality’, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to...

The centrality of learners and their learning in contemporary educational discourse and practice, seems to suggest that the self of the student should be at the heart of the educational endeavour. This is not just an educational programme, but actually an expression of a particular way of thinking about human beings and their position in the world;...

This paper problematizes current thinking about education by arguing that the question of educational purpose is not simply a socio-political question concerned with what the ends should be and why, but can also be understood as a structural question, concerned with the way we understand education’s directional impetus. We suggest that it is possib...

In this paper, the central findings of a research project into religious literacy are presented. This project sought to answer the question as to whether or not religious literacy can be a way forward for religious education (RE). Starting with the idea of ‘literacy’, dominant approaches religious literacy in the literature are examined. An educati...

The question I address in this paper is to what extent the prevailing description of educational reality that can be found in contemporary research, policy and practice can be considered complete. The motivation for asking this question stems from an educational paradox to which I refer as the Parks-Eichmann paradox. This paradox has to do with the...

Gert Biesta is one of the leading contemporary educational theorists. He was a keynote speaker at the recent ATEA Conference (July, 2019) at the Sunshine Coast in Australia and generously gave Stephen Heimans some time for an interview in which Gert talked about his latest work and the trajectory of his thinking and writing over his career.

Introduction: The return of perfectionism A case could be made that for a relatively long period in the history of the West, education was a luxury. The idea of paideia, which in ancient Greece stood for a process of broad cultivation of the human individual towards virtue (ἀρετή) and, more specifically, towards civic virtue, was, after all, only a...

In previous publications, Gert Biesta has suggested that education should be oriented toward three domains of purpose that he calls qualification, socialization, and subjectification. Many educators, policymakers, and scholars have found this suggestion helpful. Nonetheless, the discussion about the exact nature of each domain and about their relat...