Author: Theresa Strommel
Publisher: Transcript Verlag [Currently only available in German]
Reading the words «education and amazement» in one breath may surprise us and elicit the question, «What would life and education be without amazement?» Because within amazement lies the ability to react with either openness and curiosity or confusion and alarm to something unexpected or surprising – to allow it in or to reject it. Amazement can encourage us to engage with something with empathy and an attitude of exploration, unconditionally and without any expectation of its being educational. The title Education and Amazement and the introductory thoughts entice us to continue reading with the promise not only of something new, but also of well-grounded exploration of educational inclusion for all human beings. The book presents modes of education that are crucial in order for all human beings to participate in cultural life.
This research project, published as a dissertation, begins with a systematic review of the concept of education and the conditions of participation for people with intellectual and complex disabilities. It starts with the observation that people with disabilities are assumed to have a reduced capacity for education and that therefore any educational opportunities provided for them often consist of therapeutic measures that emphasize promoting awareness and independence. They do not meet any cultural expectations in any real sense, in contrast with general educational programs. This raises questions about our underlying assumptions regarding education, as well as the methodologies based on these assumptions, which at best do not expressly include certain groups of people and at worst specifically exclude them.
Taking this fact as a point of departure and using phenomenological and education theory methods, Theresa Stommel examines the factors that lead to educational barriers, helping her to identify possibilities for future education access. In this three-part research project, she strives for an unbiased stance on education, openness to new and unexpected findings, and productive, future-bearing, new ways of thinking – in other words, precisely the attitude that can initiate a transformed and transformative way of educating. All of this is necessary in order both to understand concepts and structures that exclude this particular group of people, and to demand new definitions or new language.
First, the author explores the origins of the concept of education and the change in its meaning over time. Education, which for Schiller still served self-improvement and for Humboldt the rationally determined development of human beings, was replaced by learning and socialization, especially in a pedagogical context. As a result of the shock of the PISA Study, our collective concept of education shifted toward a functionalist, technical and economic one, and conversation around inclusion and exclusion came to be seen as belonging to a category of social differentiation. However, education is also interconnected with the surrounding culture and its particular characteristics and changes. Context- and needs-based educational opportunities therefore provide access and are a prerequisite in order to ensure productive engagement with and participation in culture.
Exclusion from education and any restriction or lack of access to cultural opportunities – so often experienced by people with intellectual and complex disabilities – mean a lack of opportunity to participate in a given human or social arena. The author sees the reasons for this in our biased understanding of education, on the one hand, which is traditionally oriented toward development of self-awareness and autonomy through maturation and growth processes, and, on the other hand, in the lack of pedagogical concepts that meet these groups of people where they are. If participation in education depends on a person’s cognitive and (self-)reflective abilities, it excludes all those who do not possess these to a degree that is considered normal. Because these differently developing abilities are linked to individual self-awareness and autonomy, Stommel takes a critical look at this frame of reference for education. If individuals were seen not only through the lens of autonomy and self-determination but as multifaceted beings in relationship with themselves, others and the world, education could be understood as a relational, interpersonal process, transformative and constantly changing through the participation of each individual, rather than one that is dependent solely on linguistic and cognitive ability.
The author emphasizes her argument by including the unfamiliar, which can evoke amazement. In the process of becoming aware of something unfamiliar, an interactive change takes place: Both the individual and their environment feel surprising and different. The amazement that this evokes is a threshold and transitional experience that can initiate change and that calls for situation-specific responses. In this context, education can be seen as a relational process, rather than simply a normative one, as it takes place through an interactive exchange process between an individual and the events around them. Therefore, Stommel concludes, the true value of education is measured in the capacity for self- and co-determination as well as in the solidarity that can help all human beings lead a good life.
Translation from German: Tascha Babitch