Abup talks - Gert Biesta - "Being at home in the world"

Gert Biesta is Professor of Educational Theory and Policy at the University of Luxembourg. He has previously worked at the Universities of Stirling (Scotland) and Exeter (England) and before that at Universities in the Netherlands. He is editor-in-chief of Studies in Philosophy and Education and former President of the Philosophy of education Society USA.
Biesta writes about the theory and philosophy of education, the theory of educational research, about teaching, learning, curriculum and pedagogy, about teacher education and about education policy. He conducts research on such topics as lifelong learning, citizenship, democratic education, curriculum, and vocational education.
Theough a trilogy of monographs published over the last eight years (Beyond learning, Good education in an age of measurement and The beautiful risk of education), Biesta explores ideas
about what it means to be human, and how such ideas influence how we think about education - and ultimately, how what is at stake in education is humanity itself.
Biesta asks what might happen to the ways in which we educate if we treat the question "what does it mean to be human?" as a radically open question; a question that can only be answered by engaging in intersubjective dialogue, rather than as a question that needs to be answered before we can educate. Throughout his writings, he raises questions about community and responsibility, and about what a commitment to a truly democratic education entails. He provides concrete suggestions for engaging with the question of purpose in education in new, more precise and more encompassing ways, with explicit attention to the ethical, political and democratic dimensions of education. In his most recent book (The beautiful risk of education), Biesta makes a strong argument for giving risk a central place in our educational endeavours and brings risk taking to the forefront of a critical pedagogical practice.