What is it about?
Scotland's proposal to put the child, student or learner in the centre of education may sound progressive, but in this paper I argue that it is a problematic and in a sense outdated view about how education should be organised and what it should focus on. I argue that rather than putting the child, student or learner at the centre of education, the real centre of education should be the (natural and social) world, as it is there that our lives take place.
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Why is it important?
Scotland is not the only country that thinks that putting the child, student or learner at the centre is a progressive move. This paper is therefore relevant for the much wider discussion about what the centre of education should be. It also argues against the idea that it is the curriculum or knowledge that should form the centre of education. The child and the curriculum are of course both important in education, but they should to be brought together in order to prepare the new generation for their life in the world -- a world that puts limits to what we can want from it.
Perspectives
The more detailed case for why the world should be at the centre of education can be found in my 2021 book World-Centred Education: A View for the Present (Routledge).
Gert Biesta
University of Edinburgh
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Putting the World in the Centre: a Different Future for Scotland’s Education, Scottish Educational Review, May 2023, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/27730840-20231001.
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