• DOI:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2009.00566.x
• Corpus ID: 219541268

Postmodern Education and the Concept of Power

@article{Rmer2011PostmodernEA,
  title={Postmodern Education and the Concept of Power},
  author={Thomas Aastrup R{\o}mer},
  journal={Educational Philosophy and Theory},
  year={2011},
  volume={43},
  pages={755 - 772}
}

• Thomas Aastrup Rømer
• Published 1 January 2011
• Art
• Educational Philosophy and Theory

This article presents a discussion of how postmodernist, poststructuralist and critical educational thinking relate to different theories of power. I argue that both Critical Theory and some poststructuralist ideas base themselves on a concept of power borrowed from a modernist tradition. I argue as well that we are better off combining a postmodern idea of education with a postmodern idea of power. To this end the concept of power presented by the works of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe is introduced. This concept controverts a number of major educational concepts, i.e. concepts such as causality, autonomy, subjectivity and originality. In other words, it allows us to take a fresh look at old concepts. Finally, I relate the discussion to a number of recent theories of learning.