Do We Have a Right to Education or a Duty to Educate Ourselves? An Enquiry Based on Fichte's Views on Education

Autor/in	Guilherme, Alex
Titel	Do We Have a Right to Education or a Duty to Educate Ourselves? An Enquiry Based on Fichte's Views on Education
Quelle	In: Power and Education, 8 (2016) 1, S.3-18 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1757-7438
DOI	10.1177/1757743815624116
Schlagwörter	Civil Rights; Education; Compulsory Education; Educational Philosophy; Social Responsibility; Freedom; Educational Responsibility + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bürgerrechte; Grundrechte; Zivilrecht; Bildung; Erziehung; Schulpflicht; Bildungsphilosophie; Erziehungsphilosophie; Soziale Verantwortung; Freiheit; Erziehungsverantwortung
Abstract	The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that 'Everyone has the right to education' and it 'shall be compulsory'. I note that there is a tension between 'right' and 'compulsory' in the Declaration because, by definition, a right is an entitlement and not an obligation. The reasons why education is an exception to the rule have not been explored in detail, and efforts seem always to concentrate on the 'compulsory' side of the tension in trying to understand exactly what it would entail, and fail to direct attention to the 'right' element of the problem. In this article, I wish to turn the problem on its head and take issue with the idea that education should be understood as a right. The argument is, rather, that education should be conceived as a duty -- an obligation that all human beings have towards themselves and their communities. In order to do this, the author refers to the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), the German post-Kantian idealist, whose works in education have been long neglected and forgotten. Nevertheless, they are of great help in trying to make sense of education not as a right, but as a duty. I argue that such understanding dissolves the tension between 'right' and 'compulsory', and that a reframing of an understanding of 'what education is' needs to occur not just at the individual, but also at the societal level. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01