ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses epistemology as being at the centre of all schooling, not as passive processes of transmitting predetermined facts and information but as active, uncertain processes of investigation, experimentation, reflection and abstraction of meaning. Epistemology goes to the heart of what it means to be human, where knowledge comes from and how we learn. In formal systems of education and schooling, it is sometimes held that epistemology means a somewhat restricted view of knowledge that is already known and can be passed on to students in linear fashion. Consideration of subjectivity and intersubjectivity is an important concern in relation to the dominance of neoliberalism, socially and in education. A central economic imperative of capitalism and neoliberalism is the abstraction of major characteristics of humanness, followed by their quantification and finally their allocation of certain value to the production line. It is difficult to delineate exactly the major components of neoliberal education, especially at the level of schooling.
