ABSTRACT

The mission of education, since articulated by the Ancients under the name of paidea, was, remains and probably will remain preparing the young to life. Hannah Arendt’s thinking/non-thinking dichotomy underpins Zygmunt Bauman conception of adiaphora and the agentic state found within Bauman’s conception of the role of education in both solid and liquid modernity. Education provides the hope of redefining the public space in terms of ‘collectivities of belonging’ or new forms of communitarian politics to emerge that allow people some control over the consequences of liquefaction. Bauman’s work has been used to support a rich variety of arguments right across the field of educational research. Education leadership is increasingly focused on attracting students as consumers, subjecting them to advertisements and brand images rather than ideas. Postmodern perspectives in education identify the risks of educators engaging with totalising approaches to education.