ABSTRACT
In this chapter I explore in more detail how we might understand what it means to exist as subject of one’s own life, and what education can contribute to this. I introduce the idea of the Parks–Eichmann paradox to show that if our educational vocabulary is only about learning and development, we are not able to articulate the difference between the “case” of Rosa Parks and the “case” of Adolf Eichmann. After all, both did learn and did develop, but the crucial difference is that they acted very differently in a rather critical situation. Whereas Rosa Parks put her “I” into play by refusing to follow the orders of the bus-driver, Adolf Eichmann withdrew his “I” by arguing that he was only following orders and therefore not carrying any personal responsibility. The paradox is that what looks as failure from the perspective of qualification (Parks) or as success from the perspective of socialisation (Eichmann) is actually the opposite when considered from the perspective of subjectification, that is, from the perspective of the existence of Parks and Eichmann as subjects, rather than objects. Based on this I argue that a common way to think about education, namely as a process of cultivation, is insufficient to capture this existential reality, for which another educational paradigm is needed.
