Table Of ContentK–12 Education as a Hermeneutic
Adventurous Endeavor
Considering the role of compulsory mass education and schooling in a dem-
ocratic society, this book introduces an alternative vision for K–12 education
as an “adventurous endeavor.” Grounded in a strong theoretical frame-
work, Yosef-Hassidim reveals the negative impact of instrumentalization of
schools: when education is considered a social and political instrument, it
serves dominant social forces’ interests rather than students’ or humanity as
a whole. Offering conceptual and pragmatic frameworks to limit political
influence on schooling, the author proposes a new hermeneutical structure
that restores education’s agency and separates it from external social forces
and provides the foundation for regarding K–12 education as a sovereign
social sphere in its own right.
Doron Yosef-Hassidim is a visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin–
Madison.
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K–12 Education as a Hermeneutic Adventurous Endeavor
Toward an Educational Way of Thinking
Doron Yosef-Hassidim
K–12 Education
as a Hermeneutic
Adventurous Endeavor
Toward an Educational
Way of Thinking
Doron Yosef-Hassidim
First published 2018
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ISBN: 978-1-138-06230-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16169-3 (ebk)
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To My Parents
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1 An Educational Way of Thinking? 1
2 Late-Modern Instrumental Approach to Education 17
3 Analysis of Instrumentalization 47
4 From Social Servant to Agent for Humanity: An
Adventurous Education 77
5 Hermeneutic Structure: Meaning Making as an
Educational Goal 125
6 An Educational Goal of Examining the
Meaning of Being Human 159
7 Toward a Sovereign Education 171
8 Implications for Selected Areas 203
9 Conclusion: From Vision to Reality 221
Index 233
Preface
There are almost no real adventures left in our lives. Far from adventures
created by Disney or Pixar producers and artists—in which we participate
only as listeners and viewers—most events we consider as having adventur-
ous features are actually planned in detail and involve careful suspension of
the busy flow of our daily lives. Imagine a vacation, for example; people talk
about going on an adventure, but in reality, they know exactly where they
are going, their hotel is booked, they have read and learned about the desti-
nation (for some, including the best shopping places), and perhaps they have
a tour guide booked to visit popular attractions and partake in ‘canned’
adventures such as white water rafting or zip lining. Moreover, tourists may
become disappointed when the reality they encounter is different from what
they expect. Going to school, on the other hand, might seem the furthest
one can possibly get from an adventure; after all, being in school is not just
planned in time and space, but it is also mostly perceived as an unpleasant
experience for students because they are expected to master things they are
not necessarily interested in or care about. Many teachers, as well as school
administrators, hardly find the enterprise to be an escapade but rather—and
more likely in these times of neoliberal agendas and policies—a stressful
and dissatisfying experience. Nevertheless, in this book, I propose to per-
ceive K–12 education as an adventurous endeavor that is exciting both to
students and educators. This adventurous character is founded on being
human and is articulated through meaning making that seeks to imagine
alternative social arrangements and alternative ways of life.
K–12 education is logistically and administratively a huge and complex
social endeavor. In terms of employment, for example, the public education
system is one of the biggest employers and probably the most populated sys-
tem in society.1 Whether students like it or not, schools constitute a signifi-
cant part of their life; schools are sites where they spend significant portion
(if not most) of their weekday waking hours and where they are under con-
stant supervision and influence of adults and peers. K–12 education is also
a public good that attracts broad interest; what students undergo and the
impact on them is of interest not just to them and their parents (or guard-
ians) but also to every person who has any interest in the young as young or
