This work is a philosophical examination of the relevance and function of socio-political myths in education. Central to this work is exploring the antinomy between myth and reason. Drawing on the work of philosopher Hans Blumenberg, I defend his view that one should go beyond the myth and reason antinomy and understand myth as an important and unique mode of symbolic orientation that, along with reason and science, is an essential part of humanity’s symbolic interaction with the world. From this view, I explore how socio-political myths are philosophically and practically relevant to the analysis of society in general and education specifically. Of particular importance, I argue that a philosophical understanding of ‘socio-political myth’ should be integrated as part of the critical democratic conception of education. By integrating a substantive philosophical understanding of socio-political myths into the critical democratic framework, a number of important pedagogical implications are revealed. Specifically, this work reveals how two particularly powerful socio-political myths that are currently embedded in the Canadian education system, the meritocratic and neoliberal myths, ultimately erode and undermine values, beliefs and educational practices that are consistent with democracy. In addition, I contend that socio-political myth should be understood as an important and necessary narrative corollary to critical democratic praxis. As such, I conceptualize and defend what I denote as democratic myth as an essential narrative to the development of critical participatory democracy both in and through education. Finally, I conclude this work by examining how democratic myth may be practically developed by teachers and students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/35908 |
| Date | 09 August 2013 |
| Creators | Metcalfe, Bryan |
| Contributors | Portelli, John P. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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