Emancipatory and Ideological Functions of Education

Abstract

The paper examines two conflicting societal functions of education: on the one hand, education can work to reproduce the existing power relations, indoctrinate students, and assimilate them into the existing social order, but on the other hand, it can also contribute to the emancipation of students and the society as a whole. By contrasting the emancipatory function with the ideological one, I aim to clarify the meaning of individual and social emancipation drawing on the Enlightenment tradition, locate the main ideological forces opposing it in the field of education, as well as suggest some ways in which they can be resisted. First, I will explore the core emancipatory educational ideas of the Enlightenment based on three key texts: Rousseau’s Emile, Kant’s “What is Enlightenment?” and Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Next, I will examine the ideological function of education, in particular of neoliberal education, in order to discern the main ways in which contemporary ideology works through education. Based on insights gained, I will suggest several main lines of resistance, capable of strengthening the emancipatory function of education and countering the ideological one in contemporary neoliberal societies. In the concluding discussion, I will respond to the critics arguing that the Enlightenment ideal had itself become ideological and had instrumentalized education (Biesta 2008; Osberg & Biesta 2020), which will lead me to make a conceptual distinction between ideology and ideal.