How to Articulate the Transcending Dimension of Education?

Robi Kroflič

Summary:  Transcending is one of the key dimensions of education in pedagogical traditions and has appeared in humanistic, critical and reform pedagogy since the Enlightenment. In this article, I analyze the way in which Foucault, Mollenhauer, Freire, Luhman, and Biesta describe and articulate the transcending dimension of education. In all authors we come across the idea that free practices of self or subjectification practices form only one part of pedagogical efforts, and the question that remains open is how these subjectification practices are related to the transfer of knowledge (qualification) and the formation of socially appropriate forms of behavior (socialization). If in Foucault all three dimensions form the concept of governmentality, Biesta points out the need to connect these dimensions, but focuses mainly on describing the differences between qualification, socialization and subjectification. In conclusion, I show that the task of pedagogy is to find such forms of teaching and disciplining that open up possibilities for subjectification practices as the breaking of domination states, and it is unproductive to find a liberating education that should lead to the final emancipation of the individual.