The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality

The three didactic questions – what?, how? and why? – are increasingly supplemented with a fourth: who? Drawing on Therborn’s distinction between difference and inequality, as well as on biopolitical theory, the present paper engages critically with the didactic who?-question. The paper situates the...

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Main Authors: Linus Bylund, Beniamin Knutsson
Format: Article
Language:Danish
Published: Örebro University 2021-08-01
Series:Utbildning & Demokrati
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.oru.se/uod/article/view/1545
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author Linus Bylund
Beniamin Knutsson
author_facet Linus Bylund
Beniamin Knutsson
author_sort Linus Bylund
collection DOAJ
description The three didactic questions – what?, how? and why? – are increasingly supplemented with a fourth: who? Drawing on Therborn’s distinction between difference and inequality, as well as on biopolitical theory, the present paper engages critically with the didactic who?-question. The paper situates the who?-question in broader discussions of educational differentiation, suggesting that it encompasses a tension between the recognition of difference and (re)production of inequality. Arguably, this tension becomes visible, and possibly more navigable, when we pose “Therbornian questions”. The paper further suggests that the who?-question can be understood, in biopolitical terms, as a technique for constructing various student populations as appropriate for different kinds of education. Such management of difference, the paper warns, can easily slip into a biopolitics of inequality. Despite our critical observations, we conclude that there might still be radical potential in the who?-question, provided that it is handed over to the students and that careful attention is paid to societal relations.
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spelling doaj-art-da4a07b42db3482bb1d226e217434ee32025-08-20T02:18:51ZdanÖrebro UniversityUtbildning & Demokrati1102-64722001-73162021-08-0129310.48059/uod.v29i3.1545The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequalityLinus BylundBeniamin KnutssonThe three didactic questions – what?, how? and why? – are increasingly supplemented with a fourth: who? Drawing on Therborn’s distinction between difference and inequality, as well as on biopolitical theory, the present paper engages critically with the didactic who?-question. The paper situates the who?-question in broader discussions of educational differentiation, suggesting that it encompasses a tension between the recognition of difference and (re)production of inequality. Arguably, this tension becomes visible, and possibly more navigable, when we pose “Therbornian questions”. The paper further suggests that the who?-question can be understood, in biopolitical terms, as a technique for constructing various student populations as appropriate for different kinds of education. Such management of difference, the paper warns, can easily slip into a biopolitics of inequality. Despite our critical observations, we conclude that there might still be radical potential in the who?-question, provided that it is handed over to the students and that careful attention is paid to societal relations.https://journals.oru.se/uod/article/view/1545biopoliticsdidacticsdifferentiationeducation for sustainable developmentinequality
spellingShingle Linus Bylund
Beniamin Knutsson
The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality
Utbildning & Demokrati
biopolitics
didactics
differentiation
education for sustainable development
inequality
title The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality
title_full The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality
title_fullStr The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality
title_full_unstemmed The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality
title_short The Who? Didactics, differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality
title_sort who didactics differentiation and the biopolitics of inequality
topic biopolitics
didactics
differentiation
education for sustainable development
inequality
url https://journals.oru.se/uod/article/view/1545
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