Dancing with Dignity in Education

Abstract in English

The thesis argues for a commitment to a comprehensive conceptualization of dignity in educational philosophy and practice that is meant to deepen moral reflection and ethically enrich educational relationships, particularly between children and adults in formal educational settings. To this end, the thesis reconstructs and revitalizes dignity at three levels: the ideal; the processual; and the qualitative. That is, dignity is re-theorized as a normative regulative ideal, as a process of relational becoming, and as a quality of moral awareness. By reconceptualizing different aspects of dignity, namely the intrinsic, the inflorescent and the attributed, towards more relationally attuned and dynamic conceptualizations, the thesis argues that the inherent ethical risks of objectification and instrumentalization of children due to formalized education’s fostering functions, can be, not overcome, but more gracefully lived with. The compilation thesis interprets and promotes the notion of dignity neither as yet another overarching aim of education, nor as an ideal cherished by just one philosophical persuasion or tradition. The dignity that the thesis reconstructs emerges from diverse philosophical sensibilities, mainly those of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Martha Nussbaum, Gert Biesta and Sharon Todd, in a critical dialogue that responds also to the challenges that the modern conception of dignity has encountered. This critical dialogue through diverse philosophies renders dignity something more than an intrinsically valuable ideal and process by proving that dignity is also a quality of moral awareness that has many aspects which frame the relations of adults and children. This quality of moral awareness is described as committed non-attachment, a theoretical stance, methodological approach as well as a relational attitude, that steers clear from both relativism and dogmatism by maintaining a faithfulness to an ethical vision, without rigid loyalty to a philosophical trend or tradition. From this lens, the reformulation of dignity does not come with a prioritization or exclusive attachment to one version of the term at the cost of excluding other versions, nor overlooking their synergy and tensions with one another. The non-rigidity of movement, relational attunement, and acceptance of the indeterminate nature of education that dignity as committed non-attachment requires of both philosophers and practitioners, is described through the metaphor of a dance. As the title suggests, there is an ambivalence in the movement. On the one hand, we are striving for dignity in our relationships with others, dancing with dignity as an ever present, yet also, rather elusive dance partner. On the other hand, we are not just moving in a linear fashion towards a predefined ideal of dignity, but also striving to make the movement itself intentional and ethically meaningful to ourselves, others and the world, moving, or dancing, with dignity.