Education in a Post-Metaphysical World: Rethinking Educational Policy and Practice Through Jurgen Habermas’ Discourse Morality

What does it mean to say that a person has beeneducated? This question forms the basis of global education policy debates;from the way governments establish funding for national school systems, to theway children are treated in the classroom. Should there be a common ethical core to suchpolices? What kind of educational process should aboriginal groups in Labrador, Canada, have a moral right to, and should this process be different from whatchildren in New York's boroughs have claim to? Should a school-basedcurriculum, such as the UK's National Curriculum, make well-being a centralconcern or are there other ethical dimensions to be addressed? Christopher Martin explores these questions andargues that the best way to consider them is to view education as a matter ofpublic moral understanding. He brings together traditions of thought central tophilosophy of education, such as R. S. Peters, and connects this tradition tothe moral philosophy and critical theory of Jurgen Habermas, whose theory ofDiscourse Morality has previously been given little attention in educationcircles.