Rationale for Communitarian ‘Common Good’ as the Aim of Education against Neoliberal Perspective for ‘Economic Growth’
- 1 Brahmanbaria Government Mohila College, Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh
Abstract
The debate and conflict between neoliberalism and communitarianism is quite old in modern educational thought. This paper has been written in a form of review article aiming to make a contrast between these two philosophies, illuminating their backdrops and potential shortcomings in educational context while making an attempt to find out the better alternative from the two. Prospects of neoliberalism as alternative to communitarianism have been described and criticised. Philosophical communitarianism (as demonstrated by James Arthur) and political communitarianism (as manifested by Amitai Etzioni) both believe that our identities are constructed by the relationships we build with communities in which we belong to. The idea of the common good, again prescribed by both groups of communitarians opposes the neoliberal trends of privatisation and marketisation of education. Friedman’s complaints through the feministic lens against communitarianism have been reviewed and attempts have been made to refute them. Dewey’s progressive education has been incorporated to communitarian ‘common good’ to argue that common good and not free choice or ready workforce or economic growth should be the aim of education. No theory or philosophy, however, can be an immediate blueprint of a social problem or disorder. Literature review of relevant articles has been adopted as methodology.
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