Publisher's Synopsis
In this anthology of his work spanning the past 20 years, Dr Benne considers the place of a reoriented education and re-education in ameliorating today's crises. For Benne, the term "crisis" does not refer to an unfortunate emergency, a temporary upset of established practices and aspirations to which life will return after the emergency has been handled. Rather "crisis" denotes a turning point in human history, an axial period marked by the crumbling of traditional assumptions, and the dissolution of outmoded orthodoxies. Four distinctive themes are woven throughout the essays - learning as experiential, dialogic, participative, and oriented toward social as well as individual change; the centrality of "personhood" in education, and the need for exposing and criticizing views of the self as passive and determined, rather than creative and emerging; the need to extend the clientele of education from children and young people to alienated persons of all ages who are in need of renewal and empowerment; the need for a morality of hope in an age of deepening human despair.;Among the questions the author asks are: can prophetic re-education stimulate contemporary persons toward the control of technology and toward the control of technology and toward the creative mediation of conflicts in the interest of species survival?; can educational policies and programs be created and employed to make a post-contemporary life for humankind more probable than it now appears to be? Contemporary educators are certain to confront these questions, as they think reflectively and responsibly about their current priorities. This volume should be of interest to graduate students in philosophy of education, educational foundations, adult education, and applied behavioural sciences; and to researchers and practitioners in community dynamics and organizational development.
