This first book-length collection on Levinas and education gathers new texts written especially for this volume by an international group of scholars well known for their work in philosophy, educational theory, and on Levinas. It provides an introduction to some of Levinas's major themes of ethics, justice, hope, hospitality, forgiveness and more, as its contributing authors address some fundamental educational issues such as: what it means to be a teacher; what it means to learn from a teacher; the role of language in the curriculum; literature, ethics, and education; moral education and human relations in schools; ethics of responsibility and philosophical-pedagogical discourse; educational hospitality and interculturalism; unconditional responsibility and education; educating for participatory democratic citizenship; the pedagogy of peace; logic, rationality, and ethics; connecting teaching to spirituality. Levinas always insisted that his aim was not to provide "a program," and accordingly, it is not the intent of the authors to look in Levinas's texts for a set of guidelines, rules, or precepts to be applied to education. Rather, this study invites educators, and researchers in philosophy and philosophy of education, to a thoughtful and critical reading of Levinas, and to engage with his unique style of analysis and questioning as they uncover with these authors the necessity and the possibility of thinking education anew in terms of ethics, justice, responsibility, hope and faith.

Bringing together the work of international experts in the field, and two interviews with Derrida himself, this book provides a key to the reflections that Derrida's work has prompted on all aspects of educational studies. The contributors address fundamental educational issues from a Derridian perspective to demonstrate the relevance of his work in contemporary, multicultural societies.

This first book-length collection on Levinas and education gathers new texts written especially for this volume by an international group of scholars well known for their work in philosophy, educational theory, and on Levinas. It provides an introduction to some of Levinas's major themes of ethics, justice, hope, hospitality, forgiveness and more, as its contributing authors address some fundamental educational issues such as: what it means to be a teacher; what it means to learn from a teacher; the role of language in the curriculum; literature, ethics, and education; moral education and human relations in schools; ethics of responsibility and philosophical-pedagogical discourse; educational hospitality and interculturalism; unconditional responsibility and education; educating for participatory democratic citizenship; the pedagogy of peace; logic, rationality, and ethics; connecting teaching to spirituality. Levinas always insisted that his aim was not to provide "a program," and accordingly, it is not the intent of the authors to look in Levinas's texts for a set of guidelines, rules, or precepts to be applied to education. Rather, this study invites educators, and researchers in philosophy and philosophy of education, to a thoughtful and critical reading of Levinas, and to engage with his unique style of analysis and questioning as they uncover with these authors the necessity and the possibility of thinking education anew in terms of ethics, justice, responsibility, hope and faith.

Contents:
Introduction: Derrida and Education Denise Egéa-Kuehne and Gert J.J. Biesta
1. Derrida and the question of education: a new space for philosophy Didier Cahen
2. 'Preparing for the incalculable': deconstruction, justice and the question of education Gert J.J. Biesta
3. 'A certain 'madness' must watch over thinking': Jaques Derrida's interview with Fran^C,cois Ewald
4. The learning pharmacy Paul Standish
5. Teaching the other II: ethics, writing, community Peter Trifonas
6. Just decide! Derrida and the ethical aporias of education Julian Edgoose
7. Does speaking of the other involve receiving the 'other'? A Derridean reading of the postcolonial task of listening to others Zelia Gregoriou
8. The gift of Bildung: reflection on the relationship between singularity and justice in the concept of Bildung Michael Wimmer
9. 'Talking liberties': Jacques Derrida's interview with Alan Montefiore
10. Derrida's ethics of affirmation: the challenge of educational rights and responsibility Denise Egéa-Kuehne
11. Humanism, Derrida and the new humanities Michael Peters

Written by internationally acclaimed scholars on futures of critical theory, this book attempts to renew and reinvigorate critical theory by extending its range and its intellectual trajectories through strategies of inclusiveness that respect and build on parallel traditions. The authors reinterpret the work of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger in relation to central figures (Kant, Marcuse, Foucault) and themes of critical theory-the critique of modernity, theory of the self, and the question concerning technology. Key chapters address the critical significance of the work of the French theorists Levinas, Deleuze, Derrida, Lyotard, Irigaray, and Bourdieu and while other chapters focus on thinkers as diverse as Zizek, Giddens, Said, and Guattari, and deal with contemporary topics such as cyberfeminism and antiglobalization.