September 2011 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AARHUS UNIVERSITY Playful responsibility When personal responsiblity becomes a public matter
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
Playful responsibilityWhen personal responsiblity becomes a public matter
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*Topic› Analysis of a ‘responsibility game’ using Jacques Derrida’s analysis of
the concept of personal responsibility› Research questions:
1. What kind of responsibility is articulated in the current discourse and in the tools used for responsibilization of parents?
2. What paradoxes does this articulation create?› Thesis:
1. Personal responsibility becomes a public matter 2. Responsibility games designed to promote personal responsibility
dislocate and deconstruct at the same time the very form of personal responsibility.
› Questions that might be interesting to discuss: 1. Do you recognize the tendencies that I describe here?2. How does it connect to ‘monitoring parents’ and demanding of the
parents to ‘follow the rules’?
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*The discursive context› Public schools in Denmark demands more personal responsibility from
parents:
› ”Your child’s friend is not well because his parents are getting a divorce. Do you talk to the parents about this, or do you think that you should keep clear and leave the school teacher to deal with the problem?” (Danish Minister for Social Welfare on the website ’myresponsibility.dk’, 2008)
› ”Some parents think that what has to do with the school, belongs to the school. Following up on homework, talking concepts, take a trip. I mean: to open up the kids. As if it’s not their department.” (teacher, public school in Denmark, 2006)
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*From observer to performer› Parents used to be articulated as observers and supporters with
specific, limited duties.
› Now parents are articulated as performers, expected to be personally responsible – but still within the logic of the school.
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*The responsibility game
›Who is responsible for ensuring…› That the child sits down when the bell rings?› That the child feels good about him og her self?› That the child is able to handle conflicts with others?› That the child develops creativity and imagination?› That the child is able to lose games with a good grace?› ›
School Mutual Home
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*Research questions› What kind of responsibility is articulated in the current discourse and in
the tools used for responsibilisation of parents?› What kind of paradoxes does this articulation create?
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*The form of personal responsibility
The absolute responsibilityNot a responseSilent, your own decision
The general responsibilityAccounting for your actions, following rules, norms, ethics
The personal responsibility Impossible because it is both absolute and general.
It answers the general responsibility in an absolute manner.
Jacques Derrida: The gift of death
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*
The form of personal responsibility: The ethical temptation› “for Abraham, Kirkegaard declares, the ethical is a temptation. He must
therefore resist it. He keeps quiet in order to avoid the moral temptation which, under the pretext of calling him to responsibility along with his singularity, make him lose his unjustifiable, secret, and absolute responsibility before God. [...] The ethical therefore ends up making us irresponsible.” (Derrida 1992: 62)
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*The responsibility game› Almost all statements are eventually categorized as ‘mutual’
› Parents are obliged to see the family internal affairs as relevant to the school
› The ‘mutual’ is defined by the school
› Be responsible but do not interfere
› Play turns into decision
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*Deconstruction of the classical form
› The game risks producing ethical temptations.
› The game risks thereby puts the form of personal responsibility at stake.
› The game allow the school to oscillate between offering a performance role to the parents and to turn them into pure observers.
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*
Paradoxes – when personal responsibility becomes a public matter › How can parents assume a responsibility when they shouldn’t
‘interfere’?
› How can parents avoid the ethical temptation when they are asked to reflect in public on our personal decisions?
› How can we create a discussion of the mutual tasks and goals of school and family when the ‘mutual’ is given as a morally obliging condition?
› How can we recognize responsible behaviour when general responsibilities are not defined outside the facilitated dialogues?
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*Discussion› Comments/questions?
› Do you recognize the tendencies of the turning personal responsibility into a public matter?
› How does the tendencies of turning personal responsibility into a public matter connect to ‘monitoring parents’ and demanding of the parents to ‘follow the rules’?
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*Further reading› Andersen, N. Å. & Knudsen, H (submitted for publication): Playful
responsibility. Responsibilization of parents - deconstructing the form of responsibility.
› Andersen, N. Å. & Knudsen, H (forthcoming): Health games: Towards a playful responsibility.
› Andersen, N. Å. (2009): Power at play. The relationships between play, work and governance, Palgrave Macmillan, London.
› Knudsen, H. (2009): “The betwixt and between family class”, Nordic Educational Review, 29 (1): 149-162.
› Knudsen, H. (2011/forthcoming): “The game of hospitality”, Ephemera, special issue on Work, Play and Boredom.
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*
Technologies currently used to make parents assume responsibility› Family classes › School/home contracts, parents contracts› Parents defining expectations for other parents, e.g. bullying policies› Various games› (Not traditional school-home consultations, because they position the
teacher as the expert, pointing out the exact duties of the parents)› (Not political fora as school board, because they allow the parent to
insist on formulating the community in other languages than the school’s)
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
*
Playful responsibilityHanne Knudsen
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., [email protected].
September 2011
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAARHUS UNIVERSITY
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