Page 53 - Looking_after_school

1. Today's discourse: why should the student be at the center of education?

idea of individual freedom in the context of institutionalised forms
of power (State, Education, Church…). The current criticism may be
summarised as follows: ‘everybody his own school; a custom school
for all’. The starting point is that differences between people are larger
than their (abstract or concrete) similarities, and that differences, not
similarities, should be the guiding principle for the organisation of
education and learning.
A third point is that putting the person of the student at the heart
of the system is always an interconnected entanglement of two basic
motives. Firstly, the internal educational motive that tries to do justice
to the uniqueness of every student in order to optimise their learn-
ing process or learning outcomes. The main drive is to improve the
learning process, or to make sure that the student really reaches the
results or the goals that makes them ready for participation in society
(access to jobs, cultural life, further education). For this perspective
from the inside of education, primary concern is placed upon each
individual student and their best possible learning outcomes. There is
also an external societal perspective that is concerned with the student in
view of societal considerations. Instituting a more efficient and effec-
tive learning process for each student is relevant to society because it
reduces the cost of education (e.g., a reduction of students that fail, or
a schooling system that performs better). But, next to these financial
interests, there are also specific social or economic interests which can
be served through the external approach. A better degree of qualifica-
tion can, for instance, reduce inequality, or can ensure a maximal input
for the development of the knowledge economy. The internal perspec-
tive corresponds with putting the interest of the learner, themselves, at
the centre (as a didactic starting point), while the societal perspective
takes social, financial, or economic interests as a point of departure.
For the last, the student who is placed in centre stage also immediately
becomes a means for other ends.

We thus find that, despite obvious differences between perspectives,
there are also clear similarities. In what follows, we will build on these
findings by developing the argument that there is an important trans-
formation taking place in the architecture of education and learning:
we move from an educational institution to a learning environment.

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