Visiting PhD fellow

The vast majority of educational approaches invokes a heritage from John Dewey’s treatment of “problems” and “problematic situations” throughout his work. Growing awareness of “wicked” or “super-wicked” problems such as climate change is currently challenging the idea, shared by Dewey and many educational approaches, that for something to be a problem, an actionable solution must be conceivable. My work is centered on what I call “durable problems” and on how they can become a part of problem-oriented curricula. Like wicked problems, durable problems question the premise of actionable solvability, but not in the same way. Unlike wicked problems, durable problems, do not spring from an increased complexity in a globalized world but are inherent to human sociality. The problem of sexuality, the problem of madness, or the problem of crime and punishment, as Michel Foucault brings them to light in the final years of his life, are all examples of durable problems. I argue that reducing our responses to such problems to actionable solutions (even if such solutions might be a part of a response) is incompatible with actual practice. Rather, I further argue, responses to durable problems are characterized by attempts to answer the question of who we are, by pursuits of self-knowledge.