Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Chris Haywood, Professor Mairtin Mac an Ghaill
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
Identity is one of the defining terms of the 1990s in England. Currently, academic, political and popular discourses highlight the pervasiveness of the term. However, what is missing from these accounts is an awareness of its philosophical roots. Consequently, most of these accounts are theoretically under-developed, marked by conceptual confusion and conflation. This paper is concerned with the formation of identities within the context of educational arenas. More specifically, we focus upon the philosophical positions of materialism and deconstructivism, highlighting the particular dynamics of their epistemologies of identity. We suggest that at a time of political retreat and and intellectual self-doubt among educationists, critical social scientists are making available productive conceptual frameworks within which to explore identity formations in educational sites. Recent theoretical developments in sociology and cultural studies provide an opportunity for philosophy of education to play a vital role here, in engaging with new ways of thinking about old philosophical problems. Within the context of an increasing reductionist policy focus on managerialist solutions, philosophy helps us to challenge the ideological conversion of moral and political questions into technicist 'problems'.
Author(s): Haywood C, Mac an Ghaill M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Cambridge Journal of Education
Year: 1997
Volume: 27
Issue: 2
Pages: 261-272
Print publication date: 01/06/1997
ISSN (print): 0305-764X
ISSN (electronic): 1469-3577
Publisher: Routledge
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305764970270209
DOI: 10.1080/0305764970270209
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
