Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Governmentality and the Autonomous Subject: Persistent Contradictions in Philosophies of (Language) Education

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Spaces of Dissension

Part of the book series: Contradiction Studies ((COSTU))

  • 158 Accesses

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate how educational debates on the ideal of personal autonomy could benefit from Foucault’s concept of governmentality and his dictum of government as “conduct of conduct.” A view of education through the lens of governmentality allows for critical analyses of educational approaches that promote self-governance and lifelong learning. Taking as a starting point the widespread claim that the goal of education in today’s globalized world is to foster autonomy in the service of lifelong learning, I first illustrate the contradictions inherent in this and similar claims, focusing in particular on the ideal of the autonomous learner-subject as construed in discourses of language education. Furthermore, the construct of the autonomous learner-subject and its inherently contradictory nature can be traced back to the Enlightenment and finds its most prominent formulation in Kant’s assertion of the educational paradox. In the second part of the paper, I reframe the autonomy construct with reference to the notion of governmentality. I demonstrate how fostering autonomy in learner-subjects can be regarded as an act of governing others in order to improve their self-government. Instead of attempting to reconcile the contradictions inherent in the ideal of autonomy, it is more productive to view them through the lens of governmentality, which helps us conceptualize and contextualize more precisely the incommensurability inherent in the idea of an education for autonomy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The entanglement of autonomy and heteronomy can of course be observed in many contexts, not only with regard to language learning . In general, homo sociologicus and homo economicus are by definition not autonomous as they are always positioned and position themselves in a complex network of multiple dependencies that grants them agency, but also imposes restrictions on them. However, further discussion of these observations would exceed the scope of the present article.

References

  • Axford, Beverly, and Terry Seddon. 2006. Lifelong learning in a market economy. Australian Journal of Education 50 (2): 167–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benson, Phil. 2001. Teaching and researching learner autonomy. Harlow: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benson, Phil. 2007. Autonomy in language teaching and learning. Language Teaching 40: 21–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benson, Phil. 2011. What’s new in autonomy? The Language Teacher 35 (4): 15–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benson, Phil. 2013. Drifting in and out of view: Autonomy and the social individual. In The applied linguistic individual. Sociocultural approaches to identity, agency and autonomy, ed. Phil Benson and Lucy Cooker, 75–89. Sheffield: Equinox.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benson, Phil, and Lucy Cooker. 2013. The social and the individual in applied linguistics research. In The applied linguistic individual. Sociocultural approaches to identity, agency and autonomy, ed. Phil Benson and Lucy Cooker, 1–16. Sheffield: Equinox.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bröckling, Ulrich. 2011. Human economy, human capital: A critique of biopolitical economy. In Governmentality. Current issues and future challenges, ed. Ulrich Bröckling, Susanne Krasmann, and Thomas Lemke, 247–268. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bröckling, Ulrich. 2016. The entrepreneurial self. Fabricating a new type of subject. London: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bröckling, Ulrich, Susanne Krasmann, and Thomas Lemke (eds.). 2011. Governmentality. Current issues and future challenges. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, Mitchell. 2010. Governmentality. Power and rule in modern society, 2. rev ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, Gerald. 1988. The theory and practice of autonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Feick, Diana. 2016. Autonomie in der Lernendengruppe. Tübingen: Narr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fejes, Andreas. 2008. To be one’s own confessor: EDUCATIONAL guidance and governmentality. British Journal of Sociology of Education 29 (6): 353–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fejes, Andreas, and Katherine Nicoll (eds.). 2008. Foucault and lifelong learning: Governing the subject. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, John. 2006. Lifelong learning and the new educational order, New rev. ed. Sterling: Trentham Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fineman, Martha A. 2004. The autonomy myth. A theory of dependency. New York: New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1982. Afterword: The subject and power. In Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics, ed. Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, 208–226. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1991. Governmentality. In The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 85–103. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, David. 2007. Integrating self-access learning into an ESP course. In Learner autonomy 10. Integration and support, ed. David Gardner, 8–32. Dublin: Authentik.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, Colin. 1991. Governmental rationality. An introduction. In The Foucault effect. Studies in governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 1–52. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gremmo, Marie-José, and Philip Riley. 1995. Autonomy, self-direction and self-access in language teaching and learning: The history of an idea. System 23: 151–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobbs, Moira, and John Jones-Parry. 2007. In the eye of the beholder: Student opinions of language advisory services in two independent learning centres. In Learner autonomy 10. Integration and support, ed. David Gardner, 127–144. Dublin: Authentik.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holec, Henri. 1980. Learner autonomy. Strasbourg: Council for Cultural Co-operation of the Council of Europe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manuel, Jiménez Raya. 2014. Lehrerautonomie. Auf dem Weg zu Freiheit und Eigenverantwortung. Jahrbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache/ Intercultural German Studies 40: 147–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Robert, and Adam Cureton. 2016. Kant’s Moral Philosophy. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/kant-moral/. Accessed 3 Jan 2016.

  • Kant, Immanuel. 1900/1803. On Education. Trans. Annette Churton. Introduction by C.A. Foley Rhys Davids. Boston: D.C. Heath and Co. http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/356. Accessed 3 Jan 2016.

  • Kant, Immanuel. 1998. Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Trans. Mary Gregor and Jens Timmermann, First publication 1785.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Köpping, Klaus-Peter, Michael Welker, and Reiner Wiehl (eds.). 2002. Die autonome Person – Eine europäische Erfindung?. München: Fink.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, David. 1991. Learner autonomy. Definitions, issues and problems. Dublin: Authentik.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, David. 1997. Learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom: Theoretical foundations and some essentials of pedagogical practice. Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung 8 (2): 227–244.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, David. 2004. Constructing a theory of learner autonomy: Some steps along the way. In Future perspectives in foreign language education, ed. Pauli Kaikkonen, Viljo Kohonen, and Kaarina Mäkinen, 15–25. Oulu: Faculty of Education, Oulu University.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGarry, Michael, and Barbara Schmenk. 2013. The autonomous lifelong learner as an economized subject of education. In Fremdsprachen in der Perspektive lebenslangen Lernens, ed. Annette Bernd, 61–74. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Drawe, Käte. 1990. Illusionen von Autonomie. Diesseits von Ohmacht und Allmacht des Ich. München: Kirchheim.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Drawe, Käte. 1993. Das Ich im Spiegel des Nicht-Ich. Bildung und Erziehung, 46, 195–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer-Drawe, Käte. 1998. Streitfall ‘Autonomie’. Aktualität, Geschichte und Systematik einer modernen Selbstbeschreibung von Menschen. In Fragen nach dem Menschen in der umstrittenen Moderne, ed. Walter Bauer, Wilfried Lippitz, Winfried Marotzki, Jürgen Ruhloff, Alfred Schäfer, and Christoph Wulf, 31–49. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Elizabeth R. 2016. The ideology of learner agency and the neoliberal self. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 26 (3): 348–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicoll, Katherine, and Andreas Fejes. 2008. Mobilizing Foucault in studies of lifelong learning. In Foucault and lifelong learning: Governing the subject, ed. Andreas Fejes and Katherine Nicoll, 1–18. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. 2008. Teaching, learning and assessment for adults: Improving foundation skills. Executive Summary. https://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/40026459.pdf. Accessed 3 Jan 2016.

  • Olssen, Mark. 2006. Understanding the mechanisms of neoliberal control: Lifelong learning, flexibility and knowledge capitalism. International Journal of Lifelong Education 25 (3): 213–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palfreyman, David. 2003. The representation of learner autonomy and learner independence in organizational culture. In Learner autonomy across cultures. Language education perspectives, ed. David Palfreyman and Richard C. Smith, 183–200. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pennycook, Alastair. 1997. Cultural alternatives and autonomy. In Autonomy and independence in language learning, ed. Phil Benson and Peter Voller, 18–34. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, Michael A. 2001. Education, enterprise culture and the entrepreneurial self: A foucauldian perspective. Journal of Educational Enquiry 2 (2): 58–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, Michael A., A.C. Beasley, Mark Olssen, Susanne Maurer, and Susanne Weber (eds.). 2009. Governmentality studies in education. Rotterdam: Sense.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rieger-Ladich, Markus. 2002. Mündigkeit als Pathosformel. Beobachtungen zur pädagogischen Semantik. Konstanz: UVK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rösler, Dietmar. 2007. E-learning Fremdsprachen. Eine kritische Einführung, 2nd ed. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaffar, Birgit. 2014. Changing the definition of education. On Kant’s educational paradox between freedom and restraint. Studies in Philosophy of Education 33: 5–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmelter, Lars. 2004. Selbstgesteuertes oder potenziell expansives Fremdsprachenlernen im Tandem. Tübingen: Narr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmenk, Barbara. 2005. Globalizing autonomy? TESOL Quarterly 39 (1): 107–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmenk, Barbara. 2006. CALL, self-access and learner autonomy: A linear process from heteronomy to autonomy? In The concept of progression in teaching and learning foreign languages, ed. Theo Harden and Arndt Witte, 75–90. Oxford: Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmenk, Barbara. 2008. Lernerautonomie. Karriere und Sloganisierung des Autonomiebegriffs. Tübingen: Narr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmenk, Barbara. 2012. Von Autonomie zu Aufgaben und zurück oder Wie muss ein Autonomiekonzept aussehen, das uns hilft didaktisch-methodische Entscheidungen für das aufgabenorientierte Lernen zu treffen? In Aufgaben 2.0, ed. Katrin Biebighäuser, Marja Zibelius, and Torben Schmidt, 57–89. Tübingen: Narr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmenk, Barbara. 2014. Die Quadratur des Kreises oder: Wie lassen sich Autonomie und soziales Lernen vereinbaren? Jahrbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache/ Intercultural German Studies 40: 117–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, Maarten, and Jan Masschelein. 2006. The learning society and governmentality: An introduction. Educational Philosophy and Theory 38 (4): 417–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simons, Maarten, and Jan Masschelein. 2008. Our ‘will to learn’ and the assemblage of a learning apparatus. In Foucault and lifelong learning. Governing the subject, ed. Andreas Fejes and Katherine Nicoll, 48–60. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tassinari, Maria Giovanna. 2010. Autonomes Fremdsprachenlernen. Komponenten, Kompetenzen, Strategien. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toohey, Kelleen. 2007. Conclusion: Autonomy/agency through sociocultural lenses. In Re-interpreting autonomy in language education, ed. Andrew Barfield and Stephen H. Brown, 231–242. London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuschling, Anna, and Christoph Engemann. 2006. From education to lifelong learning: The emerging regime of learning in the European Union. Educational Philosophy and Theory 38 (4): 451–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zirfas, Jörg. 2004. Pädagogik und Anthropologie. Eine Einführung. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

    Barbara Schmenk

Authors
  1. Barbara Schmenk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barbara Schmenk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Julia Lossau

  2. German Linguistics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Daniel Schmidt-Brücken

  3. German Linguistics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Ingo H. Warnke

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Schmenk, B. (2019). Governmentality and the Autonomous Subject: Persistent Contradictions in Philosophies of (Language) Education. In: Lossau, J., Schmidt-Brücken, D., Warnke, I. (eds) Spaces of Dissension. Contradiction Studies. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25990-7_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation