The Aesthetics of Education: Theatre, Curiosity, and Politics in the Work of Jacques Ranciere and Paulo Freire

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This innovative book examines the aesthetic event of education. Extending beyond the pedagogy of art or art appreciation, Tyson E. Lewis takes a much broader view of aesthetics and argues that teaching and learning are themselves aesthetic performances. As Jacques Ranciere has recently argued, there is an inherent connection between aesthetics and politics, both of which disrupt conventional distributions of who can speak and think. Here, Lewis extends Ranciere's general thesis to examine how there is not only an aesthetics of politics but also an aesthetics of education. In particular, Lewis' analysis focuses on several questions: What are the possibilities and limitations of building analogies between teachers and artists, education and specific aesthetic forms What is the relationship between democracy and aesthetic sensibilities Lewis examines these questions by juxtaposing Ranciere's work on universal teaching, democracy, and aesthetics with Paulo Freire's work on critical pedagogy, freedom, and literacy. The result is an extension and problematization of Ranciere's project as well as a new appreciation for the largely ignored aesthetic dimension of Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed.

Reviews

Lewis is deserving of praise for his deliberate approach in representing the ideas of Ranciere and Freire as well as providing the reader with a new way of thinking about the place of the aesthetic event in education. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate and research collections. -- J. A. Helfer, Associate Professor and Chair of the Knox College Department of Educational Studies, Knox College, USA * CHOICE *
In this book Tyson Lewis provides a penetrating analysis of the work of Jacques Rancire as it pertains to the theory and practice of education. The book is an engaging, compelling, highly original and much needed intervention in current discussions about education, politics and democracy. * Gert Biesta, Professor of Educational Theory and Policy, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg *
Tyson Lewis offers a remarkable cross-reading of Freire and Ranciere. His readings are subtle and his ideas are exciting. If, in their different ways, Freire and Ranciere stage alternative pedagogies, Lewis himself stages a confrontation and conversation between them that opens up the classroom to new and more democratic theatrical and political possibilities. * Todd May, Class of 1941 Memorial Professor, Clemson University, USA *

Author Bio

Tyson E. Lewis is Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University, USA.