Judith Butler's postmodern existentialism : a critical analysis

Bucher ascertains that Butler's description of the temporalized process of structuration, which seeks to avoid recourse to political voluntarism, or the sovereign intentionality of the autonomous individual, yields powerful insights into social identity. He asserts further that Butler's description of the dominant heterosexual culture in terms of melancholia, and her insights into the structures of repetition and difference that make up the social conventions that produce cultural norms, represent important resources in thinking about contemporary cultural conflicts.

Existentialism : providing an ideal framework for educational research in times of uncertainty ®

Issues such as anxiety, alienation, crises and concerns over self-identity typify this era of uncertainty. These are also recognised themes of Existentialism and have implications for educational practice and research. The purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it aims to clarify Existentialism, as too often it is mistakenly assumed to refer to an atomistic view of the individual, who is able to exercise absolute freedom. This clarification refers primarily to the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Heidegger.

The second purpose is to present an outline of a particular existential framework. This is mainly structured around the notion of the learner, who is characterised as being in relation, culturally embedded, alienated and a meaning-maker. These attributes have direct implications for the ideal of 'the educated person' - an often-articulated 'aim' of education programmes. Becoming educated, according to this framework, means becoming authentic, spiritual, critical, empathetic, and having personal identity.

A third purpose is to argue how educators may usefully employ such a framework. By engaging with it, educators are able to examine effective pedagogical approaches using notions of 'the existential crisis' and anxiety. In this way, educational curriculums, programmes and policies can also be critiqued using this framework.

Changing pre-service teachers' purposes of education through existential crises

This article considers changing the purposes of education held by pre-service teachers. It argues that purposes of education are inextricably linked to life meanings and purposes. Employing an existential perspective, mainly through Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre and Morris, the fundamental beliefs that one has regarding the meaning and purpose of life are understood to serve as the basis for formulating purposes of education. An attempt to change these purposes is recommended by drawing upon the existential crisis and Kierkegaard's doctrine of 'how'. Importance is placed not so much on the object or what of purposes and understandings, but on how the individual relates to them.

Centring the subject in order to educate

It is important for educators to recognise that the various calls to decentre the subject—or self—should not be interpreted as necessarily requiring the removal of the subject altogether. Through the individualism of the Enlightenment the self was centred. This highly individualistic notion of the sovereign self has now been decentred especially through post-structuralist literature. It is contended here however, that this tendency to decentre the subject has been taken to an extreme at times, especially by some designers of school frameworks and curricula, who have eliminated the subject altogether. Such elimination is argued to contribute to the numbers of youth who are dropping out of school. By adopting an existential perspective and by drawing mainly upon Kierkegaard's subjective truth and Dewey's notion of centeredness, the case is made that for education the subject should not only be included but should actually be centred—at least momentarily.