When The Myth of Sisyphus describes those who live in the ‘rarefied air of the absurd’, Camus uses the word fidelity. This signals a recognition of both defeat and the demand for struggle. This suggests a humility. Education can be said to have this characteristic; it is constantly in service to the new and yet understands these come with limits. And these limits are overcome as education develops the mind to see differently and change the world we live in. This (...) type of education has fidelity to the absurd because of its cognisance of both aspiration and failure: it is aware of its useful potential to help make sense of the world, and yet it understands this requires disjuncture from what has come before. It promises the Sisyphean climb and return. Education does this consciously and deliberately. Education, in some ways, is therefore absurd. Or at least, from time to time it finds itself in the rarefied air. If this is the case then how should practitioners interpret or care for the absurd experience and what exactly might this look like in educational contexts. This article chooses The Fall for the purpose of better understanding the experience of absurd anxiety in the context of education. It uses, as an original device, the imagery of the ‘little ease’ to explore this feeling and the forces underpinning it. (shrink)

The early essays of Camus have been underexplored as educational texts. The discussion here introduces these texts for educational consideration. The analysis uncovers themes which link to existing educational research on Camus. As these are autobiographical texts they also provide new insight on the genesis of Camus’ thinking on subjects of interest to education, and Camus’ own educational journey into the absurd. The discussion here suggests the lyrical essays explore the connections between learning and the natural landscape, and as a (...) result, they suggest a concept of education based around seeing the world a certain way; a communion with the natural world as a basis for understanding and happiness. (shrink)

In this paper, we will explore how Albert Camus has much to offer philosophers of education. Although a number of educationalists have attempted to explicate the educational implications of Camus’ literary works, these analyses have not attempted to extrapolate pedagogical guidelines towards developing an educational framework for children’s philosophical practice in the way Matthew Lipman did from John Dewey’s philosophy of education, which informed his philosophy for children curriculum and pedagogy. We focus on the phenomenology of inquiry; that is, inquiry (...) that begins with genuinely felt doubt, pointing to a problematic to which the inquirer seeks a solution or resolution. We argue that the central purpose of education is to develop lucid individuals. To this end, we concentrate on Dewey and the pragmatist tradition, starting from Peirce, leading to Lipman’s development of Dewey’s educational guidelines into classroom practice. We show where Camus and the pragmatists are congruent in their thinking, insofar as they can inform the educative process of the community of inquiry. What we conclude is that the role of the teacher is to develop lucid individuals facilitated in a classroom that is transformed into a community of inquiry embedded in contemporary historical moments. (shrink)

In this paper we will explore how Albert Camus has much to offer philosophers of education. Although a number of educationalists have attempted to explicate the educational implications of Camus’ literary works (Denton, 1964; Oliver, 1965; Götz, 1987; Curzon-Hobson, 2003; Marshall, 2007, 2008; Weddington, 2007; Roberts, 2008, 2013; Gibbons, 2013; Heraud, 2013; Roberts, Gibbons & Heraud, 2013) these analyses have not attempted to extrapolate pedagogical guidelines to develop an educational framework for children’s philosophical practice in the way Matthew Lipman did (...) from John Dewey’s philosophy of education, which informed his philosophy for children curriculum and pedagogy. To this end we offer comparisons and contrasts between Camus and the pragmatist educational discourse centred on communities of philosophical inquiry (or, more broadly, collaborative philosophical inquiry). In particular we focus on the phenomenology of inquiry, namely, that “inquiry must begin with a problem, question, or doubt and must aim at a solution or resolution, both of which are genuinely felt—something in which the inquirer actually has a stake” (Gregory & Granger, 2012: 13). We conclude that what Camus calls lucidity has implications for the notion of reconstruction, prominent in Dewey’s thoughts on education, and central to Lipman’s focus on philosophy functioning educationally. (shrink)