Conserve, pass on, desire. Edifying teaching practices to restore the publicness of education

Abstract

The article presents the thesis that at the basis of the crisis of identity, mission, and function currently affecting the publicness of education systems there is a deep erosion of substantive practices in the act of teaching, since the disappearance of these practices contributes decisively to eclipsing the democratizing and potentially liberating promises of school education. After introducing the main topics for exploration, a relation is established between the problems brought about by the mandate to innovate in education and its relationship with the crisis of transmission. The article goes on to explore the possibilities of bringing back the public part to education through the restoration of three core edifying teaching practices: conserving, passing on, and desiring.

Key words: teaching practices, public education, school, post-critical pedagogy.