Dispelling the Burden of Agency: Receptive Learning During Political Crisis. Issue 4 (2nd April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wahl, Rachel
• Is Part Of: Educational theory. Volume 68:Issue 4/5(2018:Aug.)
• Page Start: 403
• Page End: 426
• Publication Date: 2019-04-02
• Subjects: Education -- Periodicals; Onderwijs; Theorievorming; Éducation -- Périodiques; 370.105
• DOI: 10.1111/edth.12330
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-2004

Abstract

Abstract: In response to a fractured and vitriolic public culture, many civic educators hope to cultivate students' ability to learn from people who are different from themselves. In this article Rachel Wahl illuminates how college students' conceptions of moral order shape their willingness to learn during deliberative dialogue from people whose political views they reject. While openness to difference is common to liberal conceptions of a good society, this inquiry suggests that the secular liberal emphasis on political change driven by individuals can, for principled reasons, constrain students' receptivity to their political opponents. Conversely, the evangelical belief that God is the source of transformation can, in surprising ways, form the basis for an ethics of receptivity. Drawing on Charles Taylor's conception of the primacy of moral identity and his assertion that ideals can be best understood through the study of how people enact them, Wahl argues here that some aspects of the secular liberal imaginary can hinder noninstrumental engagement, but that such engagement may be precisely what is needed to bridge the deepest divides.