Postformal Education: A Philosophy for Complex Futures by Jennifer M. Gidley

Abstract

This book intrigued me from the start. The title did not relay to me immediately the subject matter—the futures of education; the ways in which education can see itself for now, and especially the future, though a lens of new consciousness, understood as non-linear and non binary. Holistic visions, if you like. So in postformal education as phrase we have a rather new domain for the everyday educationist: one replete with views, perspectives, ideas that are not every-day because our current everyday functions with “hyperrationality,†whilst this book says this era of human existence is at an end. Also, of course it is not every-day because the book focused on the day to come rather than the day we have. I had to work hard to get my head into the idea that education can speak like this: using Jean Gebser, Edgar Morin, Ron Miller (and so many other men- where are the women I ask? They form a mere...