Symposium proposal for Network 27, ECER 2026, Tampere University, Finland
Non-affirmative theory of Education, Bildung and Didaktik
Chairs: Michael Uljens, Åbo Akademi University, Finland & Zsanett Agnes Bicsak, Nottingham, UK
Discussant: Johannes Rytzler, Mälardalen University, Sweden
Contributions:
1. Normative and non-affirmative elements of the Herbartian concept
Zsanett Agnes Bicsak, Nottingham, UK
2. Educative teaching for Bildung – A non-affirmative approach to Didaktik
Michael Uljens, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
3. Reinterpreting the pedagogy of care through non-affirmative theory of education
Khalil Gholami, Åbo Akademi University, Finland & University of Kurdistan, Iran
4. A comparative study of Educational Subject Philosophy in China and non-affirmative theory of education
Fangxin Liu, Beijing Normal University, China
Submission text
This symposium aims to critically reflect on how non-affirmative theory of education and Bildung may offer new avenues for revitalizing contemporary European Didaktik. While a non-affirmative approach to Didaktik shares core assumptions with Bildung-oriented traditions, it also introduces nuanced yet crucial distinctions in how pedagogical influence is conceptualized. By employing and refining analyses of key concepts such as Bildsamkeit, summons to self-activity, and recognition, non-affirmative Didaktik addresses and overcomes several widely acknowledged difficulties in understanding the pedagogical relation.
The symposium draws on contemporary interpretations of educational theory, such as those developed by Dietrich Benner, as well as rereadings of classical thinkers in modern education, including J. F. Herbart in Germany and J. V. Snellman in Finland. It argues that a non-teleological understanding of history and societal development, combined with a non-hierarchical conception of the relationship between institutional education and politics, economy, and culture, requires viewing the school as a “radical space for reflection” endowed with relative independence. Here, radicality refers neither to normatively politicized pedagogical activism nor to subordinating education to interests external to the school.
Non-affirmative Didaktik defends the relative autonomy of schools against initiatives that seek to turn schooling into a tool for conservative reproduction or naïve utopianism. Instead, it articulates a third way beyond the instrumentalization of education for either social reproduction or social transformation. This perspective requires recognizing schools as radical spaces for reflection that
enable students to engage critically with contemporary challenges, existing knowledge, democratic forms, and issues of sustainability.
The symposium maintains that the core pedagogical architecture of the contemporary European school has evolved on the basis of ideas now articulated within non-affirmative Didaktik, as outlined above. However, contemporary public education policies in many countries worldwide appear to have lost sight of these foundational ideas. It seems unlikely that widely implemented curricular trends—such as techno-centrism in education, educational performativism, competencism, conservative educational factualism, and forms of educational activism—provide productive educational visions, methods, or conceptual tools for policymakers, teachers, and school leaders.
The European modern educational tradition, which promotes autonomy and solidarity, thus contains fertile seeds for the future. However, these perspectives require reinterpretation in order to address contemporary global challenges, including political populism, cultural neoconservatism and nationalism, economic protectionism, digitalization, religious fundamentalism, sustainability issues, declining trust in media and knowledge institutions, and tensions between East and West, as well as North and South.
Furthermore, the symposium argues that a European gaze in theorizing Didaktik needs strengthening—not least within Europe itself, but also through sustained dialogue with the Anglophone world, Asia, and the Global South. In this regard, while theoretical universalism may hold value in a diverse world, the future path lies in theoretical multilingualism.
The overarching message of this symposium is that the modern tradition of theorizing Bildung as a process of human growth, together with a non-affirmative theory of pedagogical influence and intervention, provides key resources for moving beyond conceptions of education as either conservative enculturation or transformative formation of the individual learner.
The symposium is structured around four contributions. Zsanett Bicsak offers a rereading of Herbart with respect to the concepts of affirmativity and non-affirmativity. Michael Uljens presents a contemporary interpretation of non-affirmative Didaktik for schools. Khalil Gholami explores the contribution of non-affirmative theory to understanding the ethical dimensions of the pedagogical relation. Finally, Fangxin Liu conducts a comprehensive comparative analysis of non-affirmative education theory and the prevailing concept of person education in China.
References
Benner, D. (1993). Die Pädagogik Herbarts. Juventa.
Benner, D. (2023). On affirmativity and non-affirmativity in the context of theories of education and Bildung. In M. Uljens (Ed.), Non-affirmative theory of education and Bildung (pp. 21–59). Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-30551-1_2
Bicsak, Z. A. & Uljens, M. (2025). Non-Affirmative Education and Bildung: Emerging Perspectives by renewing the European Tradition. Hungarian Educational Research Journal 4(15), 443–448.
https://akjournals.com/view/journals/063/15/4/063.15.issue-4.xml
Herbart, J. F. (1991). Didaktische Texte zu Unterricht und Erziehung in Wissenschaft und Schule. Deimling.
Hjulström, E. & Rytzler, J. (2022). Herbart with Rancière on the educational significance of the ‘Third Thing’ in teaching. Ethics and Education, 17(4), 421- 436.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2022.2153470
Horlacher, R. (2016). The educated subject and the German concept of Bildung. A comparative cultural history. Routledge.
Mollenhauer, K. (2014). Forgotten connections. On culture and upbringing. Routledge.
Uljens, M. (2023). (Ed.), Non-affirmative theory of education and Bildung. Springer.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-30551-1