New Social Foundations for Education: Education in 'Post Secular' Society

There has been growing scholarly attention to questions about the revival of religion and religiosity on global social, cultural and political fronts and the emergence of a ‘post-secular’ society. New Social Foundations for Education is dedicated to the drawing of the implications of the contemporary ‘post-secular’ social transformation for education. Though the question of the ‘post-secular’ stands at the focal point of a wide range of academic debates and discussions, within educational discourse it has not received close scholarly attention. This volume aims to correct this lack by presenting groundbreaking works of leading scholars from Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. Contributions discuss such topics as the mystical tradition and its social and pedagogic implications; transformative and ecological education; ‘new age’ spiritualism and its educational implications; and the relations between secular and religious education in different local contexts.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Philip Wexler/Yotam Hotam: New Social Foundations: Education in Post Secular Society – Jürgen Habermas: Notes on Post-Secular Society – Hanan A. Alexander: Education and the Post-Secular Condition: Resanctifying Pedagogy in an Era of Disenchantment – William F. Pinar: On the Teachings of George Grant – Robert A. Davis: Religion, Education and the Post-Secular Child – Yotam Hotam: Pedagogy, Spirituality, and Curricular Design in Waldorf Education – Oren Ergas: The Post-Secular Rhetoric of Contemplative Practice in the Public Curriculum – Suzanne Schneider: Demarcating the Secular: Education Policy in Mandate Palestine – Ayman K. Agbaria/Muhanad Mustafa: Palestinian Secular and Muslim Organizations’ Educational Activism in Israel: Without, Within and Against – Nehemia Stern: Post-Secular Ethnography: Religious Experience and Political Individualism among Neo-Hasidic Religious Zionists in Israel and the West Bank.

About the Author :
Philip Wexler is Professor of Sociology of Education and Unterberg Chair (Emeritus) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 2011 to 2013, he was the visiting Bronfman Professor at Brandeis University. He is currently Visiting Professor in Education and Social Sciences at The Bergische University, Wuppertal, Germany. He is the author of a number of books, including Social Theory in Education (Peter Lang, 2008). Yotam Hotam is Assistant Professor at the University of Haifa where he is also the head of the MA Program for the Study of Alternatives in Education. His publications include Modern Gnosis and Zionism: The Crisis of Culture, Life Philosophy and National Jewish Thought (2013) and Space Theodyssey: Science Fiction, Religiosity and Education in a Post-secular Age (2011).