Deconstructing the Curriculum Radical Hermeneutics and Professional Education

This article contrasts the debate between conservatism and liberalism evident in educational policy and practice, with the radical, deconstructive position. Radical views of education are in turn contrasted with what the educational theorists Shaun Gallagher identifies as a moderate position, in which the various controversies turn in on themselves to reveal our dependence on a series of discursive practices. There are therefore four modes of thinking about education: the conservative/instrumental, liberal/critical, radical/deconstructive and moderate. According to Gallagher these modes closely parallel the four understandings of hermeneutics evident in the debates involving theorists such as Hirsch, Habermas, Derrida and Gadamer. The article explicates these four modes in the light of the experiences and concerns of professional education, particularly in architecture. In doing so, the article provides one means of making sense of the complex and bewildering state of policy-making and teaching practices in universities.