Metamodernism in Education

This paper analyses the potential uses of the concept of metamodernism in educational theory. A recent term with growing prominence, metamodernism refers to a broad cluster of overlapping responses to postmodernism in culture, theory and politics. To examine if and how metamodernism relates to educational theory, this paper first outlines what is usually meant by postmodernism in educational contexts. Considered broadly, postmodernism in education corresponds to problematising universal metanarratives, calling for plurality and the acknowledgement of subjectivity, and challenging the relationship between power and knowledge or subjects and structures. With this framing, I review the key contemporary conceptualisations of metamodernism. Metamodernism is commonly described as an oscillation between modern, hopeful commitment, and postmodern, critical deconstruction. It has also been defined as a theoretical and ethical paradigm for human and social sciences, and as a newly emerged stage in the complexification of self-conscious culture and thought. I examine the connections between these conceptualisations and interpret the general implications of metamodernism for education. Contrasting with the current, somewhat undertheorised literature on metamodern education, I argue how metamodernism can act as a descriptive lens for contemporary education as a whole, as an umbrella for educational currents that negotiate antagonistic complementarities such as plurality and universality, and as a nascent ethical–political program that explicitly reconnects education to collective purposes and epistemic universalisms. From this broad and explorative stance, this paper articulates the initial challenges and opportunities of engaging with the concept of metamodernism, and sketches a general research agenda for further metamodern educational theory.