EPS seminar on May 28, 2020 (the question of universalism)

The seminar of the Education-Politics-Societies axis on the morning of May 28 will focus on the issue of universalism. Two presentations are scheduled:

Tommy Terraz, associate member of the laboratory and researcher in the philosophy of education, proposes to(re)examine the universal in educationthrough the lens of the Anthropocene.

" The proliferation of crises facing humanity (pandemics, climate change, etc.) has made us more aware than ever that humanity is one, interdependent, and interconnected. Yet the universal also seems to be in crisis, caught between the double trap of nihilistic relativism on the one hand (indifference that can lead to violence) and dogmatism on the other (identitarian withdrawal that can lead to violence). If the etymology of the word crisis, "krisis" in Greek, means judgment, decision, it is important to make choices and have "universalizable" (Drouin-Hans, 2004) benchmarks for education. Not to mention that education, a living and necessary human relationship, cannot do without conditions, but also values and goals, which must be constantly postulated and re-examined. This proposal will therefore consist of questioning together, based on a radical questioning of the philosophy of education, the universal in education. Why continue to question educational universals? And how can we go about it? We will also try to dispel certain confusions and work on paradoxes and points of tension: between universality and singularity, and between republican principles (liberty, equality, fraternity, secularism, respect for diversity, etc.).
A first bibliographical reference: Alain Policar: L’inquiétante familiarité de la race, Décolonialisme, Intersectionnalité et Universalisme (The disturbing familiarity of race, decolonialism, intersectionality and universalism), published by Le bord de l’eau, chuchotementshttps://www.editionsbdl.com/produit/linquietante-familiarite-de-la-race-decolonialisme-intersectionnalite-et-universalisme/.

Geneviève Zoïa, CEPEL Laboratory and Faculty of Education, will provide empirical illustrations of the issue of universalism in educational research. She will presentthe book Education et diversité(Education and Diversity), edited by Françoise Lorcerie, and her contribution to this work on the relationship between diversity and universalism (http://www.pur-editions.fr/couvertures/1611134525_doc.pdf).