Antipedagogy as a Postmodern Project

Abstract

The article is devoted to revealing the essential characteristics of antipedagogy in the context of postmodern discourse. It has been shown that the representatives of this pedagogical movement called for the abandonment of education as a purposeful process of personality formation, considering it totalitarian and aimed at depersonalization. The ideas of postmodernism, which contributed to the formation and development of antipedagogy and alternative education, have been presented in the article as follows: changing the status of knowledge in society; extrastructural, non-linear way of organizing integrity, which excludes rigid centralization, orderliness, and symmetry; a special modernity model, in which life orientations and values are not imposed on a person. It has been proved that the spread of these ideas on education and pedagogical science helped to substantiate the basic provisions of antipedagogy. The provisions are related to the refusal of the purposeful personality formation according to a certain pattern, imposition of worldview schemes, life guidelines and values, the requirement to establish symmetrical relations, equal dialogue between a teacher and a student. It has been emphasized that antipedagogy was not narrowed to criticism of traditional school education and pedagogical science, but offered alternative pedagogical methods based on the principle of spontaneous autonomy of a child. The methods contribute to the self-development and self-determination of a student. The ideas of antipedagogy and its constructive potential are implemented in alternative educational institutions.