How far should we go seeking new horizons for education’s autonomy?

Abstract

While the fresh debate on education’s autonomy continues in this special issue as in other forums and venues, new layers of complexity on this theme continue to emerge, just as further nuances are revealed in the course of discussion. Following this welcomed growth in the discussion, and in the spirit of characterizing autonomy—and therefore also education’s autonomy—as it bears polysemic possibilities, we explore in this editorial old and new theoretical and practical horizons for conceptualizing and realizing education’s autonomy. We claim that advocates of education’s autonomy should ask not just where we want to go but also how far do we want to go; to what degree programs of education’s autonomy should inspire to change theoretical and practical frameworks, and as such the way we think about education? To what degree educational programs should exceed the current social structures within which education functions? By surveying such questions, we hope to expand the discourse on education’s autonomy into related and even unrelated contexts, where it is very possible that autonomy is not seen as having any direct relevance—depending, of course, on how one poses its questions—but where on a closer look, both context and case bring up new avenues of thinking and dialogue. We invite scholars to experiment with these horizons, as the discussion moves toward further examination of what education’s autonomy means and what are those possible and uncharted terrains which invariably emerge whenever the subject is brought up.