Beautiful Risk of Education

This is a book about what many teachers know but are increasingly being prevented from talking about: that real education always involves a risk. The risk is there because as W. B. Yeats has put it education is not about filling a bucket but about lighting a fire. It is there because students are not to be seen as objects to be moulded and disciplined but as subjects of action and responsibility. The Beautiful Risk of Education is organised around a critical discussion of seven key educational concepts: creativity communication teaching learning emancipation democracy and virtuosity. By opposing the risk aversion that characterises many contemporary educational policies and practices Gert J.J. Biesta makes a strong argument for giving risk a central place in our educational endeavours and brings risk taking to the forefront of a critical pedagogical practice.