Beautiful Risk of Education, Paperback

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 education is not an interaction between machines, but an encounter between human beings. It is there because students are not to be seen as objects to be molded and disciplined, but as subjects of action and responsibility. Biesta's book opposes the risk aversion that characterizes many contemporary educational policies and practices and makes a strong argument for giving risk a central place in our educational endeavors. The book is organized around a critical discussion of seven key educational concepts: creativity, communication, teaching, learning, emancipation, democracy, and virtuosity. Recipient of the 2014 Outstanding Book Award, American Educational Research Association, Division B (Curriculum Studies)