Published September 29, 2025
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Chapter 3. Education without a face in the age of existential deficit: how globalization, post-truth, and the politics of meaninglessness dehumanize pedagogy
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Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics
Description
This chapter investigates the existential crisis of contemporary education, emphasizing how globalization, the culture of post-truth, and technocratic discourse contribute to the erosion of human dignity and subjectivity in pedagogy. Despite declarations of placing "the human at the center", education increasingly reduces the learner to a set of functions, competencies, or indicators, resulting in alienation and loss of authentic presence. Drawing on philosophical perspectives from Byung-Chul Han, Martha Nussbaum, Levinas, Foucault, Ricoeur, Buber, and others, the text critically analyzes how managerial language, global rankings, and efficiency-driven reforms depersonalize both teachers and students. The chapter introduces the concepts of "trauma of misrecognition" and "pedagogy of disconnection", highlighting the psychological and ethical consequences of systemic neglect of the individual. As a response, it proposes a linguistic and ethical reconstruction of pedagogy through a "culture of dignity", where words regain their humanizing power, and education is redefined as a space of recognition, presence, and dialogical trust. Ultimately, the chapter argues that restoring language, dignity, and listening as central elements of education is essential for countering existential fragmentation and reclaiming the face of pedagogy.
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2025-09-29
References
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