Transforming The Concept of Educational Achievementinto One That Values The “Weakness” and “Pathos”of Human Beings

toward establishment of anew relationship between welfare and education

Abstract

　In recent years, we have seen a nearing of welfare and education, with growing

significance being attached to academic achievement as a key factor for

overcoming poverty. Underlying this trend is a destabilization of the previously

established order in which education and welfare were segregated in mutually

exclusive spheres under the jurisdictions of two major agents, school and family.

At the beginning of the 21st century, both agents are at risk of faltering rather

than supporting each other. What is needed under these circumstances is a

new welfare-education philosophy that places value on the weakness and pathos

of human beings and that can also serve as a foundation for a new concept

of educational achievement.

　From the viewpoint above, in this paper we first criticize the concept of

achievement used in previous sociology of education studies. Next, we turn to

the arguments of Erich Fromm and Giorgio Agamben for hints of new philosophy

that might serve as a foundation for transforming the concept of educational

achievement. In particular, Fromm’s concepts of potency as virtue and productiveness

and Agamben’s concept of impotentiality are useful ones that assume

the pathos of human beings and that also show the connectedness between the

formation and exercise of abilities and the pursuit of welfare and human ethics.