Das Erziehungssystem der Gesellschaft (review)

Luhmann's work on education, appears in a series of books dealing with the analyses of social systems, especially of politics, religion, art, science, economy and now of education. These books were published after his major work "Soziale Systeme" (1984) and they follow the same logic in their arguments, analyzing their objects as "politics, religion, art, science, economy, education and — finally society — of the society." And, of course, Luhmann observes the educational system in the same manner in which he observed all other social systems. This means, as he outlines in the first chapter, the central assumptions of his social theory is that society has to be interpreted as a social system, i.e. a system of communication and functional differentiation. The educational system is one of these systems, all of which are self-referential, representing their own sense in their own medium and form, operating within a space of self-generated uncertainty to which the system reacts by self-organization, operative in organization-building and professionalization on the one hand, and on the other reflective, developing a specific semantic of their function, for example the semantic of "Bildung" in the educational system.

The Editor, Dieter Lenzen, describes this small volume as a "summa" of Luhmann's reflections on the problems of the educational system, which is characterized by the constructivist development of his own social theory and not unaffected by the defensive reactions of some of the pedagogues. Lenzen presents the manuscript in the state in which Luhmann left it, with completed footnotes and some facsimiles of Luhmann's manuscripts. Looking at the contents one finds the central issues in which Luhmann was interested in the field of education and its reflection: man and society, socialization and education, medium and form, classroom instruction as an interactive system, differentiation of the educational system, organization, professionalization and self-descriptions. Nothing has changed since Luhmann presented his "Reflexions probleme im Erziehungssystem" (with K.-E.Schorr, 1979). All these issues have been vigorously discussed since he started to edit — in cooperation with Schorr — the series of collected theoretical articles on educational problems: The discussion of the possibility of educational understanding was the first theme, the second theme was (the lack of a) technology of education, the third was reflections on the problems of intention and time and finally, in cooperation with Dieter Lenzen and in memory of Schorr, a book on further education and its role in the course of a person's life. This new book therefore offers the opportunity to summarize the impact, the results and the final outcome of Luhmann's theoretical efforts in the field of education; it also provokes a discussion on the acceptability and usefulness of the ideas he proposed and the blind spot in the perspective he used.

Luhmann asks two questions: What does "education" mean? How is education possible? These two questions represent the problems of the entire book. Luhmann's answer is paradoxical because his fundamental belief is that education is impossible or, more precisly, he reinforces the general doubts concerning education as a rationally planned and or even plannable social practice. Of course, Luhmann doesn't ignore the obvious fact that people have to grow up socially and therefore children are usually the prime objects of organized instruction, but his own point of view starts beyond these self-evident facts. Following the history of the modern educational system and criticizing the traditional self-descriptions of the pedagogues he develops (without genuine empirical research) his own theoretical framework.

The form of his argument is predictable. Inspired by the logic of Spencer Brown and his first imperative ("draw a distinction!") it is a series of distinctions in which Luhmann's picture of the educational system is drawn. In the first chapter it is the difference between "Man" and "person": Man is born, a person develops out of socialization and education (p. 38). The second chapter clarifies the difference of socialization and education and Luhmann's proposal (p. 143) refers to the intention of the educators and to the...