Navigating Through the Storm: Reinventing Education for Postmodern Democracies by Aharon Aviram (review)

Navigating Through the Storm: Reinventing Education for Postmodern Democracies focuses on a crucial topic for the state of Western education systems: the necessity to address, in a profound and complex manner, the crisis which globally engulfs all areas of society, including the way knowledge and skills are produced, developed and transmitted through, by or outside schools of all grades. While complex and at times densely argued, the book is well worth the effort it demands of a reader, because it analyzes in depth the major debates regarding the uses and outcomes of education, but at the same time proposes a fresh and well-argued model, which, if applied, can balance the traditions and humanistic orientation of education with the expectations of the general public, the demands of policy makers, and the responses that universities can offer. Thus Aharon Aviram goes further than merely criticizing the state of the contemporary educational system, arguing that the responses need to address in a holistic manner the way education is viewed, organized, provided, and linked to the other areas in social action.

Aviram reminds the reader, throughout the book, that the scientific, technologic, social, and medical changes in society—all part of the postmodern cultural crisis—could not and did not exclude education. He makes evident in his keen analysis that both the education system itself and society at large understand, discuss, and try to find ways to bridge the gap between the structures and conceptions inherent in the way in which education operates in Western societies and the chaotic and divergent reality of postmodernity. In Aviram's words, this gap renders the educational system "non-functional from both [a] social and organizational perspective" (p. xvi). Social—because current education systems fail in serving current economic and cultural needs, organizational—because in many aspects the educational systems described lost the capacity to operate meaningfully and coherently. These claims are discussed at length in the book. The author approaches this vast topic from the angle of complexity, not invoking this paradigm, but demonstrating the need to combine discourses and debates from four basic paradigms: philosophy of science, cognitive research, organizational theories, and psychological theories. Using the metaphor of a ship navigating through uncharted waters—discussed in the introductory part entitled "Education in a Stormy World" (resonating, in the author's own confession, with Richard Livingstone's Education for a World Adrift, 1944)—Aharon Aviram points at the fact that old patterns of problem-solving do not respond to the postmodern reality, where everything is changed and where a holistic view is needed in order to save basic humanistic values and people alike, and to allow for progress. For education, such progress can be the orientation of the educational systems and policies toward developing personal autonomy, morality, and dialogical belonging. Since postmodernism questions the very concept of progress, and in light of the belief that there is a constellation of values that must be recognized as guiding in and through social and professional life, Aviram presents himself as a modern thinker and professional, living in a postmodern reality. The difference in terms is not merely a play upon words, but a careful, deliberately made choice from a cognitive point of view.

The book provides a merciless but informative critique of global trends in education that include the disappearance of educational goals, of structural functionality, and of the target audience of schools in the postmodern era, and proposes a new model of organizing and providing education, through implementing Autonomy Oriented Education (AOE). The three main sections of the book, "A Critique of Modern Education," "Education Befitting the Postmodern Era," and "The Postmodern Revolution in Education: Aleatory or Strategically Directed?," walk the reader through the deconstruction of the current state to the critical analysis of the different major debates regarding the solutions out of the crisis and culminate with a passionate plea for adhering to the construction of AOE. Finally, the author "puts his cards on the table" and...