On the Power of the Concept of Responsibility

Abstract

The concept of responsibility is both omnipresent and highly ambivalent in the field of education. On the one hand, the term is considered to be one of the key concepts of pedagogical ethics, intended to enable a reflection on pedagogical authority. On the other hand, it is inextricably linked to the concept of accountability, which, in fact, tends to obscure important ethical issues in education. In this paper, Nele Kuhlmann aims to illustrate that these two dimensions of the concept of responsibility are inseparably rooted in its conceptual history and that it is only through this interplay that the term could become such an influential and powerful concept. By pointing out the ambiguous character of “responsibility” in the German field of educational theory and politics, Kuhlmann attempts to open up an epistemological space for thinking beyond the notion of responsibility in terms of sovereignty and accountability.