The question of pedagogical purpose and aims in contemporary consumer society

english

2026

volume 77, issue 1

critical pedagogy   educational normativity   humanistic education   pedagogical theory

Zveza društev pedagoških delavcev Slovenije
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

This theoretical paper discusses the purpose and aims of education in the era of consumerism. We argue that pedagogy, understood as an autonomous descriptive-normative science, is the only discipline entitled to define the purpose and aims of education. This argument is developed in three steps. First, we ground the question of educational purpose in the ontological status of the human being. Education is understood as a formative process (Bildung) through which human beings understand, realise and transcend themselves; therefore, its aim should not be set externally by economic or political demands but should arise from the idea of the human as a free, moral and self-transcending subject. Second, we reaffirm the epistemological autonomy of pedagogy. Pedagogy is not a value-neutral practical field but a science that unites descriptive analyses of educational reality with normative guidance about what education should achieve. On this basis, it possesses both the right and the responsibility to articulate educational purpose and aims. Third, we offer a theoretical analysis of consumerism as a pedagogical problem. We argue that consumerism displaces pedagogical teleology by redefining education as a market service focused on performance, employability and competitiveness. This educational reality replaces value-led reason with instrumental rationality and reduces education to adaptation and production. We claim that this represents not only a crisis in education but also a crisis of education itself. This theoretical paper thus provides a pedagogical-theoretical view of consumerism as a force that undermines the very conditions of education as human formation.

11.05.2026