Title: The Crisis of Political Language in Education

Date & Time: December 4th, 2025, 2:00-3:30 PM GMT 

Guest speaker : Dr. Ivan Zamotkin - Chair: Dr. Sean Henry

Abstract: The idea for this talk arose from a genuine sense of confusion (and even obscurity) surrounding the proliferation of politically charged terms in education (for instance, conservative vs progressive). Oppositions of this kind have long served to frame the parameters of debate in philosophy of education, yet they have often mirrored corresponding forms of political thinking. A more recent configuration, however, is one in which the relationship between the poles of politics and education is conceived diagonally: instances where educational conservatism is reassembled in the name of left-wing politics, and, conversely, where right-wing agendas adopt or repurpose elements of progressive educational thought. What I propose to consider, then, is not merely this convergence, but rather a condition in which certain terms (e.g., “(neo)liberal”) continue to circulate as placeholders for meanings that have largely escaped our understanding, thus offering no genuine space for thought. To illuminate this predicament, I turn to Hannah Arendt, who in her lifetime occupied (and arguably still occupies) a central position in debates over political identification, and who wrote compellingly about the paradoxical significance and the profound futility of many of the very words we continue to employ in politics and education alike.

About Dr. Zamotkin : Zamotkin currently holds a postdoctoral researcher position at the University of Oulu (Finland). He will share fresh insights related to his recently defended doctoral dissertation in Philosophy of Education on Democratic Education and Hannah Arendt. Please see the abstract of the seminar below.