The Possibility of Problematizing Parent Education in Contrast to Teacher Education: The Legacy of the Modern Civil Class and the Desire of Parents

Abstract

This study examined the aspects of parent education, a category of adult education emerging as an extension of education, that can be problematized or thematized at a different level from teacher education. In the conventional conception of education that we know, parents are the same category as teachers, who are on the opposite side of the growing generation. Parent education sets the goal of educating parents with the goal of nurturing children. Although teacher education appears to be conceptually similar to parent education, the existential situations of parents and teachers as learners are different, which is a crucial point where parent education can be problematic. From the moment they have children, parents experience life as a different being from teachers. Parents who have children, are in a qualitatively different ontological position from teachers who take a ‘neutral’ stance on learners. In this study, the decisive basis for parent education to be problematic was found in the historical and social approach to the perspective and behavior of modern Western civic education. Then various perspectives on parent education were dealt with in that the goals of parent education and the desires of parents as learners were in a conflicting relationship with each other. To this end, a critical analysis was conducted focusing on the discourse on liberal arts education in the humanities, Freud and Lacan’s criticism of desire, and Deleuze’s analysis of desire.