Beyond foundations: signs of a new normativity in philosophy of education

We analyzed how philosophers of education received the 'antifoundationalist' turn in epistemology, particularly with respect to its practical relevance. Our main conclusion is, that antifoundationalist philosophers of education discharge the primacy of epistemology, replacing it by a primacy of commitment. Consequently, they no longer understand practical relevance in terms of contributing to 'improved' foundations for educational judgement. Stressing the contextual embedding of any justification, they rather concentrate on demonstrating the restrictive, excluding, implications of any educational judgement. We check the tenability of this position against some critical objections. Finally, we contrast the 'new normativity' that emerges from this contextualist approach with traditional, prescriptive normativity as well as with the non-prescriptive normativity of the Frankfurt School from the nineteen-seventies.