Abstract

In this essay, Andrew Stables and Stephen Gough explore some of the implications for educational policy and practice of a view of living as semiotic engagement. Such a view, Stables and Gough argue, has the potential to displace or circumvent essentially Cartesian models currently dominant within learning theory and within neoclassical economics . It thus enables synergies between theories of learning and of economic behavior, allowing for greater consistency in thinking about both educational policy and provision, on the one hand, and curriculum and pedagogy, on the other. In addition, the authors claim that giving semiotics a foundational role in educational thinking provides a basis for the broader development of liberal political thought within a postmodern cultural context