Abstract

The paper is devoted to the status and perspectives of critique in the theory of education. Detecting that it is either a social criticism in which education appears as a convenient culprit and an investment currency, or a criticism of a small scope that corrects didactic strategies within predetermined frameworks, the author articulates two axiomatic beliefs that prevent a radical critique of education in modern times. The first belief or the first methodological dogma refers to the necessary but unjustified privileged epistemic position of the critic, which makes the critique either unfounded or, if it is at all theoretically responsible, regenerates the system it aims to undermine. The second dogma refers to the preconceived notion that education should achieve something that goes beyond the immediate scope of education, something that its current organization does not achieve, and which supposedly cannot be achieved by any other means. It is concluded that this normative dimension that society imposes on education can have disastrous effects.