Abstract

‘Performativity’ is a term coined by the French Philosopher Jean-François Lyotard in his most famous work The Postmodern Condition. This chapter begins by looking at performativity’s status within the study of education and what it has commonly come to mean in that domain. I argue that this common understanding presents an overly simplistic understanding of performativity when read against Lyotard’s original account. It is this rendering of performativity that tends to be the focus for philosophers of education. Consequently, it is important to show the ways in which performativity covers concerns that extend beyond a focus on improving exam results and ensuring accountability. This will involve looking more closely at what Lyotard had to say about performativity and putting his work in a philosophical context. The discussion will then move on to some of the ways in which philosophers of education have taken up the concept to try and analyse and understand educational practices and discourses. Given the vast array of work on performativity, providing a literature review of everything that has been published since The Postmodern Condition would lead to incredibly thin fare. I have therefore selected five relatively distinct positions into play so as to illustrate what is at stake in regard to thinking about, and in some cases beyond, performativity.