260 Chapter 8 fragmented society, albeit from an epistemologically humble and, at the same time, deliberately serving position. All this comes together in a type of character formation that works towards a serving attitude as the basis for relational epistemology and subjectifying education—and, therefore, is critical of the educational system and its demands, situating the pedagogical task as the centre of attention. 8.1.2 Felt need for a pedagogy of longing When, during its 14th meeting, the conversational community looked back on its previous meetings, it realised that it had already paid clear attention to this basic attitude, especially in meeting 11. When one member of the outsider group observed with regard to the three main topics that special attention was still necessary concerning the topics of ‘longing’ and ‘a pedagogy of longing’, others agreed, although they proposed placing it on the agenda as both a part and a deepening of the pillar of attitude formation – character – heart. The following quotation summarises the feelings of eight members of the conversational community who were present during the meeting on the topic of longing: P1 exhibits the opinion that longing actually has to do with all three pillars (…) P2 brings up the dominant culture of measurement in education. ‘We are too much concerned with keeping a grip and assessing, and too little with desire.’ P3 finds assessment models with whole series of checkmarks too central to students’ education. P4 notes that this is a problem with all the designated pillars—that is, they are all difficult to measure. P5 quotes a school principal he recently heard say that, at his school, some things are measurable and other things are noticeable. P6 wishes that noticeable things would also count in the contact with the inspection. P7 refers to James K. Smith and how he writes about desire. P8 promises to send round an article by Els van Dijk on the pedagogy of the heart, which makes connections with practicing desire and the importance of broad education. After having discussed the topic of basic attitude during its 11th meeting, the conversational community decided to dedicate its 15th meeting to longing as an important and pedagogically driven aspect of this attitude. As the minutes show, ‘We decide to put the theme of desire on the agenda for the next meeting of the learning community in order to further strengthen the pillar of attitude/ character in particular and to further connect the heart with head and hands’. What this concluding part does not show, although the quotation featuring the eight opinions above clarifies, is that longing is seen as an instrument with which to resist the intrinsic socialising forces of the educational system.
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