62 Chapter 1 rudimentary knowledge of the humanities. It is, stated Nussbaum (2010), concerned with ‘making students responsible democratic citizens who might think and choose well about a wide range of issues of national and worldwide significance’ (pp. 27–28). Her proposal ventured far beyond the simple addition of certain knowledge of democratic values and procedures to the established curricula of schools, or of the enhancement of skills such as, for example, the proposed 21st century skills. Her focus was on nothing less than the souls of children and youth. ‘The real clash of civilizations is (…) a clash within the individual soul, as greed and narcissism contend against respect and love’, she concluded, adding that ‘all modern societies are rapidly losing the battle, as they feed the forces that lead to violence and dehumanization and fail to feed the forces that lead to cultures of equality and respect’ (Nussbaum, 2010, pp. 142–143). As Nussbaum (2010) related this soul-based approach to a silent crisis of ‘massive proportions and grave global significance’ (p. 1), it is clear that her analysis fits with the layered problem of fragmentation described above. The statement that schools were (and still are) unprepared to live up to their new tasks and appeals requires more clarification. Not only is it problematic that the new tasks (fostering social cohesion, educating citizenship, interculturalism, attention to the soul) are far too broad and complex to simply be added to the existing curricula, the situatedness of schools within broader society also has a complicating influence. The theory of overlapping spheres of influence (Epstein et al., 2002) helps to clarify this situatedness. Schools form part of a societal system for the upbringing of youth. They function in a network, wherein they work closely together with families, state/society and other educational partners. Due to occupying a remarkable intermediate position between these educational partners, school are immediately affected by social changes in families, state/society and other partners. In the context of the relatively homogeneous nation-state, for a long time schools were able to focus on qualification as the enhancement of necessary knowledge and skills. In the task of socialisation, they were supported by, for example, relatively strong churches and society itself. The homogeneity across the board also had its own, relatively strong, socialising influence, whereas subjectification was a much less strongly experienced need. This context of collaboration and separation of estate between the educational partners, however, came under pressure when society began to change rapidly due to what was described in the introduction to this dissertation as the Great Acceleration and Great Transformation. Changes in the natural and social worlds, which due to advances in technology appeared ever faster, impacted everything that schools surrounded, triggering an ever
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