RICE 2026-27: Engaging the ‘posts’ in educational theory, research and practice

Welcome to our first RICE event of the 2026-27 year. We will have speakers and some reading discussions to provoke thinking on a set of post’s—their historical trajectories, meanings and generative uses for studying and researching (and steering) education. Further activities to be announced. Our first face-to-face gathering and presentation is:

Friday, November 27 at 1 pm in FEB room 1044 by visiting postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Ivan Zamotkin. "Teaching After Progress? Post-progressive education in theory and practice"

Post-progressive education, or Education after Progress, is a recent development in educational theory that seeks to disentangle problematic elements of the Enlightenment idea of progress, as well as progressive educational rhetoric (primarily associated with student-centeredness), from the very essence of education itself. Post-progressive education is one of many ‘post’ terms currently circulating in educational debates (alongside other modifiers as ‘postcritical’ or ‘posthumanist’), which do not necessarily aim to propose a new approach (or a direct application of theory to practice); rather, they seek to illuminate dimensions of education that remain undertheorized or largely ignored within dominant educational discourse. This presentation explores post-progressive education—its basic features and generative potential—through the case study of a Canadian secondary school math teacher’s praxis. Drawing on classroom observations and the teacher’s own reflections on her pedagogical practice, the study aims to rearticulate relations between ‘post’ interventions, progressive education as a set of ideals and as a cultural milieu, and the everyday realities of teaching. By bringing this empirical material into conversation with the philosophical discussions on Education after Progress, the presentation offers a post-progressive orientation for understanding and guiding teaching. Specifically, it offers insights into how schoolteachers might navigate the overwhelming and often conflicting expectations placed upon them, whilst affirming the practice of teaching, the role of the teacher and education’s intrinsic value.
This work is supported by a grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation (Suomen Kulttuurirahasto)