A Course Between Bureaucracy and Charisma: A Pedagogical Reading of M ax W eber's Social Theory

Philosophers of education tend to mention M ax W eber's social theory in passing, assuming its importance and presuming its comprehension, but few have paused to consider how W eber's social theory might consciously inform educational theory and research, and none have done so comprehensively. The aim of this article is to begin this inquiry through a pedagogical reading of W eber's social theory. The basis of my inquiry is W eber's claim in ‘Science as a Vocation’ that the moral purpose of scholarship is met when it provides persons with ‘self‐clarification’ and a ‘sense of responsibility’. Using this claim as guide, I make two arguments. First, I make the interpretive argument that W eber's descriptive social theory can be reconciled with his normative remarks about pedagogy. Second, I make the critical argument that W eber's conception of education not only withstands objections, but that it can also help us to discern blind‐spots obscured by the objectors' intellectual positions. Ultimately, I conclude that W eber's social theory should influence educational scholars, particularly, by serving as a sober guide for persons who would do well to interrogate the purposes of their work in a time and place where the practice of education is stuck between two undesirable purposes, increasing bureaucratisation and charismatic reform.