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Evidence and Metacognition in the New Regime of Truth: Figures of the Autonomous Learner on the Walls of Plato's Cave
Author(s) -
ISSITT JOHN
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9752.2007.00580.x
Subject(s) - metacognition , cave , epistemology , psychology , philosophy , cognition , history , archaeology , neuroscience
This article traces three features of contemporary educational thought that at first sight appear to be quite different and distinct, but are, it is argued, linked in a discursive formation that constitutes a regime of truth in educational thinking and policy. Using Foucauldian categories, it argues that a discursive formation connects the identity of the ‘autonomous learner’ with the ‘evidence‐based’ movement, via the powerful scientific discourse of cognitive psychology—in particular through the notion of ‘metacognition’. Despite the rhetoric of personal empowerment and science that seems to legitimate each of these three elements, the regime of truth that results from their combination confirms us as prisoners in Plato's Cave—manacled so that all we can see is the shadow‐play on the walls of our prison.