Wild Fruits: The Pedagogical Merits of Conflicts

Conflicts over social and cultural issues in society can lead to problems in schools. That could explain the ongoing ‘holy grail’ in education of peace, cleanliness and regularity. Some scholars therefore contend that most teaching is designed to obscure or minimize the conflicts over issues.
But could it be, quite the opposite, that conflicts can also make a very positive and powerful contribution to learning and the development of children and people? Should we not, to the contrary, embrace the conflicts over issues for teaching and learning?
This idea was the reason for a careful and detailed analysis of the seminal key text of four famous educational philosophers, in search of the positive and constructive value of conflicts for education.
The results of the research, laid down in four separate international publications, show that on the one hand, there is a tradition of avoiding conflicts, as is the case with Rousseau. Still, on the other hand, Dewey, Tagore and Freire argue that conflicts are necessary and conditional for thinking, imagination and change.
The results of the research are placed in a tradition of critical pedagogy and in an additional chapter the possibilities for educational practice, that is, to profit from the educational power of conflicts, are discussed in detail. Conflicts are immensely valuable to education.