On Affirmativity and Non-affirmativity in the Context of Theories of Education and Bildung

Abstract This chapter describes the genesis and reception of my attempts at developing a non-affirmative pedagogy in four sections. The first recalls the beginnings, which identified non-affirmativity as a feature of critical pedagogical thought and action, leading beyond the then widespread juxtaposition of affirmative and emancipatory pedagogy. The second section presents the yield of these efforts on my “General Pedagogy” (1971/2018) and the basic pedagogical concepts, basic pedagogical theories, and elementary forms of action in education that I introduced in it. The third part develops systematic distinctions between positive and negative experiences, teaching and learning, and between upbringing, education, and competence, which are helpful for understanding the inherent logic of pedagogical thought and action and for the coordination between pedagogical theory and research in educational science. The fourth section deals with the reception of the approach and works out an enduring significance of critical non-affirmativity, which must be constantly re-examined against the background of changing pedagogical problem constellations.