What preconditions need to be in place in education if pressing ethical and political issues are to be addressed? How can sustainable educational spaces be created where controversial ‘wicked’ issues can be discussed? These questions are in focus in this project and the results will be presented in the book Educational Fundamentals – a corporeal and sensuous approach to ‘wicked problems’ in education.

The project makes use of empirical data collected in two previous research projects. Its objective is to offer a research-based language for the often marginalized bodily and sensory work that helps create an environment, within the spaces of schools and universities, that can harbour conflicts and tensions. Drawing on continental feminist philosophy (Judith Butler; Adriana Cavarero) and ordinary language philosophy (Rita Felski; Toril Moi) as methodology and as modus of critique, the book explores rituals and traditions, body language, voice, narration, timekeeping, and tact – small embodied and sensuous ‘things’ that have a large impact on educational spaces in polarized and conflicted times.

The work is academically motivated by the fact that embodied and sensuous dimensions of pedagogical practice are currently given little attention in values education research despite the fact that life in schools and universities usually depends upon it. It is empirically motivated by the increasing insecurity teachers feel about addressing controversial issues in pluralistic settings.