Emmanuel Levinas' s reorientation of ethics as preceding ontology and his radicaludpresentation of responsibility, justice, consciousness and knowledge are of clearudrelevance for education. It is therefore not surprising that in the last decade we haveudseen a number of studies ofLevinas by educational theorists.udMuch of this work has focused on Levinas's relevance for issues of ethics, socialudjustice, multiculturalism and moral education. This thesis draws on this previousudresearch, but aims to take educational readings of Levinas in another directionudthrough considering how his presentation of discourse, language and subjectivity, asuddependent on an infinite ethical demand, troubles several dominant orientationsudwithin educational discourse that treat education in ways that can become totalisingudand instrumentalist.udI begin by offering a philosophical analysis of how Levinas describes the scene ofudteaching and the nature of subjectivity. I then interrogate how this reading of Levinasuddisturbs some current understandings of education: first, the way that, withinudliberalism, education can be conceived instrumentally as the site for the developmentudof a certain kind of individual (a rationally autonomous chooser, etc.), and second, theudway that neoliberal educational ideologies have privileged managerialism,udperformance and the market, with Religious Education providing a case study of theudimplications of Levinas's interruption. I then consider how this leads to newudunderstandings of community and political subjectivity within education.udIn this way, I explore how responding to Levinas, and reading his work together withudcriticisms addressed by Badiou and others, leads us not just to a richer vision of theudmeaning of education, but also to a more motivating understanding of the ethicaludsubjectivity of both students and teachers, which is dependent on a deepening and anarchicudresponsibility, and which invites us to work for a better education extendingudbeyond the straight line ofthe law.
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