Education after a Radical E-Turn: A Revolution in Theory and Practice

With the E-turn, we have seen the rise of conceptions of cognition that challenge the mainstream cognitivist assumption that cognitive activity is always representational and takes place in-the-head. However, E-conceptions come in many different shapes, forms, and guises. This paper seeks to progress our thinking about what adopting two different E-conceptions of cognition could mean when it comes to rethinking educational theory and practice. It focuses on a contest that exists between two philosophical rivals: the most conservative variant of E-cognition and its most radical challenger. These opposing accounts offer fundamentally incompatible ways of understanding cognition. Focusing on basic mathematical cognition and the mastery of mathematical competence, reasons are given for favoring radical enactivism over both its classical cognitivist and conservative E-contenders. The paper concludes by briefly exploring how we might expand and revolutionize our thinking about pedagogical practice if we adopt the radical enactivist framework.