Fear Management and Education: Status of a Failing Relationship
Date
2020-06-29
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute
Abstract
Basically, for Ernest Becker, fear management is inevitable for all organisms; and cultural organisms have a really complicated fear management systems structuration. Cultures, like individuals, like educational systems of cultural reproduction, can do fear management well or really do it poorly—it all depends, on many things. Doing it unwell has severe consequences for life on this planet. The author has dedicated his educational career for 30+ years to this cause of finding the ‘best’ fear management/education (FME) possible. Terror Management Theory (TMT) is a great gift in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current status of fear in educational discourses, in particular, the educators who advocate for TMT. He shows a ‘gap’ in the introduction of Beckerian educational philosophy/theory from the mid-60s-70s through to the current status of fear/terror management in the field of Education. He provides a complementary Fear Management Theory (FMT) in Appendix 1. The author finds several problems with the current applications and makes generic and theoretical recommendations to improve understanding and applying TMT in educational settings. He addresses there will be differences in applying TMT by educators because of how they choose to frame the insidious global Fear Problem.
Description
text as original form
Keywords
fear, terror, fearlessness, Ernest Becker, terror management theory, education, Fear Problem
Citation
Fisher, R. M. (2020). Fear Management and Education: Status of a Failing Relationship. In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute, 97.