What is indirect education? Why should all education be indirect, and what would this mean for pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment? This practical open access guide shows how indirectness is pedagogically meaningful and how it is crucial for any teachers who are interested in their students as subjects of their own life and not as objects that need to be managed and controlled.

Indirect Education understands the curriculum as a course of study that offers a wide range of encounters and possibilities to students, appealing to their own action, judgement and freedom. It dismantles the idea that all teaching should be direct and explicit. Using short texts, reflections, biographies, vignettes and practical suggestions, it helps teachers use the indirect approach in their own practice. Based around three central arguments, the book explains why direct instruction is reductive and controlling, how indirect education is already widespread in classrooms, and how it can be further harnessed to the benefit of students and teachers alike. Starting from the idea that the point of all education is to prepare and encourage students for their own personal and professional lives, this book enables teachers to indirectly but consistently open up new ways for their students to engage with the world.

The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

Herner Saeverot is Professor of Education at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway.

Gert Biesta is Emeritus Professor of Public Education in the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at the Maynooth University, Ireland, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pedagogy, Religion and Social Studies at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway.

John Baldacchino is Professor of Arts Education in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, where he specializes in art, philosophy and education.