On the Complexity of Solidarity between Parents and the Educational System in the Days of the COVID-19 Crisis

Oct 15, 2026

The article develops a normative argument for the democratic-liberal state: it should secure solidarity between the public educational system and parents of students in both routine and emergency periods. It analyzes how solidarity and equality have been weak in Israeli education, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. Drawing on Michel Foucault, it employs “pastoral power” as a productive-constructive mechanism to build solidarity between education and parents during emergencies.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Solidarity in emergency education

Biopolitics and biopower

Pastoral power and solidarity

Parental involvement and educational inequality

Questions to be addressed

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| On the Complexity of Solidarity between Parents and the Educational System in the Days of the COVID-19 Crisis1 | | --- | --- | Eran Gusacov, Levinsky College of Education (Tel Aviv) Abstract I present here the normative argument that the role of the democratic-liberal state is to ensure solidarity between the public educational system and the parents of students, during routine times and during emergency times. I shed light on the weakness of the values of solidarity and equality, which have characterized the relations of the Israeli educational system and the parent population, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. Based on Michel Foucault's ideas, this article uses the productive-constructive possibilities of power that Foucault termed “pastoral power”for the creation of solidarity between the educational system and parents, especially during emergency period. Keywords: Solidarity; Parental involvement; Foucault; Pastoral power; COVID-19 Introduction Extreme conditions make it possible to think, and in specific, to think about education, to breach the routine and inertia and to re-examine, in a critical manner, the taken-for-granted, the accepted, the regular. Indeed, in an emergency, which is an extreme situation, the distinction between a democratic and an absolutist regime becomes blurred, and the legal order becomes suspended (Agamben, 2005) . As a result, the educational order is also suspended. This situation invites the discipline of the philosophy of education to update perceptions and educational perspectives in a wide variety of educational aspects, including the relationship of solidarity that exists between the educational system and the students’ parents. Thinking about the emergency situation created during the COVID-19 crisis leads to the discussion and exploration of “bio-politics”(Foucault, 1996), which relates to all the actions, the approaches, the techniques and the actual attempts undertaken by the ruling system in order toadminister and control in a rational and regulated manner the civilian population. This is the power platform at work in society—“bio-power,” as Foucault called it—a form of power that "applies itself to immediate everyday life which categorizes the individual, marks him by his own individuality, attaches him to his own identity, imposes a law of truth on him which he must recognize and which others have to recognize in him. It is a form of power which makes individuals subjects"(Foucault, 1982, p. 781) . A Judeo-Christian source from which bio-power and bio-politics emerged is pastoral power, that aims to supervise, direct and manage people's behaviour. Later, on the last part of this 1. This study was supported by Mahut Research Center for Parents-Teachers Relationships. paper, I will elaborate on Foucauldian pastoral power and on its connection to the concept of solidarity. At this point I just wish to draw your attention to the importance Foucault gave to the need for solidarity in society, telling us that "after all, we are all members of the community of the governed, and thereby obliged to show mutual solidarity (Foucault, 2001, p. 474) . According to Foucault, it is worthwhile to free oneself from thinking that sovereign, concentrated and mighty power is the only possible power (Foucault, 1980) . In his opinion, pointing to concentrated power, which is in the hands of the national system, cannot explain the entirety of power relations, the action and the response in the social space. This is because the appearance of“bio-power” depends upon the existence of small and numerous social power networks that work among and on the members of the networks. I will now turn to an examination of how “bio-power” can create solidarity between the educational system and the population of parents and how solidarity, in turn, allows for the action of the “bio-power.” Specifically, I will re-examine and clarify and critically examine a number of issues, which con

FAQs

What is the article’s central normative claim about the state’s role in education?

The article argues that the democratic-liberal state must ensure solidarity between the educational system and parents of students during routine times and emergency times.

How does the COVID-19 crisis reshape the relationship between education and parents?

It highlights both the weakness of solidarity and equality in Israeli education and the mechanisms through which solidarity can be created during emergency conditions.

Which Foucault concept is used to explain how solidarity between education and parents can be generated?

The article connects the creation of solidarity to Foucault’s “pastoral power,” and links it to broader ideas of biopolitics and biopower.

Oct 15, 2026

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