Re-inventing the laboratory school in an age of hybridization

European societies have undergone profound transformations. Through these transformations the need to rethink the concept of education becomes a major concern. At different places, scholars, educationalists and policymakers point at the need to rebuild the school as a ‘community of learners’ or a ‘community of inquirers’ as the essence of this reconceptualization. This article takes a closer look at this new idea of school-reform. What is understood by it and what kind of thinking does it make (im)possible? Elaborating on John Dewey’s idea of the laboratory school and in line with Bruno Latour, two different interpretations of the school as a community of inquiry are presented: a first one can be called a ‘ready made’ learning community; a second one refers to a learning community ‘in the making’. Accordingly this article does not approach the current interest to rethink the school as a community of learners in terms of its effectiveness for society, but as something of which we only know that it makes things moving and that it has a certain effect on what we do and can do and therefore is active.status: publishe