The social making of educational theory: Unraveling how to understand the content, emergence and transformation of educational theory

TY - CONF

T1 - The social making of educational theory: Unraveling how to understand the content, emergence and transformation of educational theory

AU - Øland, Trine

AU - Hansen, Christian Sandbjerg

PY - 2013/11

Y1 - 2013/11

N2 - This article concerns the question of how it is possible to study, understand and explain the content, emergence and transformation of educational theories. Based on a reading of the Danish scene we detect three main positions: 1) A philosophical approach that place focus on the content of the ideas and theories put forth by the ‘great’ philosophical-educational thinkers, which is analyzed in terms of logical-coherence and/or moral-ethical value. 2) A historical approach that place focus on the different historical individuals and their changing educational ideas or theories, often vaguely expressed as views, and, through detailed archival studies, analyze these as part of a realistic and contextual story of the individuals, their motives and ideas, in time. 3) Approaches that unite in their inspiration from Michel Foucault, and which analyzes educational ideas and theories not through questions of true or false and not through concrete individuals’ motives, but through their place in power-knowledge constellations. Through an analysis of the basic differences between these three positions we clarify the ground for further crosscutting discussions, but we also argue that all of the three main manifested positions by and large ignore the use of a theoretically reflected and empirically based notion of the social conditions that play a part in the production and circulation of educational ideas and theories. Thus, in the final part of the article, we argue for a fourth position inspired by the so-called new sociology of knowledge, and especially the work of Pierre Bourdieu. This position excels by its effort to overcome the internal-external dichotomy that haunts the philosophical as well as the historical position and by its explanatory power drawn from a multidimensional theory of social space.

AB - This article concerns the question of how it is possible to study, understand and explain the content, emergence and transformation of educational theories. Based on a reading of the Danish scene we detect three main positions: 1) A philosophical approach that place focus on the content of the ideas and theories put forth by the ‘great’ philosophical-educational thinkers, which is analyzed in terms of logical-coherence and/or moral-ethical value. 2) A historical approach that place focus on the different historical individuals and their changing educational ideas or theories, often vaguely expressed as views, and, through detailed archival studies, analyze these as part of a realistic and contextual story of the individuals, their motives and ideas, in time. 3) Approaches that unite in their inspiration from Michel Foucault, and which analyzes educational ideas and theories not through questions of true or false and not through concrete individuals’ motives, but through their place in power-knowledge constellations. Through an analysis of the basic differences between these three positions we clarify the ground for further crosscutting discussions, but we also argue that all of the three main manifested positions by and large ignore the use of a theoretically reflected and empirically based notion of the social conditions that play a part in the production and circulation of educational ideas and theories. Thus, in the final part of the article, we argue for a fourth position inspired by the so-called new sociology of knowledge, and especially the work of Pierre Bourdieu. This position excels by its effort to overcome the internal-external dichotomy that haunts the philosophical as well as the historical position and by its explanatory power drawn from a multidimensional theory of social space.

M3 - Paper

T2 - Workshop: The social making of educational theory: Unraveling how to understand the content, emergence and transformation of educational theory

Y2 - 13 November 2013 through 13 November 2013

ER -