Between facts and norms: action research in the light of Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative action and discourse theory of justice1

Abstract An emphasis on democracy is typical of action research. Therefore, theories of modern democracy can be applied within the field of school development through action research. According to Jurgen Habermas, the promotion of democratic will formation requires the promotion of free and rational communicative action that is as free from manipulation as possible. Under ideal communicative conditions, consensus is achieved dialectically through the force of a better argument. The principles of rational argumentation have been developed in detail in Habermas's publications on discourse ethics and in The Theory of Communicative Action. He has recently developed his approach in a book entitl…

What is Educational Praxis?

This chapter explores the question “What is educational praxis?” based on a review of theoretical and empirical research undertaken by the Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) international research network over the past decade. A book series produced by the network in 2008 explored this very question in relation to a range of educational sites and national contexts. Six key themes emerging from this work were outlined in the first of the books in the series, Enabling Praxis: Challenges for Education. In short, the themes concerned agents and agency; particularity; connectedness; history; morality and justice; and praxis as doing (Kemmis and Smith in Enabling praxis: challenges for educatio…

Indoktrinaation kriittisen teorian suuntaviivat

Koulutuksen tutkimuksen arkkitehtuurit

Teaching and the dialectic of recognition

Abstract In this article, the processes of recognition within education are discussed. Frequently, recognition is reduced to polite behaviour or etiquette. Another narrow view of recognition is, behaviouristically speaking, to regard it as mere feedback. We claim that authentic recognition is a different matter. Receiving recognition, as Charles Taylor has put it, is ‘a vital human need’. Educational practices are in many ways associated with the processes of recognition. In this article, we develop Axel Honneth's three-level theory of struggle for recognition. Subsequently, we introduce our ideas of positive and negative circles of recognition. At the level of the community, a positive cir…

Action research as narrative: five principles for validation

Along with the narrative turn in social sciences, the quality of research has become a more and more intricate issue. Action research reports are often narratives, located in the context of the evolving experiences of those involved. In this paper, the problem of quality in action research narratives is addressed, and some principles for assessing the quality of narrative research reports are proposed. The issue is explored both at a theoretical‐conceptual level and through a number of practical cases from the narrative‐biographical research project TeacherLife. As narrative researchers, the authors are not willing to accept an extremely relativistic stand. They argue the need for conceptua…

Aristotle and Pedagogical Ethics

The teacher’s pedagogical ethics refers to the Kantian maxims that a teacher is obliged to follow. One could provide a list of the most crucial maxims that a teacher must absolutely not violate. We surely need these Kantian maxims in the teachers’ pedagogical ethics, although they tell us very little about the properties that good and moral teachers should possess. In teacher education we must of course elaborate on the ethical code of the teacher (maxims), but we must also consider the properties of a morally good teacher. A good source in endeavouring to find these properties is the book Aristotle wrote over 2,000 years ago, Nicomachean Ethics. According to Aristotle, a virtuous citizen m…

Kriittinen teoria ja Marx

Action research and narrative inquiry: five principles for validation revisited

The article continues the discussion of the five quality principles proposed by Heikkinen, Huttunen, and Syrjala, published in 2007 in Educational Action Research. In the present article, the authors reconsider the five principles: historical continuity; reflexivity; dialectics; workability; and evocativeness. These five principles are critically examined from two viewpoints. First, the authors discuss comments on the quality of the principles published in Educational Action Research, referring to contemporary discussion within the philosophy of science. Second, they review some empirical action research reports in which these principles have been applied. The authors point out some problem…

Philosophical and Youth-Studies Perspectives on the Participation Imperative

In this article we analyse the concept of participation. The analysis is informed by both quantitative and qualitative youth studies conducted in Finland. To analyse different aspects of participation special emphasis is placed on the migrant young seeking asylum. Young can be seen as sometimes engaged and disengaged from the existing forms of participating. The results of the youth studies also show that there seems to be a gap between representative democracy and the peer-group-based forms of participation of the young. To analyse in detail how this gap can be understood, the theory of recognition developed by Axel Honneth is used to pinpoint different arenas of participation. Honneth’s l…

Keskustelua Freudista ja omastatunnosta Puolimatkan teoksen johdosta

Kirja-arvio teoksesta Kasvatus, arvot ja tunteet, Tapio Puolimatka, Helsinki (2004) nonPeerReviewed

Dialogi ja vertaisuus mentoroinnissa

Onko tasavertainen dialogi mahdollista mentoroinnissa? Ehdotamme mentoroinnin tarkasteluun mallia, joka auttaa välttämään toisaalta autoritaarisuuden ja hierarkkisuuden, toisaalta naiivit odotukset täydellisestä tasa-arvosta. Tarkastelemme dialogisuuden mahdollisuutta mentoroinnissa kolmella eri tasolla – eksistentiaalisella, episteemisellä ja juridis-eettisellä. Mentorointi voisi parhaimmillaan olla kahden ihmisen välistä vuorovaikutusta, joka perustuu vastavuoroiseen luottamukseen ja toisen tietojen, taitojen ja osaamisen arvostamiseen. Mentoroitavan ja mentorin dialogin lähtökohtana on ennen muuta vastavuoroinen tunnustuksen antaminen eksistentiaalisella tasolla. peerReviewed

This is my truth, tell me yours: some aspects of action research quality in the light of truth theories

Abstract In this article the authors introduce some aspects of various truth theories in the context of action research. The traditional ways of determining quality are based on the correspondence theory of truth, which, in their view, conflicts with the basic assumptions of action research. The pragmatic theory of truth seems to be clearly represented in the world of action research. In their opinion, other theories of truth can be productively applied as well. In addition to the classical theories of truth – the correspondence theory, the coherence theory and the pragmatistic view on truth – they discuss the truth as ‘aletheia’ (a Heideggerian view on truth), as Habermasian consensus and …

The Sartre‐Heidegger Controversy on Humanism and the Concept of Man in Education

Jean‐Paul Sartre claims in his 1945 lecture ‘Existentialism is a Humanism’ that there are two kinds of existentialism: that of Christians like Karl Jaspers, and atheistic like Martin Heidegger. Sartre's ‘spiritual master’ Heidegger had no problem with Sartre defining him as an atheist, but he had serious problems with Sartre's concept of humanism and existentialism. Heidegger claims that the essence of humanism lies in the essence of the human being. After the Enlightenment, the Western concept of man has been presented in education in the form of Kantian humanistic essentialism. At least in the Finnish educational system, Kantian humanism is almost an official ideological background of all…

Critical educational praxis in university ecosystems: enablers and constraints

Universities serve several important functions in society today through research, education, and community engagement, not least helping people to live meaningfully in society, and helping to create a world worth living in. A kind of practice that seems particularly important in fulfilling such responsibilities is critical educational praxis, a social-justice oriented, educational practice/praxis, with a focus on asking critical questions and creating conditions for positive change. Yet, the contemporary university is not exactly a niche for critical educational praxis. There are many practices and arrangements within higher education that make the enactment of critical educational praxis v…

Liikuntakasvatuksen eetos

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan liikuntakasvatuksen eetosta koulujen liikunnanopetuksen ja liikunnanopettajakoulutuksen perustana. Liikuntakasvatuksen eetos tarkoittaa liikunnanopetuksen toimintaa ohjaavia rakenteita, käytänteitä, tottumuksia, tapoja, uskomuksia ja arvostuksia. Artikkelin perimmäinen tarkoitus on pohtia, missä määrin urheilun eetos heijastuu liikunnanopetuksen eetokseen. Artikkeli perustuu filosofiseen näkökulmaan, jonka pohjalta tarkastellaan opettajien käsityksiä liikunnanopetuksesta ja siihen liittyvästä asiantuntijuudesta. Aineistona on Opettaja-lehdessä syksyllä 2011 käyty keskustelu tästä teemasta. Filosofisella tasolla tarkastellaan ensin eetoksen käsitteen merkitystä yle…

Kommunikatiivinen opettaminen : indoktrinaation kriittinen teoria

"Mitä järkeä?" : kasvatuksen tietoperusta ja rationaalisuus

Kohti reflektiivistä katsomuskasvatusta

Tässä artikkelissa käsitellään reflektiivisyyttä katsomuskasvatuksen kontekstissa filosofisista ja teoreettisista näkökulmista. Katsomuskasvatus tulkitaan tässä laajasti: se kattaa elämänkatsomustiedon ja uskontojen opetuksen lisäksi kaiken kasvatuksen, joka tukee katsomuksen muodostumista ja identiteettityötä. Reflektiivinen katsomuskasvatus asettuu vastakohdaksi indoktrinatiiviselle kasvatukselle, jossa pyritään iskostamaan tietynlaiseen oppiin tai uskomusjärjestelmään perustuva ajattelutapa oppilaiden mieliin. Reflektiivisen katsomuskasvatuksen tarkoitus on antaa lapselle ja nuorelle välineitä määritellä identiteettiään ja maailmankuvaansa. Artikkelissa esitetään uusi reflektiivisen kats…

Designing education democratically through deliberative crowdsourcing : the case of the Finnish curriculum for basic education

In Finland, curriculum design is allegedly carried out through a deliberative process that involves various stakeholders, interest groups, experts and ordinary citizens. To facilitate participation in curriculum design, online crowdsourcing has been applied. The objective of this study is to explore to what extent the design process of the latest Finnish national curriculum for mathematics was open, democratic and deliberative. The theoretical framework of the study is the theory of democratic will-formation of the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. The comments given on the early version of the core curriculum of mathematics were analysed using directed content analysis, in which the abov…