Searching for an Autonomous Discipline of Education

• In Event: Education's Autonomy

Abstract

Objective
This paper is searching for an autonomous discipline of education, meaning a self-governing discipline, with the right to organise its own resources, activities and make independent decisions (henceforth: the science of education).

Perspectives
In the last decades ‘educational sciences’ has become the dominant theoretical model for research on and for educational practice. A hallmark of educational sciences is its interdisciplinary structure, where different research fields are gathered in a ‘discipline.’ Thus, education is not understood as an academic discipline in its own right, but has rather been subsumed under educational sciences, as one research field amongst several others. According to Bellmann there is an immense willingness on the part of educational researchers to adhere to other disciplines. Admittedly, there may be benefits to including different perspectives into educational research, as one will gain a broad view of the research object, that is, educational practice. But there are also hazards. The reason being that the disciplines examining educational practice does not generate distinctive educational knowledge as the point of views are non-educational. In other words, if the research object is studied from a non-educational perspective, the research object remains unidentifiable with regard to the educational dimension.

Method and Data sources
The paper analyzes literature on education as an academic discipline.

Arguments
The paper argues for a conceptual structure consisting in three interrelated perspectives: education as translation, education as task and education as truth. Whilst the first perspective translates knowledge from non-educational disciplines into educationally relevant knowledge, the second perspective produces distinct educational knowledge directly from educational practice. Through these processes, education can function as an autonomous and a self-governing discipline. However, other kind of research is needed in order for education to be a strong autonomous discipline, meaning that it produces educational theory which has undergone thorough scientific verification and theoretical substantiation. The reason for this is that education as task ultimately produces educational theory in a weak sense, meaning knowledge structures that are too loose or poorly articulated to be designed as strong theory. Thus, education as truth examines the knowledge derived from education as task to produce educational theory in a strong sense. By way of this organization, educational theory is developed through (1) education as task; a first-hand experience in which practice-based knowledge and theory is derived directly from educational practice and through (2) education as truth; a second order observation of educational practice in which theory-based knowledge is derived indirectly from educational practice.

Scientific significance
The argument is not about replacing educational sciences with education as an autonomous discipline. Rather, the paper argues that both educational sciences and the science of education can be given space to exist side by side while interacting with each other. If there is only room for educational sciences, we are, as Dewey warned against, in danger of surrendering the educational cause. The significance of the paper is that educational practice can be examined from the point of view of education, in addition to psychology, sociology, philosophy and other disciplines.

Author

• Herner Saeverot, Western Norway University, Norway