The Social Making of Educational Theory: Unraveling How to Understand the Content, Emergence, and Transformation of Educational Theory

Authors

  • Christian Sandbjerg Hansen Department of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • Trine Øland Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36368/njedh.v1i2.36

Keywords:

educational theory, epistemology, philosophy, history, new sociology of ideas

Abstract

This article discusses the study of educational theories and ideas. Based on analyses of primarily the Danish scene, positing similarities with the other Nordic countries, we identify and investigate three main and today dominating approaches: a philosophical approach focusing on the content of the ‘great’ thinkers’ ideas, their logical-coherence and/or moral-ethical value; a historical approach centering on individuals and their educational ideas expressed as views in a realistic and contextual story; and a Foucauldian approach which analyzes educational ideas and theories through their place in power-knowledge constellations. On the backcloth of analyses of the ontology and epistemology operating in these approaches we conclude that they all ignore the systematic study of the social context in which ideas and theories are conceived and we argue for a social space and social history approach as a way to fill out this epistemological vacuum.

Author Biographies

Christian Sandbjerg Hansen, Department of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark

Assistant Professor of Educational Science

Trine Øland, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Associate Professor of Educational Science

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Published

2014-11-24

How to Cite

Hansen, Christian Sandbjerg, and Trine Øland. 2014. “The Social Making of Educational Theory: Unraveling How to Understand the Content, Emergence, and Transformation of Educational Theory”. Nordic Journal of Educational History 1 (2):3-26. https://doi.org/10.36368/njedh.v1i2.36.

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2014)

Section

Articles

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