The keynote speeches of the SIG 17 and 25 conference in the University of Cambridge in 2018 by Professor Susan Robertson and Professor Emeritus Martyn Hammersley are now available and are featured in this newsletter. In addition, the newsletter features the invited talk by Professor Emerita Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont.

The theme of the conference was ‘Dialogue between ontology and epistemology: New perspectives on theory and methodology in research on learning and education’. This conference theme was intended to provoke discussions about the relationship between the way in which we go about researching learning and education (epistemology) and how we understand the nature of learning and education (ontology). The theme also aimed to inspire submissions coming from different traditions of theorizing and from a broad range of methodological approaches. The conference offered a space for exploring and discussing theories and methodologies in research on learning and education, and to promote friendly debate and reflective dialogue across paradigms of research.

Explaining education events and experiences: making the case for a fat versus flat (or critical realist) ontology
Susan Robertson, University of Cambridge

This keynote address makes a case for considering critical realism as a meta-theoretical social ontology in developing our explanations of education experiences. I suggest that there is much to be gained by this move. First, as a philosophy of the social, it does important ‘under-labouring’ work in enabling the education researcher to bring together different social theories and methodologies in turn making our explanations from different vantage points and standpoints more robust. Second, in arguing that social realities are stratified (a fat versus flat ontology), and that events and experiences are the outcomes of causal mechanisms activated under particular conditions, critical realists propose new methods for generating explanations of ‘why’ and ‘how’  things happen. In the lecture, and drawing upon my own research on governing education sectors and their actors at multiple scales, I explore the epistemic and moral gains to be had in working in this way.

Is it time to get off the paradigm merry-go-round? A proposal to devalue newness, creativity, openness, and diversity

Martyn Hammersley, Open University

I want to raise questions here about several assumptions that are prevalent in discussions of methodology today, not just in the field of research on learning but more generally. One concerns the value of newness, creativity, openness, and diversity. A second problem is the conflation of methodology with philosophy, as represented by ‘paradigms’ or approaches that are defined in epistemological, ontological, and/or political terms. Over the past fifty years, there has been a significant change in the character of methodological discussion: from being concerned with research techniques, their assumptions and limits, towards becoming (in effect) a bazaar in which diverse approaches are promoted. Paradigm pitches often appeal to the ideas of particular philosophers, extracted from the wider context of philosophical discussion. I will argue that this is not a healthy state of affairs, and that it reflects the weak boundaries around educational, psychological and social research today.

Professor Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont gave a talk in the session 'Invited Talks on Theory and Method' of the conference. In her talk, Professor Perret-Clermont contributed to a reflection on the questions raised in the theme of the conference. She invited the audience to ask alternative questions on theory and methodology in research on learning and education.

The "untold Piaget": new light on the future of developmental psychology, education and epistemology

Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont, University of Neuchâtel

Scientific advancement relies on a double movement from "theory construction" to "fact gathering" and viceversa. Scientists are praised for their creativity in methodology, observations and explanations - with interesting cultural and disciplinary differences in the emphasis put on these three elements. But the dependence of these elements on technological development and their "situatedness" in on-going dialogues within often violent power games tends to be forgotten. The descriptions of their socio-material historical settings tend to be blurred. As a consequence, our editorial norms allow us to present empirical and theoretical results in psychology as if they were "universal" and in education as if they were stemming from some kind of soil-less and greenhouse agriculture. We suggest that this perspective prevents research from reaching a fine grained understanding of change in humans and thereby leaves the door open to heavily ideologically loaded biological explanations of evolution that tend to underestimate the complex interdigitating biological, material, and semiotic arrangements that are experienced, produced and imagined. As a contribution to this discussion, we will explore the growth of a young man, in his becoming the famous Jean Piaget, within the worries, debates and socio-material arrangements of his life and times.

The fourth issue of on_education is now online! Its topic is Education in the Anthropocene.

Scientists from various disciplines have announced a new phase in earth history: the Anthropocene. Somewhere in the (relatively) recent past we have entered a new geological epoch, characterized by humankind’s unmistakeable and profound influence on the earth system. Climate change is just one (multifaceted) aspect of the global environmental problematic that currently typifies the Anthropocene. Other environmental problems are various forms of pollution of land, water, and air, overfishing, deforestation, destruction of ecosystems, extinction of species of animals and plants, and soil degradation. Since all of these are anthropogenic, i.e. caused by human behaviour, both individual and collective, it seems plausible that environmental education could be one way to (begin to) deal with these problems. But opinions differ on whether environmental education is necessary, whether it is justified, and (if so) what form it should take. These questions are addressed in six thought-provoking contributions:

Randall Curren (University of Rochester) & Ellen Metzger (San José State University): Education in the Anthropocene: A Pragmatic Approach

Michael Bonnett (formerly of the University of Cambridge): Interpreting the Idea of the Anthropocene, and its Relevance to Education

Hanno Su (University of Münster) & Shia Su: Why Solving Intergenerational Injustice through Education Does Not Work

Lesley Le Grange (Stellenbosch University): The Anthropocene: Becoming-imperceptible of Environmental Education

Kai Niebert (University of Zurich): Effective Sustainability Education is Political Education

Marie Brennan (University of South Australia): Changing Teaching and Teacher Education in the ‘Anthropocene’

As always, you are invited to respond to the original contributions. If you don’t agree or have something to add, don’t hesitate to send your comments to editors@oneducation.net. Like all submissions, replies receive an initial editorial review.

Best wishes,

The editors of on_education

Here are some publications by our SIG members that might be of interest to the Readers of the newsletter:

1. Patry, J.-L. (2019). Situation Specificity of Behavior: The Triple Relevance in Research and Practice of Education. In Nata, R. V. (Ed.), Progress in education, Volume 58 (pp. 29-144). Hauppauge, NY: Nova. ISBN: 978-1-53614-950-0. - Addresses issues of the relevance of developing a theory of situation specificity and the impact such a theory could have.

2. Gastager, A., & Patry, J.-L. (Hrsg). (2018). Pädagogischer Takt: Analysen zu Theorie und Praxis. Studienreihe der Pädagogischen Hochschule Steiermark Band 11. Graz: Leykam. - Addresses the relationship between Theory and practice and a Theory About this relationship.

3. Patry, J.-L. (2018). Grenzen und Übergänge. Ein allgemeines Konzept, expliziert am Beispiel des Theorie-Praxis Problems. In B. Bütow, J.-L. Patry & H. Astleitner (Eds.), Grenzanalysen – Erziehungswissenschaftliche Perspektiven zu einer aktuellen Denkfigur (pp. 34-61). Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. - Addresses the theory of borders and overcoming them and illustrates it with the analysis of the theory-practice relationship.

4. Cook, V., Warwick, P., Vrikki, M., Major, L., & Wegerif, R. (2019). Developing material-dialogic space in geography learning and teaching: Combining a dialogic pedagogy with the use of a microblogging tool. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 31, 217-231.

5. Hetherington, L., Hardman, M., Noakes, J., & Wegerif, R. (2019). Making the case for a material-dialogic approach to science education. Studies in Science Education, 1-36.

6. Wegerif, R., & Major, L. (2019). Buber, educational technology, and the expansion of dialogic space. AI & SOCIETY, 34(1), 109-119.

7. Matusov, E., Marjanovic-Shane, A., & Gradovski, M. (2019). Dialogic pedagogy and polyphonic research art: Bakhtin by and for educators, doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-58057-3. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/97811375805

8. Jean-Pierre Fragnière (2019) Agir Et Penser. Avec Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont. Lausanne: SocialInfo. https://www.socialinfo.ch/les-livres/38-agir-et-penser-avec-anne-nelly-perret-clermont.html
9. Messina Dahlberg, G., & Bagga-Gupta, S. (2019). On the quest to “go beyond” a bounded view of language. Research in the intersections of the Educational Sciences, Language Studies and Deaf Studies domains 1997–2018. Deafness & Education International, 1-25.
10. Rajala, A. (2019). Expanding the context of school learning to the surrounding communities: A sketch for a pedagogy. Psychology and Society, 11(1), 161-175

Please visit the two new blogs by Rupert Wegerif on issues relevant for our SIG:

http://www.rupertwegerif.name/blog/education-as-a-journey-into-time

http://www.rupertwegerif.name/blog/chiasm-a-dialogic-research-methdology

Postdoctoral Researcher, philosophy and theory education

https://rekry.saima.fi/certiahome/open_job_view.html?did=5600&jc=1&id=00007153&lang=en&fbclid=IwAR1n4ChrcTRBw-Emt8FSov6cewnsNQF3tpVfPAEDMPNKeTUNH0sbJgQe7uc

The University of Oulu is an international science university, with 15 000 students and approximately 3000 employees. The strengths of the University are its wide multidisciplinary study and research interests, its modern research and study environment, and its good cooperation with international research and education institutes. Its multidisciplinary research structure offers unique possibilities for path-breaking innovations.

Term of the position: 1 September 2019 – 28 February 2022

Research Unit: Values, Ideologies and Social Contexts of Education

This postdoctoral research position is a part of the research project Theory and practice of learning to be a citizen: Experiences from Tanzania and Uganda (CS-LEARN). CS-LEARN is a consortium project which  connecting the Theory and Philosophy of Education Research Group (TheorEd)led by the leader of the sub-project, Prof. Katariina Holma at the University of Oulu, and the research group on Civil Society and Citizenship in Development (CitDe) led by PI, Academy of Finland Research Fellow Tiina Kontinen at the University of Jyväskylä (JYU). The consortium collaborates with the University of Dodoma, Tanzania and Makerere University, Uganda. The CS-LEARN project expands the team’s ongoing research project Growth into Citizenship in Civil Society Encounters (GROW) (AoF 2015-2019), which explores ideas of citizenships in NGO interventions and among community members in Tanzania and Uganda in connection with a notion of learning as growth based on philosophical pragmatism and especially the work of John Dewey. The CS-LEARN project scrutinizes multiple theories, practices and experiences of learning to be a citizen in civil society with case studies in Tanzania and Uganda and develops research methodology for bringing empirical and philosophical research into dialogue in a methodologically sound manner.

The open position will focus on the theories of citizenship and learning. The tasks include conducting philosophical analysis on premises beyond different ideals of citizenship and learning relevant to the CS-LEARN project and selected in collaboration with the PIs. The postdoctoral researcher is expected to have a strong background in philosophy or educational theory. Additional experience in research fields such as development studies, anthropology, African studies or cultural studies is considered beneficial but not obligatory for applying for the post.

The position requires ability to conduct scholarly research and produce publications in English; and capability and willingness to be a collaborative and contributing member of an international research group. The candidate must hold a PhD degree before Friday, 10 May 2019.  

The salary will be set on levels 5 to 6 of the demand level for teaching and research staff in Finnish universities. In addition to the job-specific salary component, a personal work performance component is also paid amounting to not more than 50 % of the job-specific component.

Apply online on Friday, 10 May 2019 at the latest.

Please include the following attachments in your application: 
1) a letter of motivation (max. 3 pages) including a description of your relevant  experience, your motivation to apply for this post, and reflection on why you consider yourself suitable for the post, 
2) a curriculum vitae (max 4 pages) prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (https://www.tenk.fi/en/template-researchers-curriculum-vitae), 
3) a publication list based on the guidelines of the Academy of Finland https://www.aka.fi/julkaisuluettelo_en, and 
4) names and contact information of two referees.

The position is filled as of 1 September 2019 or as soon as possible thereafter. A trial period of 6 months is applied in the position.

For more information on the research project, see https://www.oulu.fi/edu/node/51640

Further details are available from Professor Katariina Holma, katariina.holma(at)oulu.fi