Disciplinary Struggles in Education
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DISCIPLINARY STRUGGLES IN EDUCATION Edited by Anja Heikkinen Jenni Pätäri Gabriele Molzberger DISCIPLINARY STRUGGLES IN EDUCATION DISCIPLINARY STRUGGLES IN EDUCATION Edited by Anja Heikkinen Jenni Pätäri Gabriele Molzberger This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Copyright ©2019 Tampere University Press and authors Layout Sirpa Randell ISBN 978-952-359-003-8 (nid.) ISBN 978-952-359-002-1 (pdf) PunaMusta Oy – Yliopistopaino Tampere 2019 Contents Preface 9 Anja Heikkinen, Jenni Pätäri, Gabriele Molzberger Introduction. The many meanings of disciplinary struggles in education 11 Anja Heikkinen, Jenni Pätäri & Gabriele Molzberger Section 1 Discipline in Education Control justified. Discipline as moral regulation in adult education 25 Leena Koski ‘How to cultivate freedom through coercion’. Defining discipline in anarchist education 41 Ivan Zamotkin Struggles for identity. A Finnish university’s identity transition in its own policies after reform 61 Henry Yuan Wang Section 2 Justification of Educational Knowledge Disciplinary struggles in and between adult, vocational and general education in the Academy. Lessons from Finland 83 Anja Heikkinen, Jenni Pätäri & Sini Teräsahde (Re)thinking the disciplinary relationship between the researcher and object of study in educational practices in the Brazilian context 117 Lais Oliveira Leite Thinking outside the box. De-structuring continuing and higher education 135 Markus Weil & Balthasar Eugster Multiculturalism in education and political philosophy 155 Tarna Kannisto Changing vocational special needs education. From teacher to developer 173 Maija Hirvonen & Raija Pirttimaa Section 3 Meanings and Functions of Education Ecological wisdom as a challenge for the philosophy of education 195 Kari Väyrynen How does phenomenological psychology contribute to current concepts of sustainability in Germany’s vocational education system? A brief historical outline and remarks on current problems 215 Burkhard Vollmers, Werner Kuhlmeier & Sören Schütt-Sayed Financing and institutions as key elements of the future of adult education. Disciplinary struggles about empirical observations 239 Lorenz Lassnigg & Stefan Vogtenhuber List of contributors 261 Preface Anja Heikkinen, Jenni Pätäri & Gabriele Molzberger This publication is based on presentations in the conference Disciplinary Struggles in the History of Education, in University of Tampere, 7th–9th of June 2017 (https:// equjust.wordpress.com/hifi2017/). The conference was organized by the Equality and Planetary Justice in Adult, Vocational and Higher Education-research group, the Finnish Research network on History and Philosophy of Education, Vocational Education and Culture-research network, Freedom and Responsibility of Popular Adult Education-programme, Finnish Society for Research on Adult Education and ESREA research network Active and Democratic Citizenship. Based on the interests and profiles of the authors, the emphasis of discussion in this book is in adult, vocational and higher education. Many important topics, which were discussed in the conference, such as educational responses to the refugee “crisis”, convergence between adult, vocational and higher education, contribution of critical theory and pedagogy for tackling current struggles, could not be included into this publication. We are grateful for the support to the June 2017 conference from the University of Tampere Foundation, the Finnish Education Research Association, and the Finnish Society for Research on Education of Adults and the Faculty of Education in the University of Tampere. The publication would not have been possible without the constructive collaboration between the authors and the editorial group, thanks to all. We also appreciate Tampere University Press for accepting the manuscript to be published, and the feedback from their anonymous reviewers in helping us to finalize it. We especially thank Antti Karhulahti for his support in communication with authors and in harmonizing the texts for the final version. The editorial group 20.5.2019, Tampere and Wuppertal Anja, Jenni and Gabriele Introduction The many meanings of disciplinary struggles in education Anja Heikkinen, Jenni Pätäri & Gabriele Molzberger Background In the call for papers for the Tampere conference, authors were invited to discuss disciplinary struggles in education through following questions: Are educational practices necessarily also disciplinary despite their overt commitment to empowerment and emancipation, and how have the conceptions about discipline transformed historically and in different contexts? While justification of educational practices is increasingly based on authorized knowledge about education, how has the ownership and power of educational knowledge transformed historically and in different contexts? Is education a genuine academic subject (science) with its distinctive categories, concepts and theories or just application of conceptual and theoretical tools from other disciplines? How have struggles on educational knowledge contributed to the diversification of educational discipline into sub-fields or even new disciplines? Consequently, how have struggles on conceptions of education and educational knowledge influenced diversification of educational professionals and institutions? Has the human-centered fixation of educational science to certain disciplines – such as psychology, sociology, philosophy, economy – also contributed to environmental, economic and social crisis, which endanger the continuity of human life itself? Anja Heikkinen, Jenni Pätäri & Gabriele Molzberger (eds), Disciplinary Struggles in Education Tampere University Press 2019, 11–21 http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-359-002-1 Anja Heikkinen, Jenni Pätäri & Gabriele Molzberger Our approach to the topic of this book builds on the conceptualization of discipline and struggles in education from three intermingled perspectives: of educational practice, of disciplinarization of educational knowledge, of institutionalization and professionalization of education. The use of the word education in English language shows well its reference both to activities and practices and to their conceptualization, theories and research. Most other languages, however, emphasize the progress from pedagogy – which refers both to practice and ideas guiding the practice – into educational science, which is separate from educational practice and politics. Discipline is a core concept in education in different ways. From a Foucauldian perspective, discipline can be understood as methods (techniques) of subtle coercion and control of (bodily) operations and behaviour of humans, subsuming them to rules and regulations, which reflect and construct hegemonic social order and power relations. Discipline as “the use of hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment and their combination in a procedure that is specific to it, the examination” (Foucault, 1995, p. 170) can well be identified both in educational practice and knowledge production. While discipline in Foucauldian sense is not equal with moralizing power or training, it nevertheless is typically morally justified. (Foucault, 1995, pp. 217–218.) Alternatively, autonomy as a core concept in education – both as practice and theory – suggests another interpretation of discipline. Following Kantian thinking, the progress to individual and collective autonomy entails the development of self-discipline, guided by universal moral principles. Additionally, the status of autonomous educational science – in relation to practice and to other sciences –, can be considered as an outcome of individually and collectively self- discplined intellectual exercise. (Kant, 1870; Weber, 1991.) Discipline is unquestionably present in all educational everyday practice, sedimented in pedagogical knowledge. Teachers need to maintain discipline in the classrooms, adults need to discipline themselves to learn new languages, and pedagogues impose discipline to individuals and social groups in direct and indirect ways. When ever in modern, meritocratic societies an educational problem is discussed, the voices and votes for more discipline can be certain of approval. In Europe, before the establishment of educational science, discipline in pedagogical practices and knowledge was highly influenced by theological and philosophical ideas. Philosophers, such as Locke, Rousseau and Kant, paved 12 Introduction the way for the shaping of humans through education towards enlightened life and individual and societal perfection. Since then educational practice has been labelled by struggles between liberation and constriction of humans and societies. In the context of this book, educational practices are questioned and major differences in the contexts and meanings of discipline in different times, regions and areas of social reality are sought. While knowledge production in educational sciences increasingly shape educational practices and form the objects of which they speak, its contribution to discipline in education is crucial. Educational practices put people under surveillance instead of merely liberating and empowering them and aim at changing behaviour and attitudes so that the people fit into the mainstream society, excluding the unfit at the same time. They entangle with transnational, national and departmental politics and controlling efforts to distinguish themselves from other (educational) disciplines. As branches of knowledge, educational