Letnik XXIII, številka 1–2, 2012 Revija za teorijo in raziskave vzgoje in izobraževanja Šolsko polje Educational Sciences and their Concepts Ed. Janez Kolenc Gregorič † Content JANEZU V SPOMIN Darko Štrajn, Janez Kolenc was a man who wanted to understand Darko Štrajn, Janez Kolenc je bil človek, ki je hotel razumeti I EDITORIAL Janez Kolenc Gregorič † and Darko Štrajn, Educational Sciences and Th eir Concepts II CRITICAL THINKING Stanislav Južnič, 18th Century Educational Sciences of Piarists, Jesuits, and Franciscans in Slovenian and Polish Lands in the limelight of those Times Scientifi c Concepts Jacek Piekarski, Methodology in educational studies – the disciplinary status and the social conditions for discussion Bojan Žalec, Aff ects and emotions in upbringing and education Darko Štrajn, Reproduction of society through education Valerija Vendramin, Why feminist epistemology matters in education and educational research III DIFFERENT CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS Grzegorz Michalski, Methodological problems of historical and educational research on associations Darja Kobal Grum, Concept of inclusion on the section of Vygotskian socio-cultural theory and neuropsychology 5 Šolsko polje, letnik XXIII, številka 1–2 Barbara Japelj Pavešić, Finding advanced characteristics of student population participating in the study of knowledge: case of clustering students from Slovene TIMSS Advanced study on learning mathematics Danuta Urbaniak-Zając, Empirical studies in Polish pedagogy – between quantitative and qualitative research Bogomir Novak, Th e Question about the Scientifi c Position of Transformative Pedagogy Joanna M. Michalak, Inclusive school leadership in challenging urban communities: a comparative study Zvonko Perat, Th e Overlooked Turning Point in History Janez Kolenc †, Luhmann‘s Th eory of Education Zdenko Kodelja, Religious Education and the Teaching about Religions IV ABSTRACTS V REVIEWS Renata Salecl, Disciplina kot pogoj svobode (Igor Bijuklič) VI AUTHORS 6 Janezu v spomin Janez Kolenc was a man who wanted to understand Darko Štrajn t just happened! Suddenly, literally overnight, Janez Kolenc was gone. Just a little bit was missing to complete the special edition of School Field, which was prepared jointly with colleagues from the University of Lodz. Almost Iall of the editing work for this special issue had already been done by Janez. Th erefore, he will reach across the invisible dividing line that separates life from death. At the same time, this edition will remain as evidence of the fact that Janez died amidst his work and his plans for the future. In his case, this is really not a cliché, such as it is commonly found in farewell writings and speeches. His work on a project about the importance of non-formal education had only just begun. At the Educational Research Institute, Janez always held a special place simply because of the range of his experience and knowledge of social scienc- es. Before his almost 25 years employment at the Institute, he had also worked for the Revoz company and then in the library. However, in his life, the prior- ity was research and discovery, which was created through his tendency to un- derstand social phenomena. From such questions as to what may be the sub- ject of social science, which he had found in anthropology and sociology, he moved to questions about how we know and so he became concerned with ques- tions of research methodology. At the Educational Research Institute, he tried, on the basis of such knowledge, to understand the processes of education and learning and to defi ne the social framework of these activities. Central concept, which was analysed, explained and applied and which is most visibly associat- ed with his name, was the notion of political culture. Th is concept also provid- ed the theme of his scholarly works, master degree and doctorate. He enriched Slovenian social sciences with many contributions on this theme in the form of scientifi c papers and also with two monographs. Now his work has been inter- rupted, it is over and, unfortunately, not yet fi nished. His work, as much as was 9 Šolsko polje, letnik XXIII, številka 1–2 done, was performed diligently and consistently, but it was also so good that it will not be forgotten. Janez was a researcher who wanted to understand the world and he did not only understand it well, but he also explained many aspects of it too. 10 Janez Kolenc je bil človek, ki je hotel razumeti Darko Štrajn ar zgodilo se je! Nenadoma, dobesedno preko noči, Janeza Kolenca ni bilo več. Še čisto malo je manjkalo do dokončanja posebne številke revije Šol- sko polje, ki smo jo pripravili skupaj s kolegi z univerze v Lodžu. Skoraj vse Kdelo pri urejanju te posebne številke je Janez že opravil. Tako bo torej segel preko nevidne ločnice, ki loči življenje od smrti. Hkrati je ta izdaja revije evidenca o tem, da je Janez umrl sredi dela in še vedno poln načrtov za prihodnost. V njegovem primeru namreč to res ni ustaljena fraza, kakršno pogosto najdemo v poslovilnih zapisih in nagovorih. Delo na projektu o pomenu neformalnega izobraževanja se je šele dobro začelo. Na Peda goškem inštitutu je imel Janez ves čas posebno mesto ravno zaradi razpona njegovih izkušenj in poznavanja družboslovja. Preden se je namreč pred skoraj 25-imi leti zaposlil na Inštitutu, se je preizkusil tudi v podje- tju Revoz in nato v knjižnici. Vendar pa ga je v življenju gnal predvsem njegov in- teres za raziskovanjem in odkrivanjem, določenima z njegovo težnjo po tem, da bi razumel družbene pojave. Od vprašanj o tem, kaj je lahko predmet družboslov- nega iskanja, ki jih je našel v antropologiji in sociologiji, se je premaknil k vpra- šanjem o tem, kako kaj vemo, in zato se je ukvarjal tudi z vprašanji raziskovalne metodologije. Na Pedagoškem inštitutu pa je s teh izhodišč skušal doumeti tudi procese izobraževanja in učenja ter defi nirati družbene okvire teh dejavnosti. Sre- diščni pojem, ki ga je analiziral, pojasnjeval in uporabljal, in ki se najbolj povezu- je z njegovim imenom, pa je politična kultura. Ta pojem je tudi določal temati- ko njegovih akademskih del, magisterija in doktorata. Slovensko družboslovje je s prispevki na to temo obogatil s kar dvema znanstvenima monografi jama in z vr- sto znanstvenih člankov. In zdaj je njegovo delo prekinjeno, končano in, žal, ne- dokončano! Svoje delo pa je, kolikor mu je bilo pač dano, opravil vestno in dosle- dno, a tudi tako dobro, da ne bo pozabljeno. Janez je bil raziskovalec, ki je hotel razumeti svet in ga tudi je razumel ter z veliko vidikov tudi pojasnil. 11 I Editorial Educational Sciences and Th eir Concepts Janez Kolenc Gregorič † and Darko Štrajn ducational sciences have a considerable impact on national school poli- cies as well as on the role that expert activities play in the development of present-day educational systems. Educational sciences engender new Econcepts that serve as tools and modify frameworks for modelling educational systems and their subsystems within any organised society in the world. Th ese concepts are also defi ning the most general framework for public debates con- cerning the development of educational systems. In a more distant past, educa- tors in Slovenia and Poland had been strongly infl uenced by German or Central European traditions in pedagogy, whereas in the second half of the twentieth century, they were to an extent constrained by some limitations of so-called Marxist pedagogy. However, even throughout those times, educational theo- ries and interesting refl ections could have been found, although they sometimes needed to be discerned from their ideological connotations and articulations. Regardless, in most of the former socialist countries, there was a modernist tra- dition of educational thought, which should not be simply forgotten, especially since it had also founded a relatively successful teaching practice under the un- democratic systems. In the last two decades educational sciences in both countries (Slovenia and Poland) went through a process of internationalization and thorough re- thinking of their role in the context of social changes; nevertheless they are wide open to dialogue and common exploration of new visions of education in the globalized world. However, it is noticeable that research communication and other forms of exchanges between scholars in the cultural spaces of Western Eu- rope are especially intense. Th e researchers from the University of Łodz and Ed- ucational Research Institute of Ljubljana have found common ground, both in the afore mentioned traditions and in the contemporary currents in education- 15 Šolsko polje, letnik XXIII, številka 1–2 al research. Authors of this scientifi c monograph, both Slovenian and Polish, have studied not only the history of educational concepts, but also the con- ceptual framework within which both countries are making eff orts to com- ply with the common educational standards, set by the European Union. Th e content of this issue of Šolsko polje consists of two parts. In part one, critical thinking is explored in its diff erent possible perspectives. At the beginning, there is a presentation of a history of pedagogical science from the perspective of the various scientifi c concepts that were valid in Slovenian and the Polish region of the Habsburg monarchy in the 18th century. Th is historical introduction, discussing theoretical concepts in educational sci- ences, is complemented by an in-depth debate on the state of methodologi- cal issues in these fi elds. Th e critical paradigm as a condition for open scien- tifi c dialogue on contentious issues of upbringing and education is brought up by another contribution, followed by a critical insight into the relation- ship between society and education in the scope of reproduction of a social system as a system of domination. In particular, it is worth reading the con- tribution on epistemological questions of educational sciences from the per- spective of feminist theory.