Personalistisesta sosiaalipedagogiikasta

Kirja-arvostelu: Persoona ja yhteisö : personalistinen sosiaalipedagogiikka / Leena Kurki. Helsinki, 2002

Gadamerilainen ja habermasilainen asenne kasvatushistoriallisessa tutkimuksessa

The Habermas-Gadamer debate concerns the nature of hermeneutics, and the role of tradition, language and prejudices in the process of understanding. Gadamer claims that all understanding is bound to tradition and prejudices. Prejudices do not prevent understanding, they make it possible in the first place. According to Gadamer, we should be open to tradition and authority. Habermas claims that Gadamer's hermeneutics dismisses the critique of ideology and tradition. Habermas demands that Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics must be supplemented with enlightened critical reflection. In the history of education one can speak of Gadamerian and Habermasian approaches. A Gadamerian approach could mean openness to dialogue with great educational thinkers, and respect for their authority, whereas a Habermasian approach implies a critical-ideological analysis of classical educational texts. The tension between Gadamerian and Habermasian approaches is meaningful to the study of the traditional texts in education.1960-luvulla Hans-Georg Gadamerin ja Jürgen Habermasin välille virisi kiista koskien suhtautumista perinteeseen. Gadamer katsoi, että perinteen ymmärtäminen edellytti avoimuutta traditiota ja siihen sisältyviä uskomuksia kohtaan. Tutkijan oli asettauduttava dialogiin perinteen kanssa. Habermas puolestaan katsoi, että gadamerilainen hermeneutiikka jättää huomiotta kriittisen reflektion tärkeyden. Perinne ei ole vain tiivistynyttä dialogia vaan myös valtaa ja ideologiaa. Gadamerin ja Habermasin kiistan lähtökohdat on hyvä tuntea, sillä siitä löytyy yhteyksiä myös kasvatushistorialliseen tutkimukseen

Heidegger's critique of the technology and the educational ecological imperative

It is clear that we have to do something in our time concerning global warming yet before we can actually change the world, we must first understand our world. According to Heidegger, technology itself is not good or bad, but the problem is, that technological thinking (calculative thinking) has become the only form of thinking. Heidegger saw that the essence of technology nowadays is enframing - Ge-stell, which means that everything in nature is 'standing-reserve' (Bestand). Enframing (as apparatus) is one way of uncovering, which for Heidegger meant truth. Truth can appear in many ways and the danger is that this truth of representational-calculative thinking becomes the only truth. We claim that the calculative way of thinking must be changed and we posit that Gelassenheit (slow thinking, releasement, letting-go) is the remedy. It does not mean some kind of mysticism or irrationality. The notion of Gelassenheit includes the idea of to let learn. We as teachers and educators have to learn how to think outside of the technological 'Ge-stell' and start thinking and acting in radically new ways. Like Arne Naes and Michael Zimmerman we connect the overcoming of technological 'Ge-stell' with so called deep ecology. We have to 'learn to think' and act within the deep ecology. We call for an educational ecological imperative. Every teacher and educationalist has to think what they can do (not as private person but as professionals) in order to prevent the coming eco-catastrophe

Koronapandemia ja kasvatus

Non peer reviewe

Heidegger’s Theory of Truth and its Importance for Quality of Qualitative Research

When reliability and validity were introduced as validation criteria for empirical research in the human sciences, quantitative research methods prevailed, and theory of science relied on neopositivism (Vienna Circle) or postpositivism (scientific realism). Within this worldview, notions of reliability and validity as criteria of scientific goodness were introduced. Reliability and validity were associated with the correspondence theory of truth, which is mostly ill-suited to the needs of qualitative research. For that reason, qualitative research must look for other kinds of validation criteria. The article elaborates the problems arising when the correspondence theory of truth is used as an ultimate criterion in evaluating qualitative research and proposes Heidegger’s hermeneutical or alethetical idea of truth as a more suitable approach.</p

The legality and justifiability of the methods used for monitoring the progress of home-educated children in Finland

This paper provides an overview of the homeschooling movement in Finland focusing on the methods used to monitor the progress of compulsory education of home-educated children. Although the child’s home municipality is obliged to monitor the progress of compulsory education, there are currently no national uniform instructions on how monitoring should take place. Therefore, home-educated children are treated differently depending on where they live. In this article, the authors argue that the current monitoring methods not only decrease the child’s motivation to learn but are also inexpedient, illegal and, in many cases, impossible to carry out. The study is based primarily on the qualitative approach, but it combines both qualitative and quantitative methods including surveys, interviews, observation and documents. It is the first empirical research conducted on the monitoring methods of home-educated children in Finland.</p