ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Gert Biesta discusses his approach to the study of education and educational research. A useful starting point to understanding his work revolves around the meaning of the phrase “thinking philosophically about education; thinking educationally about philosophy” (see Biesta, 2015). In order to contextualise his central thesis, Biesta starts out by demonstrating how the Anglo-American tradition of educational research and scholarship has appealed to the findings of the dominant social sciences of the time, like psychology, sociology, and so on, as a means of studying education and participating in educational research deemed to be relevant to the “construction” of the field. Conversely, the Continental tradition originating in Europe – particularly the German-speaking world – is employed as an exemplar of how education as a field was not parasitic on “other” discipline areas, but has always been considered a discipline in its own right. 1 Indeed, Biesta makes it clear from his response to the initial question posed in the following dialogue that his method of educational theorising closely aligns with the Continental tradition. This is made evident when he argues that one of his aims is to provide an “alternative theoretical framework” of citizenship education that is not focused on identifying the kind of knowledge, dispositions, skills, and so on that need to be replicated in order to “be and become” good citizens. Rather, his method is to shift the focus from the identification of an external phenomenon to an internal, existential understanding of what it means to be and become “a democratic subject”, with a particular emphasis on the role education plays in the formation of this subject. Here we have the genesis of Biesta’s methodology that seeks to problematise the Anglo-American construction of education and educational research, which positions education as a “thing” to be studied from a philosophical point of view. 54This then leads to the engagement with various philosophical traditions as a means to make sense of this “thing” called “education”, which often results in rational impasses between rival and competing traditions, and even within the same tradition regarding contested concepts, disputes concerning the correct interpretation of a philosopher, and so on. In one sense, the former part of Biesta’s key phrase used in the title of this chapter (“thinking philosophically about education”) is a cautionary tale about the potential threat of being infected with myopic views about what counts as “doing” philosophy of education that does not necessarily have an educational interest. Likewise, the discipline area of philosophy in “thinking philosophically about education” acts both as a type of variable and a representation of an interdisciplinary approach towards the study of education that applies a diverse array of disciplines, like psychology, sociology, and so on, as if “education” is a phenomenon with a priori subject matter that is objectively and independently identifiable. Indeed, “thinking philosophically about education” has contributed to a perception, particularly within the English-speaking world, that education lacks academic status as a stand-alone discipline because it calls on a range of other discipline areas. In another sense, Biesta is challenging those who may reside within the Anglo-American tradition, and/or approach the study of education and educational research from an interdisciplinary point of view to (re)conceptualise and (re)consider what it means to “think educationally about philosophy”. Just as the interviewer in this chapter found the latter part of the phrase initially nonsensical to understand, Biesta’s insights on being prepared to be open-minded about what it may mean to approach the study of education and educational research from a Continental viewpoint are thought-provoking, particularly his central thesis that there is a distinct educational way of thinking. In Biesta’s words, the Continental approach:
is organised around a common interest, which … [is best viewed] … as a distinctly educational interest. It is an interest, roughly, in ways in which children and young people can become individuals who can act and think for themselves.
