The starting point for the research is to examine the educational perspectives of Axel Honneth’s ... more The starting point for the research is to examine the educational perspectives of Axel Honneth’s recognition theory to find useful contents for educational institutions. The method of the thesis is conceptual analysis which gets a dual role: chapters two and three of the treatise define and analyse Honneth’s concept of recognition and its historic-philosophical context and with help of critical analyses, the articles (I, II and III) and chapter four of the dissertation connects the concept of recognition to the field of educational science. The starting points in the articles and the summary aim to respect Honneth’s own methodological starting points to discover new perspectives through criticism of criticism. Honneth’s methodological starting points, differing from the first and the second generations of critical theory, lie in a critique of critical theory resulting in the idea of normative reconstruction. The articles and chapter four elaborate on the central argument of the diss...
The contemporary situation of Nordic school institutions reflects a
strange tension. Nordic sch... more The contemporary situation of Nordic school institutions reflects a
strange tension. Nordic schools are internationally rated as succeeding beyond the
average school in OECD countries, but they are unable to get actively enrolled in
their institutions a considerable amount of children and youths. The increasing
amount of youths not in education, employment or training (NEET) in Finland and
school dropout rates in Sweden exemplify this inability. These recent trends seem to
put the basic values of the Nordic model to the test. This uneasy situation provokes
this chapter to examine the theoretical grounds for the educational justice theory
that explains the process of exclusion from the perspectives of the excluded. The
first part of this chapter approaches this task by bringing forth the distinctiveness of
Axel Honneth’s recognitive justice theory: its highest value relies on the process of
undistorted growth, and by focusing on the distortions of growth, it captures the
perspectives of the worst offs. Although the recognitive justice theory offers a
salient direction for the educational justice theory to insert its essence into the pro-
cess of education and social injustice, it has its weaknesses. The second part of this
chapter analyses further Honneth’s idea of the hermeneutics of injustice, elaborat-
ing on three central problems: the sufficiency, conceptual and negativity problems.
These problems show how difficult it is to explain the tacit experiences of the
excluded and to anchor the theory of educational justice to these negative feelings.
The conclusion draws the results of this chapter, outlining how the recognitive justice
theory could be furthered with pedagogical aspects.
This paper focuses on a topical issue-the idea of 'justice in education'-developed by Krassimir S... more This paper focuses on a topical issue-the idea of 'justice in education'-developed by Krassimir Stojanov, among other recent educational justice theorists. Justice in education has to ask 'educational questions about education', which means that educational justice theory should be capable of dealing with educational practices, and constellations that are asymmetrical interaction orders. This requires, from the perspective of a child, criteria to distinguish between justified and unjustified educative demands towards responsibility and autonomy. This paper analyses forms of recognition as a legitimate summons that enables the individual's autonomy. It also analyses the illegitimate demands that emerge from Stojanov's innovative idea to combine the forms of misrecognition with the concepts of epistemic injustice. The second chapter of this paper introduces the challenges related to the recognitive justice as justice in education. The examination of Dietrich Benner's recent critique of recognition theory illuminates these challenges in two ways: first, it is shown that there can be something negatively experienced, but the result of productive disruptions that the educator need to produce, which are out of the scope of recognition theory. Second, the recognitive justice paradigm ignores elementary pedagogical conditions and requirements, 'the pedagogical knowledge' and its methods, and is therefore unable to fully grasp the legitimate educational authority. This paper concludes with a synthesis that finds the crucial elements from the recognition theory to justice in education and critically assessing Benner's claims. Overall, the paper offers potential for further development in justice in education.
The article, ‘Axel Honneth on Role, Form and Results of Public Education Revisited’, is a series ... more The article, ‘Axel Honneth on Role, Form and Results of Public Education Revisited’, is a series of theoretical analyses offering clarifications on Honneth’s understanding of public education. Paper shows how Honneth’s conception can be organised in concert with his recognition theory and a practical view of how a democratically-oriented education should be organised in schools. The article introduces three pedagogical theorems: the role of public education, the form of public education and the results of public education. In the first category, the role of public education, the paper proposes that education is an inherent part of everyone’s civil rights and the crucial instrument for maintaining a democratic society. The second theorem – the form of public education – is examined in order to improve our understanding of how democratic education should be organised, if Honneth’s referred philosophical tradition of Kant, Durkheim and Dewey is to be taken seriously. The third theorem – the results of public education – reveals Honneth’s distinctive position. According to the author, for Honneth it is not enough that in democracy the discourse principles become an inherent part of our identity, but instead that the development of an intact identity equipped with self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem should be secured and prioritized. Public education should secure and cultivate this identity development in an equal manner to all, as its main task.
* in: P. Siljander, K. Kontio & E. Pikkarainen (eds.) Schools in Transition. Linking Past, Present, and Future in Educational Practice (Rotterdam, Boston Taipei, Sense Publishers, 2017).
This paper examines how the ‘old’ achievement principle – elaborated on by the critical pedagogy ... more This paper examines how the ‘old’ achievement principle – elaborated on by the critical pedagogy theorists in the 1960s and 1970s in the context of schools – might be understood today. The main result of critical pedagogy is the critique of traditional school assessment; that critique argues that schools reproduce inequality by using an elaborated language code in their assessments of students, thereby supporting a hope of success in upper-class children and a fear of failure in lower-class children. However, the solutions to this problem offered by the critical pedagogy theorists bring us to the paradox of empty content with regard to pedagogical action. The paradox of empty content, an inability to define any clear content for pedagogical action, arises in particular from the central ideas of critical pedagogy by which content for pedagogical action is deduced from problem-solving processes in the classroom. The author concludes that the paradox of empty content may be overcome by following Axel Honneth's recent notion of a drawn-out process of education, in relation to which Hegel's concept of ethical life comprises three different cognitive world relations, and the corresponding language games offer sufficient content for pedagogical action.
This article aims to critically examine how misrecognition is conceived as a challenge for pedago... more This article aims to critically examine how misrecognition is conceived as a challenge for pedagogic action. Krassimir Stojanov's notion of the pathological behaviour patterns of teachers and Charles Bingham's 'pitfalls of recognition'introduce how misrecognition may ...
The starting point for the research is to examine the educational perspectives of Axel Honneth’s ... more The starting point for the research is to examine the educational perspectives of Axel Honneth’s recognition theory to find useful contents for educational institutions. The method of the thesis is conceptual analysis which gets a dual role: chapters two and three of the treatise define and analyse Honneth’s concept of recognition and its historic-philosophical context and with help of critical analyses, the articles (I, II and III) and chapter four of the dissertation connects the concept of recognition to the field of educational science. The starting points in the articles and the summary aim to respect Honneth’s own methodological starting points to discover new perspectives through criticism of criticism. Honneth’s methodological starting points, differing from the first and the second generations of critical theory, lie in a critique of critical theory resulting in the idea of normative reconstruction. The articles and chapter four elaborate on the central argument of the diss...
The contemporary situation of Nordic school institutions reflects a
strange tension. Nordic sch... more The contemporary situation of Nordic school institutions reflects a
strange tension. Nordic schools are internationally rated as succeeding beyond the
average school in OECD countries, but they are unable to get actively enrolled in
their institutions a considerable amount of children and youths. The increasing
amount of youths not in education, employment or training (NEET) in Finland and
school dropout rates in Sweden exemplify this inability. These recent trends seem to
put the basic values of the Nordic model to the test. This uneasy situation provokes
this chapter to examine the theoretical grounds for the educational justice theory
that explains the process of exclusion from the perspectives of the excluded. The
first part of this chapter approaches this task by bringing forth the distinctiveness of
Axel Honneth’s recognitive justice theory: its highest value relies on the process of
undistorted growth, and by focusing on the distortions of growth, it captures the
perspectives of the worst offs. Although the recognitive justice theory offers a
salient direction for the educational justice theory to insert its essence into the pro-
cess of education and social injustice, it has its weaknesses. The second part of this
chapter analyses further Honneth’s idea of the hermeneutics of injustice, elaborat-
ing on three central problems: the sufficiency, conceptual and negativity problems.
These problems show how difficult it is to explain the tacit experiences of the
excluded and to anchor the theory of educational justice to these negative feelings.
The conclusion draws the results of this chapter, outlining how the recognitive justice
theory could be furthered with pedagogical aspects.
This paper focuses on a topical issue-the idea of 'justice in education'-developed by Krassimir S... more This paper focuses on a topical issue-the idea of 'justice in education'-developed by Krassimir Stojanov, among other recent educational justice theorists. Justice in education has to ask 'educational questions about education', which means that educational justice theory should be capable of dealing with educational practices, and constellations that are asymmetrical interaction orders. This requires, from the perspective of a child, criteria to distinguish between justified and unjustified educative demands towards responsibility and autonomy. This paper analyses forms of recognition as a legitimate summons that enables the individual's autonomy. It also analyses the illegitimate demands that emerge from Stojanov's innovative idea to combine the forms of misrecognition with the concepts of epistemic injustice. The second chapter of this paper introduces the challenges related to the recognitive justice as justice in education. The examination of Dietrich Benner's recent critique of recognition theory illuminates these challenges in two ways: first, it is shown that there can be something negatively experienced, but the result of productive disruptions that the educator need to produce, which are out of the scope of recognition theory. Second, the recognitive justice paradigm ignores elementary pedagogical conditions and requirements, 'the pedagogical knowledge' and its methods, and is therefore unable to fully grasp the legitimate educational authority. This paper concludes with a synthesis that finds the crucial elements from the recognition theory to justice in education and critically assessing Benner's claims. Overall, the paper offers potential for further development in justice in education.
The article, ‘Axel Honneth on Role, Form and Results of Public Education Revisited’, is a series ... more The article, ‘Axel Honneth on Role, Form and Results of Public Education Revisited’, is a series of theoretical analyses offering clarifications on Honneth’s understanding of public education. Paper shows how Honneth’s conception can be organised in concert with his recognition theory and a practical view of how a democratically-oriented education should be organised in schools. The article introduces three pedagogical theorems: the role of public education, the form of public education and the results of public education. In the first category, the role of public education, the paper proposes that education is an inherent part of everyone’s civil rights and the crucial instrument for maintaining a democratic society. The second theorem – the form of public education – is examined in order to improve our understanding of how democratic education should be organised, if Honneth’s referred philosophical tradition of Kant, Durkheim and Dewey is to be taken seriously. The third theorem – the results of public education – reveals Honneth’s distinctive position. According to the author, for Honneth it is not enough that in democracy the discourse principles become an inherent part of our identity, but instead that the development of an intact identity equipped with self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem should be secured and prioritized. Public education should secure and cultivate this identity development in an equal manner to all, as its main task.
* in: P. Siljander, K. Kontio & E. Pikkarainen (eds.) Schools in Transition. Linking Past, Present, and Future in Educational Practice (Rotterdam, Boston Taipei, Sense Publishers, 2017).
This paper examines how the ‘old’ achievement principle – elaborated on by the critical pedagogy ... more This paper examines how the ‘old’ achievement principle – elaborated on by the critical pedagogy theorists in the 1960s and 1970s in the context of schools – might be understood today. The main result of critical pedagogy is the critique of traditional school assessment; that critique argues that schools reproduce inequality by using an elaborated language code in their assessments of students, thereby supporting a hope of success in upper-class children and a fear of failure in lower-class children. However, the solutions to this problem offered by the critical pedagogy theorists bring us to the paradox of empty content with regard to pedagogical action. The paradox of empty content, an inability to define any clear content for pedagogical action, arises in particular from the central ideas of critical pedagogy by which content for pedagogical action is deduced from problem-solving processes in the classroom. The author concludes that the paradox of empty content may be overcome by following Axel Honneth's recent notion of a drawn-out process of education, in relation to which Hegel's concept of ethical life comprises three different cognitive world relations, and the corresponding language games offer sufficient content for pedagogical action.
This article aims to critically examine how misrecognition is conceived as a challenge for pedago... more This article aims to critically examine how misrecognition is conceived as a challenge for pedagogic action. Krassimir Stojanov's notion of the pathological behaviour patterns of teachers and Charles Bingham's 'pitfalls of recognition'introduce how misrecognition may ...
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strange tension. Nordic schools are internationally rated as succeeding beyond the
average school in OECD countries, but they are unable to get actively enrolled in
their institutions a considerable amount of children and youths. The increasing
amount of youths not in education, employment or training (NEET) in Finland and
school dropout rates in Sweden exemplify this inability. These recent trends seem to
put the basic values of the Nordic model to the test. This uneasy situation provokes
this chapter to examine the theoretical grounds for the educational justice theory
that explains the process of exclusion from the perspectives of the excluded. The
first part of this chapter approaches this task by bringing forth the distinctiveness of
Axel Honneth’s recognitive justice theory: its highest value relies on the process of
undistorted growth, and by focusing on the distortions of growth, it captures the
perspectives of the worst offs. Although the recognitive justice theory offers a
salient direction for the educational justice theory to insert its essence into the pro-
cess of education and social injustice, it has its weaknesses. The second part of this
chapter analyses further Honneth’s idea of the hermeneutics of injustice, elaborat-
ing on three central problems: the sufficiency, conceptual and negativity problems.
These problems show how difficult it is to explain the tacit experiences of the
excluded and to anchor the theory of educational justice to these negative feelings.
The conclusion draws the results of this chapter, outlining how the recognitive justice
theory could be furthered with pedagogical aspects.
The article introduces three pedagogical theorems: the role of public education, the form of public education and the results of public education. In the first category, the role of public education, the paper proposes that education is an inherent part of everyone’s civil rights and the crucial instrument for maintaining a democratic society. The second theorem – the form of public education – is examined in order to improve our understanding of how democratic education should be organised, if Honneth’s referred philosophical tradition of Kant, Durkheim and Dewey is to be taken seriously. The third theorem – the results of public education – reveals Honneth’s distinctive position. According to the author, for Honneth it is not enough that in democracy the discourse principles become an inherent part of our identity, but instead that the development of an intact identity equipped with self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem should be secured and prioritized. Public education should secure and cultivate this identity development in an equal manner to all, as its main task.
* in: P. Siljander, K. Kontio & E. Pikkarainen (eds.) Schools in Transition. Linking Past, Present, and Future in Educational Practice (Rotterdam, Boston Taipei, Sense Publishers, 2017).
strange tension. Nordic schools are internationally rated as succeeding beyond the
average school in OECD countries, but they are unable to get actively enrolled in
their institutions a considerable amount of children and youths. The increasing
amount of youths not in education, employment or training (NEET) in Finland and
school dropout rates in Sweden exemplify this inability. These recent trends seem to
put the basic values of the Nordic model to the test. This uneasy situation provokes
this chapter to examine the theoretical grounds for the educational justice theory
that explains the process of exclusion from the perspectives of the excluded. The
first part of this chapter approaches this task by bringing forth the distinctiveness of
Axel Honneth’s recognitive justice theory: its highest value relies on the process of
undistorted growth, and by focusing on the distortions of growth, it captures the
perspectives of the worst offs. Although the recognitive justice theory offers a
salient direction for the educational justice theory to insert its essence into the pro-
cess of education and social injustice, it has its weaknesses. The second part of this
chapter analyses further Honneth’s idea of the hermeneutics of injustice, elaborat-
ing on three central problems: the sufficiency, conceptual and negativity problems.
These problems show how difficult it is to explain the tacit experiences of the
excluded and to anchor the theory of educational justice to these negative feelings.
The conclusion draws the results of this chapter, outlining how the recognitive justice
theory could be furthered with pedagogical aspects.
The article introduces three pedagogical theorems: the role of public education, the form of public education and the results of public education. In the first category, the role of public education, the paper proposes that education is an inherent part of everyone’s civil rights and the crucial instrument for maintaining a democratic society. The second theorem – the form of public education – is examined in order to improve our understanding of how democratic education should be organised, if Honneth’s referred philosophical tradition of Kant, Durkheim and Dewey is to be taken seriously. The third theorem – the results of public education – reveals Honneth’s distinctive position. According to the author, for Honneth it is not enough that in democracy the discourse principles become an inherent part of our identity, but instead that the development of an intact identity equipped with self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem should be secured and prioritized. Public education should secure and cultivate this identity development in an equal manner to all, as its main task.
* in: P. Siljander, K. Kontio & E. Pikkarainen (eds.) Schools in Transition. Linking Past, Present, and Future in Educational Practice (Rotterdam, Boston Taipei, Sense Publishers, 2017).