Suchergebnisse

This chapter deals with the debate that is occurring in the European countries about the emergence of a new European citizenship. Rhetoric increasingly focuses on the Europeanization of education as one of the main trends to accomplish this purpose and to achieve the social and political goals of the European Union. The first argument is historical, and attempts to shed light on the connection between the development of the nation-state and the consolidation of national systems of education, by suggesting that we are participating on the end of a cycle of two centuries in which the school has been seen in the context of a triad of "nationality-sovereignty-citizenship." The second argument is sociological, and takes account of the way in which the phenomena of globalization and localization express themselves in the European educational arena, notably through a new concept of citizenship, which prohibits the nation-state from having complete control over the way schools are conceptualized, and organized. The third argument is comparative, and underlines the need to stimulate the development of a scientific way of thinking, which is capable of reflecting critically and theoretically on changes. Nowadays, the situation in the European Union countries constitutes a very interesting and stimulating challenge for a comparative approach. Not only in the perspective of direct comparison between two or more countries, but in the sense of global analyses of relations of transnational interdependency.

This chapter offers some thoughts for reflection regarding the Comparative Education and the Educational Policies in the European Space . As such it has a double intention: firstly, to address recent changes in the Comparative Education field stressing the ways in which they can contribute to new ways of thinking the European educational space; and, secondly, to analyse the assumptions underpinning some measures taken by the European Commission calling forth an explanation based on a comparative approach.

This text is not a research paper, nor an epistemological reflection about the field of Comparative Education. It is an essay in the literal meaning of the word 'an attempt, trial, that needs to be put to test in order to understand if it is able to fulfil the expectations' in which we introduce an interpretation of the current condition of the field of comparative education. In the introduction to this essay we discuss the current phenomenon of a regained popularity of comparative educational research. We believe that this situation has both positive and negative consequences: it can contribute to the renewal of the field or it may be no more than a brief fashion. Our reflections focus on the uses of comparative research in education, not on any precise research question. Even so, only for illustrative purposes, we present some examples related with the European Union. We then go on to discuss current comparative practices, arguing that comparative educational studies are used as a political tool creating educational policy, rather than a research method or an intellectual inquiry. In the two main sections of this text we define two extreme positions: comparison as a mode of governance and comparison as a historical journey. We do recognize that between these two extremes there is room enough to imagine different positions and dispositions. But our intention is to analytically separate very different traditions of the comparative field. Throughout the article we build a case in favour of a comparative-historical approach. Nevertheless, we argue that the reconciliation between history and comparison will only be possible if we adopt new conceptions of space and time, and of space-time relationship. This is a condition required for the understanding of comparative research in education as a historical journey.

La préparation de ce texte s'est faite dans le cadre du projet L'éducation portugaise dans le contexte européen: Images, cultures et politiques, appuyé par la JNICT (Junte Nationale de Recherche Scientifique et Technologique). ; This article examines the history of educational sciences in relation with the process of professionalization of teaching and the changing patterns of state action in the field of education. The empirical work has been conducted in Southwestern Europe (France, Portugal, and Spain), but my purpose is to build a theoretical explanation that can be helpful to other contexts. Through an analysis of three different periods (1880s, 1920s, and 1960s), I intend to show that the formation of the educational sciences causes the exclusion of practice as the basis for pedagogical knowledge. At the turn of the 19th century, it consecrates the superiority of the expert regarding the teacher, and entails new regulations in the educational arena. In the 1960s, the educational expansion establishes new relationships between the state, the civil society and the academic world, introducing important changes in teacher education and professionalization. Teachers are defined as a corps that needs to be managed and controlled at state and university levels. The recent development of the educational sciences needs to be understood under this light.

La pédagogie est un dispositif spécialisé de connaissances et de techniques qui vise la «transformation des personnes». La raison et la responsabilité sont les deux topoï de cette science du « gouvernement des âmes ». L'importance qu'elle acquiert au tournant du siècle s'explique par un développement sans précédents des «Technologies de responsabilisation», qui articulent des principes de rationalité et de sensibilité (Nikolas Rose). D'une part, la pédagogie «scientifique» cherche à se constituer comme «l'oeil de la raison», introduisant des règles, des attitudes et des comportements prétendument rationnels et raisonnables (Thomas Popkewitz). D'autre part, cette intention est indissociable de l'effort pour former un «citoyen responsable», que l'on veut même « autonome ». Ces deux dimensions sont essentielles pour analyser historiquement la formation de la pédagogie. Nous sommes dans un champ habité par les disciplines scientifiques (et par leurs experts), où l'emprise de la raison est indissociable du «gouvernement de soi par soi dans son articulation avec les rapports à autrui» (Michel Foucault). Le succès du concept de self-government, au sein du mouvement international de l'Éducation Nouvelle, montre bien l'importance de ce thème dans le projet des «sciences de l'éducation». Ayant comme support les deux auteurs cités (Nikolas Rose et Thomas Popkewitz) et leur réinterprétation de certaines thèses de Michel Foucault, de pair avec une lecture de quelques travaux publiés entre 1880 et 1920, j'essaierai de bâtir une réflexion sur la naissance de la «pédagogie scientifique», ayant comme points de repère les discours de la raison et de la responsabilité.Pedagogy is a specialised ensemble of knowledge and techniques that intends to "transform people." Reason and responsibility are the two topoi of this science of the "government of the soul". The importance of this field of study at the turn of the century is exemplified by the unprecedented expansion of "technologies of responsibilization," that articulate ...