Eetu Pikkarainen

The Semiotics of Education: A new vision in an old landscape

In this article, I attempt to describe how certain theoretical constructions of semiotics could be applied in educational theoretical work. First I introduce meaning as a basic concept of semiotics, thus also touching on concepts such as action, competence and causality. I am then able to define learning as a change of competences, and also refer to the pedagogical concept of learning i.e. Bildung, which can be roughly defined as valuable human learning. I then take up the problem of education as pedagogical direction and communication. Finally, I conclude with some considerations on the famous Greimassian semiotic square.

Competence as a Key Concept of Educational Theory: A Semiotic Point of View.

In this article, the concept of competence is studied from the point of view of the semiotics of education. It will be claimed that it is a central key concept when we are trying to analyse the meaning of education. Educational action can be reasonably understood as an insecure and complicatedly mediated trial to affect another persons competence. First, the recent discussion about the concept of competence and its relatives is shortly reviewed. Then, competence is analysed and defined according to Greimassian semiotic theory as a basic determining character of an acting subject. At the same time as competence is indispensably central for understanding the subjects of action, it is problematically empirically ineffable. This ineffability has a special meaning in education, where we must try to both plan our own educative action and evaluate the learning of the student according to these invisible features. It is proposed that in the recent discourse of education, the very popular use of the concept of competence is misguided and problematically mixed with its conceptual counterpart performance. From this viewpoint, the concept of competence should rather be connected to the ontological concept of disposition. The problem of multi-dimensionality of competence is considered with the help of the Greimassian conception of modalities to create a richer and more detailed picture of the role of competence in action, and especially in education.

From the Ontology of Interaction to the Semiotics of Education

In the philosophy of education, there seems to be a shift towards an ontological turn. The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to the ongoing discussion by framing what the ontology for a philosophy of education could be and what it could offer. Some of the current literature in this movement will be reviewed briefly and critiqued for a too narrow and too shallow understanding of ontology and a lack of ontological seriousness.

Edusemiotics, Existential Semiotics, and Existential Pedagogy

This chapter examines how the edusemiotic understanding of education can be developed by utilizing certain notions arising from existential pedagogy and existential semiotics. The chapter begins by the authors’ interpretation of Martin Heidegger’s semiotically useful concept of unconcealment in terms of a pedagogical theory compatible with the concept of Bildung. The chapter proceeds to demonstrate how it has been implemented in philosophy of education so as to articulate an existentially discontinuous form of education. Education viewed as the most important task of/for humanity entails a fundamental disruption of continuity: we do not know what kind of humanity we want or need as a way of life before a life itself unfolds and reveals itself as something particularly educational. However, discontinuous forms of education do not yet elucidate the transformative potential of existential education to the fullest extent. Thus, the chapter intends to compare those aspects with Eero Tarasti’s theory of existential semiotics and his models of the transcendental journey, especially the Z-model, which is built on Greimas’ theory of modalities. The chapter identifies three levels of learning as pragmatic, social and existential; and suggests a model of modal learning.

Education, Values and Authority

What is the relationship between values, authority and education? I believe one very probable first thought could be some kind of idea of moral education. Others might be sceptical, or hold critical views that education and teachers have now lost the authority they used to have in the schooldays of the elders of today, or that neoliberalism and commodification have wiped all old values out of education.

School Learning as Human Growth

As a social institution, the school has multiple functions, both in relation to other institutions and to different individuals, and there are surely different opinions about the current core function or fundamental reason of the schooling.

Edusemiotics of meaningful learning experience: Revisiting Kant’s pedagogical paradox and Greimas’ semiotic square

Abstract In this article we examine the educational process and learning from the edusemiotic point of view in terms of meaningful experience and meaningful action. A conception of meaningful experience is central in many branches of educational thinking, from pragmatism to existentialism. We analyze this conception from two traditional and somewhat remote perspectives, utilizing some themes of Kant’s educational philosophy on the one hand and Greimas’ semiotics on the other. Kant’s views of human formative powers – Bildung – will be described as a basic philosophy of learning experience. Kant’s theory is then critiqued from the perspective of existentialist educational philosophy. Concepts of meaningful learning and experience are further clarified utilizing Greimas’ semiotic tools and, specifically, his semiotic square. Finally, the question of meaningful learning experience is related to Kant’s pedagogical paradox and the educator’s role in the pedagogical process.

Signs as functions: Edusemiotic and ontological foundations for a semiotic concept of a sign

Abstract As a branch of theoretical semiotics that aims to contribute to the development of the theory of both semiotics and education, edusemiotics must also problematize the most foundational semiotic conceptions of sign and semiosis. The biosemiotic notion that a sign relation is necessarily dependent on learning restricts semiotics to the biological sphere, to living beings. This fits well with education, which can be seen as transition from the zoosemiotic sphere to the anthroposemiotic sphere. However this radical discontinuity between living and non-living spheres makes it difficult to understand how signs and semiosis are viable at all and what their basic nature is. Ontologically we can imagine that sign relations must also be somehow based on the features of non-living beings. In this article I will analyze how a concept of a sign can be seen as a general model of interaction between any beings. This paper develops the conception of semiosis and signification with regard to the competence (or habits) of the subject experiencing the meaning. Such task requires the explication of the ontological basis of semiosis – a step often perceived as dangerous by semioticians or ignored by educators.

A Modern Idea of the School

The school is, without doubt, one of the most central institutions in modern Western society. The emergence of the school as a pedagogical institution is intertwined in a very fundamental way with the emergence of the modern society and modern cultural life forms.