Raf Vanderstraeten

How is education possible? Pragmatism, communication and the social organisation of education

ABSTRACT:u2002 Education cannot mean that the young are the product of the activities of their teachers. At the same time, we do not speak of education if students would simply learn something irrespective of the activities of their teachers. In this paper we focus on the question: How is education possible? Our aim is to contribute to a social theory of education, a theory that does not reduce our understanding of educational processes and practices to underlying ‘constituting elements’ but rather tries to understand the social nature of education as a reality sui generis.

How is Education Possible? Preliminary investigations for a theory of education

The following text is the result of our ongoing discussions about the notion of intersubjectivity and its significance for an understanding of the process of education.Rather than merging our sometimes diverging ideas into one single line of argument, we decided to try if we could make the movement of divergence and convergence of our thoughts visible in the text itself. n n n nAlthough we definitely explore different pathways, these pathways lead to a similar insight.This is, that it is not the educator who educates, but that it is the educational ‘situation’—a situation constituted though not determined by the interaction between the educator and the student—which educates.This educational situation, which one of us describes as an ‘in between space’, emerges from the interaction between the educator and the student.In this respect we can say that it results from the difference between the partners in education.The in-between space of education is an emerging reality, which not only comes into existence as a result of the difference between the partners in education but in fact only exists in this difference. n n n nIt is precisely in this respect that the form of the following article provides an example of what we want to say about the process of education.The point is, to put it briefly, that this article contains or expresses a meaning that results from the difference between the two texts, but this meaning is neither something that can be attributed to the two texts as such (in this sense this emerging meaning is constituted though not determined by the two texts), nor—and this is crucial—is it something that can be articulated in any positive way in a third text.The interaction between our two texts therefore creates a reality that results from the difference between the texts and only exists in this difference.The order of authorship expresses the fact that the first author wrote the left column and the second author the right column.

Observing Systems: a Cybernetic Perspective on System/Environment Relations

This article takes its point of departure in Heinz von Foersters claim that knowledge depends upon observations, and that an observation can be defined as the application of a distinction. Every observation distinguishes two sides, and indicates one of its sides. The observed or known reality is the product of the distinction that is used to observe. With regard to epistemological questions, second-order cybernetics therefore proposes to observe the observer, that is to observe by means of which distinctions the observer construct her/his/its reality. The consequences of this second-order perspective for the study of social systems are discussed; its implications are illustrated in a discussion of the concept of rationality, applied to system/environment relationships.

The performance of education systems

In the past decades, national governments have strived for the realization of a number of ideals, and have initiated numerous reforms of our societal structures. Ideological convictions have often been at the root of particular initiatives, for example in the field of economic policy. Several political strategies and interventions were, as a consequence, fiercely disputed. A few issues and ideals, however, have been of persistent and consistent concern in the political field. The ‘democratization’ of education is such an issue. There is, during the entire postwar period in Europe, little difference of opinion as to the relevance of public expenditures for education. Material investments and internal educational reforms have been generously sponsored by governments since the 1950s. Numerous new school buildings were constructed. Teacher education was expanded. Comprehensive educational structures were introduced, while trying to provide for equality of opportunity and to eliminate the influence of social background. Compulsory education has been extended, in most countries to the age of 16 or even 18 years. Et cetera (cf, e.g., Jonsson, Mills & Muller 1996).