Disciplines and theory in the academic study of education: a comparative analysis of the Anglo-American and Continental construction of the field

Abstract

In the English-speaking world educational research is often conceived as the interdisciplinary study of educational processes and practices. Hence research in education strongly relies on theoretical input from a range of different academic disciplines. What is virtually absent in this construction of the field is the idea of education as an academic discipline in its own right. The latter idea does however play a prominent role in the way in which the field of educational studies has developed on the Continent, particularly in the German-speaking world. In this paper I compare these two constructions of the field in order to understand why the field has developed so differently in different contexts. Comparing the different traditions raises some important questions about the theoretical resources available for the study of education; questions that are still important for the study of education today.

Keywords:

• educational studies
• educational theory
• interdisciplinarity
• curriculum theory
• history of education

Acknowledgement

I am indebted to the reviewer who has provided me with helpful questions and insightful suggestions.

Notes

1. The influence of this way of approaching the study of education is not confined to countries where German is the main or one of the main languages, but has also impacted on countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Poland.

2. A third concept is that of ‘Erziehungswissenschaft’, which is sometimes used instead of ‘Pädagogik’ and sometimes to refer to the encompassing academic field, such as in Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft – the German Society for Educational Research.