Between Educationalization and Appropriation: Selected Writings on the History of Modern Educational Systems

6. Dealing with Paradoxes of Educationalization: Beyond the Limits of “New” Cultural History of Education?

6 Dealing with Paradoxes of Educationalization: Beyond the Limits of “New” Cultural History of Education?* M. Depaepe I am convinced that if we are not able to appreciate the relativity of the categories we use, we run the risk of not gaining anything, and of losing everything. (Eco, 1990, p. 111). Every scientific discipline – including the history of education – is continuously subject to change. This truism applies both to the knowledge generated within a particular field of research and to its didactic translation into a teaching subject. When the subject of histoire de la pédagogie entered the curriculum of Belgian university teacher training in 1890, the legislators had completely different objectives and content in mind than the ones we proclaim today (Depaepe, 1997a). That we ourselves no longer speak of “historical pedagogy” but of “educational historiography” (or “history of education”)1 manifests this. The preference for educational history over pedagogy or pedagogics on the basis of history, in addition to our concern to link up with the most recent developments in the field, illustrates the historicity (and therefore relativity) of these developments. Not only because these are partly the result of specific historical social processes but also and in particular because the process of knowing has itself been coloured in a perspectivist manner. Our observation of “reality” is made literally on the basis of a particular (biological, historical, social, cultural, ideological) “point of view”, while knowledge of (and therefore thinking, speaking and writing about) this “reality” still takes place via the reductionist incision of the concrete word. Knowledge, of the past, comes about via time-bound linguistic concepts, the significance content of which continuously varies in relation to the present. * Originally published in: Revista Educação & Cidadania, VII,2 (2008) 11-31. 1 In German: “Pädagogische Historiographie” or “Geschichte der Erziehung”. Part II. About the Educationalization… of the West 140 Therefore,beforefocusingonparadigmaticandconceptualdevelopments in educational historiography, we will look, by way of introduction, first over the wall at the gardens of knowledge theory, philosophy, and history of science. Dealing with the educational past, when all is said and done, is dealing with the past tout court. We will then examine how these epistemological points of departure have been translated into the preference for what is known as the new cultural history of education and what educational paradoxes the contemporary trend has exposed. ❙ ❙ Epistemological Step-up to a “New Cultural History of Education” In the scheme of general historiography, Leopold von Ranke (17951886 ) is regarded as one of the founders of historicism. In the context of this intellectual movement, attention was already being drawn at that time to the necessary historical content of phenomena. According to von Ranke, history had to be seen in relation to the norms each age brought with it. Supra-historical statements about absolute values (and truths) in relation to religion, morals or law should be avoided by the historical researcher. By conducting strictly empirical source research (and also source criticism), these researchers had to concentrate on the “facts”. He/ she (we shall henceforth use the male form without any gender-political implications being intended) had to open up the sources and let them speak for themselves. Historical ideas and forms had to be described as they occurred. They were thought of as being an immanent part of the historical reality. They were active principles that gave the past itself shape. The intervention of the historian was regarded in this historicism as that of a passive, photographic plate. His language was, as it were, a mirror of the historical reality, without autonomy. Not adopting a position appeared to be the best guarantee of impartiality and objectivity. The role of the historian was limited to “bloss zeigen wie es eigentlich gewesen ist” (“merely showing how it actually was”). During the course of the 20th century, however, it was realized that things are not as straightforward as they appeared in the perspective of 19th century historicism. The historical reality is to paraphrase the Groningen historian Franklin R. Ankersmit (1984; 1990 & 1996), not a reality specified a priori but a reality that is only created in the interpretation, thus, a posteriori. The historian constructs the past within the contours of the applicable historiographic tradition. By means of an historical 141 Dealing with Paradoxes of Educationalization story, a context in the past is created that the past itself did not know. Every historical researcher inevitably starts out from an...