Communicative Competence and Cultural Emancipation: reviewing the rationale for educational studies in teacher education

Abstract

The numerous changes and improvements which have been wrought in teacher education courses in the last two decades have not, apparently, satisfied the critics. Ironically, the reverse seems to have occurred, as recent events on both sides of the Atlantic testify. This essay argues that the developments of the last two decades in educational research and teacher education, which have yielded a wealth of new ideas and procedures, have also yielded a confusing proliferation of educational ideologies. In short, it suggests that the ascendancy of a diffuse, unselfcritical, and often combative discourse within educational studies has effectively eclipsed the more important question which must first be tackled if educational studies are to have a coherent, robust focus. This question, which is pursued in the second section of the paper, asks: is the educational enterprise, properly conceived, a distinctive, autonomous or sui generis enterprise with purposes of its own which are universal, or is it essentially a subservient enterprise, a vehicle for one or other currently prevailing ideology (cultural, technological, political, religious, etc.)? In exploring this question the essay puts to work some enduring insights from contemporary European philosophy, arguing that education as a ‘practical hermeneutic discipline’ holds a singular promise. Some important consequences of this promise for educational studies and teacher education are then considered.