Does theory inform education? Does education inform theory?

An insight into the Summer School at the Department of Educational Research

After a year’s break due to the pandemic, the Summer School at the Department of Educational Research (organised by Birgit Bütow and Sabine Seichter, funded by the City of Salzburg) took place again on 17 and 18 June 2021 in an online format. The Summer School, which was conceived as a forum for critical reflection on research in the fields of social and educational science, was once again open to researchers at different stages of their academic careers.

Throughout the lectures and workshops, the thematic triad of ‘theory – power – education’, which runs through all (educational) research, was brought into the spotlight, and with it the fundamental question of how, on the one hand, theories construct the understanding of education and, on the other hand, to what extent societal and cultural influences have an impact on both theory formation and understanding education.

Two keynotes provided a foundation for both critical and stimulating discussions and debates: With “Progress – Security – Technology. Dispositives of Educational Research”, Jörg Zirfas (University of Cologne) raised the question of the cultural and social parameters of (educational) research from a pedagogical-anthropological perspective, based on Foucault’s analyses of power. The following day, Bettina Dausien (University of Vienna) followed on from this by outlining “Biographical Research as an Approach to Reconstructing Social Conditions” and asking about methodological-methodological possibilities for researching those cultural and social conditions.

The 64 participants from Austria, Germany and Switzerland were able to make many new contacts, which could then be expanded upon and intensified in the workshops on offer.

We can say this much: No final conclusions were reached on all points of contention in this subject – and this was not to be expected from our experience. We did, however, shed some more light on often neglected areas and problems in general and social pedagogical research and thus provided talking points for a productive and, above all, critical debate, which will prompt further discussion at next year’s summer school.