The Winter School in Empirical Philosophy of Education Madrid, 7-9 February 2022, is on the theme
Post-Critical Approaches in Educational Research: Epistemology, Methodology, and Ethics
How can educational research approach educational realities in a way that is caring, rather than critical? And what would it mean to adopt such a post-critical research attitude in terms of source materials and methods? Post-criticality takes issue with the critical research stance since it narrows down the philosophical relation to reality to demystification, defamiliarization, and deconstruction. Instead, postcriticality approaches our attachments to educational practices from the inside out, while trying to understand these practices at face value.
The aim of this winter school is to flesh out what it means to do educational research from a postcritical perspective in terms of the kind of knowledge that is generated (epistemology), to think over the kind of tools that are mobilized when conceptualizing educational realities (methodology), and to reconsider the relation between theory development and the educational practice that is being studied (ethics). Theoretically, the winter school builds on work that has been done by authors like Bruno Latour, Rita Felski, Isabelle Stengers, and Annemarie Mol. We seek to explore the potential of their writings for doing educational research.
During the Winter School we aim to experiment with ways of making educational situations and practices present, assuming that theory development is always driven by what these situations and practices demand. Therefore, the starting point of our discussions and explorations is concrete and material, e.g., vignettes, field notes, historical sources, teacher diaries, movies, and autoethnographic accounts. Practical experiments with source materials and methods will be alternated with more theoretical reflections concerning the epistemology, methodology, and ethics of a post-critical research stance.
Workshops
There are three workshops:
- Histories that Matter: Reassembling the Past with ANT and Bruno Latour (Anne Rohstock, University of Tübingen)
- How to Do (Speculative) Things with Stories? (Martin Savransky, Goldsmiths, University of London)
- What We Think about when We Think about Critique: Latour Revisited (Ramon del Castillo, UNED Madrid)
Applications
The Winter School is free of charge, but places are limited. It is mainly but not exclusively aimed at early and middle career scholars. PhD students are especially encouraged to apply. To do so, please send a CV and a motivation letter stating your interest in the school (max. 1 page each) to hans.schildermans@univie.ac.at. If you are an early career researcher, please also state whether or not you want to apply for a scholarship, detailing expected travel and accommodation costs. Depending on the applications received, a number of scholarships of up to €400 each will be awarded.
The deadline for applications is 15 November 2021.
Sponsors and organizing committee
The Winter School is sponsored by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) and hosted by the Autonomous University of Madrid (AUM). The organizing committee is Hans Schildermans (University of Vienna), Bianca Thoilliez (Autonomous University of Madrid), Joris Vlieghe (KU Leuven) and Kai Wortmann (University of Tübingen).