Teaching as a pedagogical responsibility: an introduction

Abstract

In this special issue, the research interest is focused on classroom activities. To adequately understand and examine the classroom situation, the wholeness and complexity of the teaching situation should be maintained and paid attention as much as possible throughout the research process. In dialogues and comparisons between the German concept of Didaktik and the American concepts of curriculum theory and pedagogy, the differences between a European, continental, and Anglo-Saxon conceptualization of education often have been emphasized. Inspired by both the German tradition of Bildung and the American philosophy of pragmatism, we here understand classroom activity as communication on selected parts of collective knowledge and social culture, shaping the conditions for both the continuity and renewal of society. Furthermore, the concept of didactics is viewed as the conceptualization of empirically based pedagogical problems in classrooms. Even if both the traditions of Bildung and pragmatism embrace a reflective approach, Dewey’s pragmatism places more emphasis on freedom and openness in terms of communication across social boundaries and on a mutual dependency between education and democracy. In terms of democracy, a Deweyan view of pragmatism could thus contribute to the German didactic tradition and the meanings of the concepts of didactics and pedagogical responsibility.