The Educational Fiction of Agential Control: Some Preliminary Notes on a Pedagogy of 'As If'

Autor/in	Dahlbeck, Johan
Titel	The Educational Fiction of Agential Control: Some Preliminary Notes on a Pedagogy of 'As If'
Quelle	In: Educational Philosophy and Theory, 55 (2023) 1, S.100-110 (11 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Dahlbeck, Johan)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0013-1857
DOI	10.1080/00131857.2022.2089978
Schlagwörter	Self Concept; Professional Autonomy; Teachers; Teaching Experience; Instruction; Educational Philosophy + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Selbstkonzept; Berufsfreiheit; Lehrer; Lehrerin; Lehrende; Teaching process; Unterrichtsprozess; Bildungsphilosophie; Erziehungsphilosophie
Abstract	This paper addresses the rift between the teacher's sense of self as a causal agent and the experience of being in lack of control in the classroom, by way of Hans Vaihinger's philosophy of 'as if.' It is argued that understanding agential control in terms of a valuable educational fiction--a practical (ethical) fiction in Vaihinger's vocabulary--can offer a way of bridging this rift and can help teachers make sense of the tension between their felt need to strive for control and their experience of suffering from lack of control. A fiction, it is argued, is different from an illusion in that fictions can be affirmed without being believed. Unlike illusions, valuable fictions can be recognized as fictions and still retain some of their affective power over us, thereby allowing us to act 'as if.' In education, this is helpful as it means that we can make use of valuable fictions without assuming that these have to be protected from the critical gaze of non-believers. In fact, we can openly acknowledge that we rely on fictions as this is part and parcel of being a human being with a limited cognitive ability. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01