Knowledge in and about education: The production, visualisation and effects of education outcomes

Abstract

This paper is built upon an inaugural speech I gave at Örebro University on 1 October 2014. I start by positioning the disciplinary subject ‘Pedagogik’ within the larger field of ‘Utbildningsvetenskap’ [educational research] and I claim that ‘Pedagogik’ can serve the purpose of being an especially reflexive discipline within the field of ‘Utbildningsvetenskap’ based on its tradition and strength in the fields of knowledge production, knowledge dissemination and learning. Thereafter, I position myself in the discipline of education as a curricular theorist with a particular interest in the retrospective sociology of knowledge. My research emphasizes the processes and the context of knowledge production as well as the correspondence between actors, places and networks. I give three examples from my own research to illustrate the complexities of the production, visualisation and use of knowledge: the transnational flows of ideas at the world fairs; the production and editorial work of the International Encyclopaedia of Education; and the use of international comparisons of assessment systems in local politics. I conclude by stressing that a reflexive ‘Pedagogik’ has important politics of its own when it is used to scrutinise the structures and conditions that build up everyday discourses in and about education.