Papers by Eetu Pikkarainen
PCT and philosophy of education: Education as guidance of reorganization
Elsevier eBooks, 2023
Schools in Transition: Linking Past, Present, and Future in Educational Practice
Schools in Transition: Linking Past, Present, and Future in Educational Practice, 2017
School is one of the most focal institutions in modern society. It is largely through the institu... more School is one of the most focal institutions in modern society. It is largely through the institutionalized forms of education that modern society attempts to secure and maintain its social and economic well-being and its valuable cultural life forms. In addition to this, school is the essential institution through which the future of a society is defined. Thus, at least when understood traditionally as a pedagogical institution, the school stands at the center of historically and socially constructed cultural life forms and at the brink of an unknown future: the determination of that future characterizes the pedagogical task of the school. It naturally ensues then, that modern discourses of the school have always been intertwined with the critical question of how past, present and future can be linked in educational practices so that schools can foster (in ever better ways) the well-being of individuals, societies and humanity. The chapters in this volume, despite the variety of viewpoints, share this critical view. The purpose of the volume is not to offer definite answers; rather it is to stress that to understand the role and functions of school in contemporary society and to orientate its transition, a well-founded critical evaluation of prevailing pedagogical practices and policy trends is required. This evaluation is vital for the future of school and society.
Sivistys, talous ja ammattikasvatuksen uudistus
Ammattikasvatuksen aikakauskirja, Oct 15, 2019
Philosophies
Among the biggest challenges facing the contemporary human condition, and therefore also educatio... more Among the biggest challenges facing the contemporary human condition, and therefore also education, is responding to the climate crisis. One of the sources of the crisis is assumed to be absent-mindedness, presented by Leslie Dewart as a distortion of the development of human consciousness. Dewart’s poorly-known philosophical consciousness study is presented in this paper in broad outline. The problems in the study of consciousness, the most important of which are the qualitative representations—qualia—and the question of free will, are also briefly discussed. These problems are then examined transcendental analytically, with the question of what one must assume in order to allow the emergence of these phenomena. From the resulting conception of causal relationship, we proceed to the circular causality as a prerequisite for life, namely the homeostatic systems and negative feedback. An organization of action that is essential to animals and humans is presented, using William Powers’...
Signs as functions: Edusemiotic and ontological foundations for a semiotic concept of a sign
Semiotica, 2016
As a branch of theoretical semiotics that aims to contribute to the development of the theory of ... more As a branch of theoretical semiotics that aims to contribute to the development of the theory of both semiotics and education, edusemiotics must also problematize the most foundational semiotic conceptions of sign and semiosis. The biosemiotic notion that a sign relation is necessarily dependent on learning restricts semiotics to the biological sphere, to living beings. This fits well with education, which can be seen as transition from the zoosemiotic sphere to the anthroposemiotic sphere. However this radical discontinuity between living and non-living spheres makes it difficult to understand how signs and semiosis are viable at all and what their basic nature is. Ontologically we can imagine that sign relations must also be somehow based on the features of non-living beings. In this article I will analyze how a concept of a sign can be seen as a general model of interaction between any beings. This paper develops the conception of semiosis and signification with regard to the com...
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2014
In this article, the concept of competence is studied from the point of view of the semiotics of ... more In this article, the concept of competence is studied from the point of view of the semiotics of education. It will be claimed that it is a central key concept when we are trying to analyse the meaning of education. Educational action can be reasonably understood as an insecure and complicatedly mediated trial to affect another person's competence. First, the recent discussion about the concept of competence and its relatives is shortly reviewed. Then, competence is analysed and defined according to Greimassian semiotic theory as a basic determining character of an acting subject. At the same time as competence is indispensably central for understanding the subjects of action, it is problematically empirically ineffable. This ineffability has a special meaning in education, where we must try to both plan our own educative action and evaluate the learning of the student according to these invisible features. It is proposed that in the recent discourse of education, the very popular use of the concept of competence is misguided and problematically mixed with its conceptual counterpart performance. From this viewpoint, the concept of competence should rather be connected to the ontological concept of disposition. The problem of multi-dimensionality of competence is considered with the help of the Greimassian conception of modalities to create a richer and more detailed picture of the role of competence in action, and especially in education. INTRODUCTION The main argument in this article is that the concept of competence-when rightly understood-is the most central key concept or foundation block not only for the semiotics of education, but also for semiotic theory more generally, and naturally for all theory and philosophy of education. Perhaps the most annoying obstacle for this argument is that the word competence bs_bs_banner
Semiotic Theory of Learning
Semiotic Theory of Learning
In this article, my attempt is to describe how certain theoretical constructions of semiotics cou... more In this article, my attempt is to describe how certain theoretical constructions of semiotics could be applied in educational theoretical work. First I will introduce meaning as a basic concept of semiotics, thus also touching on concepts such as action, competence and causality. I will then be able to define learning as a change of competences, and will also shortly refer to the pedagogical concept of learning i.e. Bildung, which can be roughly defined as valuable human learning 1. I will then take up the problem of education as pedagogical direction and communication. Finally, I will conclude with some considerations on the famous Greimassian semiotic square.
Human learning
Semiotic Theory of Learning
Learning and semiotic theory
Education, Values and Authority: a Semiotic View
Semiotic Theory of Learning, May 15, 2018
Sign Systems Studies
Learning and adaptation are central problems to both edusemiotics, or semiotics of education, and... more Learning and adaptation are central problems to both edusemiotics, or semiotics of education, and biosemiotics. Bildung, as an especially human way or form of learning, and evolution as the main form of adaptation for many biologists after Darwin are often regarded as mutually exclusive concepts even though human beings are undeniably one biological species among others. In this article I will try to build a bridge between the biosemiotical, edusemiotical and Bildung-theoretical stances. Central to this discussion is biosemiotician Kalevi Kull and some of his recent publications where he considers adaptation, evolution and learning. The primary theoretical resource that I utilize here, in addition to the general Greimassian, edusemiotical and Bildung-theoretical starting points, is perceptual control theory (PCT) to which I compare the Uexküllian conception of functional circle.
School Learning as Human Growth
Schools in Transition, 2017
A Modern Idea of the School
Schools in Transition, 2016
Edusemiotics, Existential Semiotics, and Existential Pedagogy
Edusemiotics – A Handbook, 2016
The Semiotics of Education: A new vision in an old landscape
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1111 J 1469 5812 2009 00632 X, Jan 9, 2013
Wiley Online Library. Educational Philosophy and TheoryEarly View, Article first published online... more Wiley Online Library. Educational Philosophy and TheoryEarly View, Article first published online: 21 JUN 2010. ...
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Papers by Eetu Pikkarainen