Vukasović-s concept of education: an attempt at an explication

Abstract

All attempts to think of pedagogy as a science - which, alongside its investigative concerns, is engaged in the improvement of educational practice - starts with the question: which aspect of the material object named “education” is to be investigated by pedagogy and for what purposes? Efforts to establish a pedagogical “semblance” of education have resulted in different concepts. Vukasovic-s concept of education, due to the simple fact that it has been defined and explicated in a series of texts to be found on reading lists for students of pedagogy and for those studying to be teachers, is the one most frequently used. For many who have been introduced to pedagogical reflections, Vukasovic-s concept is synonymous with the pedagogical concept of education. Pedagogical discourse cannot do without this concept either because different authors have critically accepted it, adding to the conceptual-terminological confusion, or critically valorized it and given it precision. It is because of this that the explication restricts itself to Vukasovic-s concept of education and proposes the explicatus education-action which adequately fulfills the criteria of explication: il resembles the explicandum, it is precise, heuristically fruitful and simple. It is a pari of the pedagogical tradition wherein education is conceived as action undertaken by a mature subject with the aim of helping immature and the underdeveloped or of leading them to a satisfactory stage in Lheir development.