WHEN TEACHING PRODUCES SCIENCE: FLECKIAN EPISTEMOLOGY AND THE CONSTITUTION OF EDUCATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

This theoretical essay analyzes the constitution of educational knowledge from the perspective of the social epistemology of knowledge, problematizing the historical and social processes that support the scientific legitimation of pedagogical knowledge. It is assumed that educational knowledge is not constituted exclusively through the application of scientific methods or through the progressive accumulation of empirical evidence, but through collective processes of production, circulation and stabilization of specific ways of understanding educational reality. The study articulates the social epistemology of knowledge with the debate on the epistemological status of pedagogy, understood as a theory structured from educational practice, and with teacher education, analyzed as a space of epistemological socialization within the educational field. The analysis shows that the scientific legitimation of pedagogical knowledge depends on the recognition of the epistemological specificities of education as a historically situated social practice, as well as on the articulation between academic production, pedagogical practice and formative processes. It is argued that teacher education occupies a structuring position in the organization of epistemological traditions that sustain the educational field and directly influence curriculum constitution and the legitimation of school knowledge.