Enabling Education

Proceedings of the annual conference of Finnish Educational Research Assosiation FERA 2013
Heikkinen, Hannu L. T.; Moate, Josephine; Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina
978-952-5401-68-4; 1458-1094
Finnish Educational Research Association / Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura
Research in educational sciences / Kasvatusalan tutkimuksia (66)
2014

The title of the book, Enabling Education, encompasses the conference theme - Education for future well-being and teaching excellence. The word Education has purposefully been written with a capital letter in the book title. Education with a big E is something which initiates us into the kinds of practices that foster the good life for each person and the good for humankind. The capital letter implies that Education with a big E is something more than schooling which has transformed education into standardized, factory-like practices.

As the keynote speaker of the conference Stephen Kemmis puts it: "Schooling is to produce people with skills for production and the means for consumption, and people who are willing providers and grateful clients of services. (…) Education, by contrast, is a process of individual and collective self-formation, a simultaneous process of growing good selves and good societies."

Education with a big E is not limited to conventional school-based settings. It happens in everyday life, and it is a life-long journey. It may take place outdoors and through adventures as well as in peoples’ homes, on trains and streets via portable electronic devices. It may be about cultural education - music, arts, and crafts as well as literature, video clips, and digital stories. Education requires inter-professional collaboration and presupposes the strong agency of the educators. Education is something very practical and simultaneously deeply philosophical and ethical. The eleven chapters of this book shed light on all these aspects of Education with a big E.