Tacit Dimensions of Pedagogy (PDF)

There is a controversy regarding the relationship between theory and praxis in the field of pedagogy with no final decision on how to model it. From our perspective, theories concerning educational science are especially promising if they face the challenges associated with diverse educational practices and their special circumstances. As the central task we consider the development of a notion of the explicit as well as of the tacit side of practices and of the necessity to reflect these two.
Looking at educational practices is not reduced to the explicit decisions concerning aims, subjects, schedules, social settings, etc., in the diverse pedagogical fields. It also entails the examination of the inexplicable knowledge on which social relations are based. Aesthetical dimensions of education like sensual perceptions and time-space-object relations then are important frames of the practical orientation. Furthermore, corporal dispositions and influences of non-formal learning on formal learning situations are explored. The incidental scenery formed by these tacit factors might open and broaden, or it might also close and restrict the significant ways of teaching and learning; it might empower learners and teachers in understanding, transcending, and creating the world, or constrain them in doing this.