Quelques extraits d'un texte du chercheur américain W.F. Pinar

W.F. Pinar est un important chercheur américain en sciences de l'éducation. Je propose ici quelques extraits d'un texte fort intéressant qu'il a rédigé à la fin des années 1990 et dont la référence complète est :

W. F. PINAR (1998). Dreamt into Existence by Others : Notes on School Reform in the US. In M. Tardif, C. Lessard et C. Gauthier (éds.) Formation des maîtres et contextes sociaux. (p. 201-229). Paris. PUF.


«We agreed that contemplation must not be reserved for the privileged; indeed, it must function to dissolve privilege. Theory must create spaces apart from the pressurized sphere of practical activity, spaces in which the demands of the state and of the principal, parents, and students can be viewed, understood and reframed as questions posed to oneself. By living in worlds apart from the everyday and the take-for-granted, we might participate in the daily world with more intensity and intelligence» (p. 207).

«Curriculum theorists might assist teachers to avoid the disappearance of their ideals into the maelstrom of daily classroom demands. We might support teachers’ identities apart from those of the professionalized role by proclaiming the existence of others ways of conceiving education, non-instrumental ways of speaking and being with children» (p. 210-211).

«We say “we are what we know”. But, we are also what we do not know» (p. 211).

«Knowledge is not static, not deposits in a cognitive bank account or skills to be employed at work sites; knowledge enables us to see who we are and what the world is and might become» (p. 212).

(...) «knowledge of who we have been, who we are, and who we will become is a story or text we construct. In this sense curriculum - our construction and reconstruction of this knowledge for conversation with the young - becomes a form of social psycho-analysis» (p. 213).

«Theory that is free of classroom constraints is not an exotic phenomenon; it is parallel to a concept of basic research in the sciences. The insistence that all intellectual activity in education school and departments bear an explicit link to school reform must itself be critiqued and understood historically. An enlarged and intensified sphere of theory can support a more intelligent and intensified sphere of practice» (p. 216).

Des propos très stimulants à méditer longuement !