Education as a science within a scientific‐rational discourse

Abstract

This paper focuses on a dogma within Swedish educational research which asserts that the theoretical structure of education developed through research commissioned to reform the Swedish school system. What preconditions led to the widespread acceptance of this dogma; in other words, in which language game or games was the dogma valid? In the paper I argue that the dogma about the ways in which modern Swedish educational research developed is dependent on a specific language game. When the rules of this language game are called into question, the transcendental character of the dogma is eroded; it has legitimacy only within its own game, limited by the time and space. The language game in question can be seen to be a part of a scientific‐rational discourse and, as such, is embodied in certain organizational relations between the state and the discipline, relations which are central to a perception of educational research in Sweden.