Moral issues in educational praxis: a perspective from pedagogiek and didactiek as human sciences in continental Europe

In this paper we will define the object of study of Pedagogiek, followed by a brief discussion about current trends in educational policy, teacher education and educational research. We refer here to the continental European ‘pedagogy as human science’, or more precisely the ‘science of the child’s upbringing’ in the social context. Central in this tradition is the moral debate about the complex relation between pedagogische aims and methods. Praxis has remained an important concept in this discussion down the centuries; it is concerned with the moral intentions behind a person’s actions as well as the consequences of the actions in the social context.