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INTRODUCTION
It is in the very nature of man to try to make his world, and life itself, meaningful and
significant. Therefore, he also tries to extend his knowledge in order to improve his
way of life, thereby rendering it more comfortable and more secure. Almost
everything that we know originates from four basic sources: 3
Senses
Authority
Reason
Intuition
Information from the senses is called empirical knowledge and empiricists believe
that the fundamental source of all knowledge is our senses. Our senses like sight,
sound, smell, touch and taste are exploratory organs. We use them all to become
acquainted with the world we live in. through different senses human beings learnt
that what is sweet and what is sour. Sounds soothe, warn, or frighten. The sun is
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bright and the moon is cold. Through millions of single sense-events, they built a
fabric of empirical information, which helped them interpret, survive in, and control
the world for them.
In addition to sense knowledge, their most of the knowledge was based on the
experiences derived by some authority or specialists of any field among them. They
trusted and accepted the knowledge recorded by any reputed person without any
doubt or reasoning. Still, all of our historical knowledge is acquired in this way, as is
most of our knowledge of the sciences. We cannot experience the past or personally
repeat every experiment, so we must trust the specialists and accept, though not
blindly, the discoveries they record for us. Over many centuries human believed that,
the God or any super natural power is the controlling authority of the universe, which
controls the working of sun, stars, wind and rain. However, gradually they began to
observe certain cause-effect relationship in the different processes of their
environment. This began the tradition of doubt, questioning and reasoning as a source
of generating knowledge. Reasoning might be defined as the process of using known
facts to arrive at new facts. Reasoning generally comes in two forms: deduction and
induction. Deduction involves drawing out valid conclusions from previously
known facts e.g. all cats are animals, Tom is a cat, so Tom is an animal. Induction,
on the other hand, involves jumping from some things one has observed to making
universal statements about all things e.g. I drop this pencil and it falls, so it is likely
all dropped pencils (and indeed things) will fall.
In addition to senses, authority and reason, intuition also helped them to solve their
many problems suddenly. Intuition refers to insights or bits of knowledge, which
suddenly appears into consciousness resulting in solution of any problem. We all
probably have experienced where the answer to a question we were previously
thinking about but have currently forgotten has suddenly popped into our minds for
no reason. This is intuition and, as such, like reason, it too is dependent on our senses
to provide the raw material on which the subconscious works. Sometimes intuition
seems to be a feeling. We often say something like "I have the feeling he is not
telling the truth," without being sure of why.
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With the increasing funds of knowledge, they started to explore the nature more and
more to make their life more meaningful. Humans began to practice agriculture,
domesticating plants and animals, which allowed for the growth of civilization. They
made different kinds of tools for hunting and farming, invented fire for cooking and
safety. Each such discovery and invention enriched their understanding in different
fields of knowledge. Gradually the heavy accumulation of new discoveries and
information of different kinds encouraged them to categorize the accumulated
knowledge into different fields. Division of labour in early societies of human beings
also enforced such categorization of knowledge. For e.g. those who were efficient in
farming, tried to accumulate more knowledge of this field. Those who could estimate
time on the basis of solar and lunar movements became earlier astrologers. Those who
domesticated animals became pioneer in the field of animal husbandry.
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across subjects is quite varied depending upon what and how knowledge is generated
in these areas.
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Although processes of differentiation of knowledge have been going on ever since,
discipline as a basic unit of structure formation is stabilized by these plural roles in
different functional contexts of modern society. Finally, each individual discipline is
embedded into an internal environment of other disciplines. The continuous mutual
observation and interaction of these disciplines is the most important factor in the
dynamics of modern science. The overall level of classification of disciplines is
related to the organizational structures of universities and other research institutions.
In fact, the number of disciplines is great. They are divided into several general
braches: 6
i. Humanities
These disciplines study the human condition. The main methods they use are analytic
and critical. Among humanities are: literature, ancient and modern languages, law,
history, philosophy, religion, arts. Humanities deal with different cultures, world of
art and history. Today, the main direction of work is the exploration and
understanding of human experience.
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v. Professional and Applied sciences
Professional sciences are connected with a certain profession. They are: Agriculture,
Architecture and design, Business, Divinity, Education, Engineering, Environmental
studies and Forestry, Health sciences and others. In their turn, these are divided into
disciplines that are more specific in order to learn one's profession.
In the view of Lakshmi & Yadav (2003)8, The subject matter, which the
teacher has to teach the students, seen in relation to its linkage with knowledge
structure of the concerned disciplines, serves as the main basis for deciding activities
and learning experiences to be provided. The structure of knowledge across subjects
also depends upon the way knowledge gets generated and accumulated in these areas.
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For example, knowledge in sciences is observation based while language and
literature, fine arts, performing arts are based on individual creativity and originality,
therefore not observational in nature.
The term education is derived from Latin word educere, educare, and educatum,
which means 'to draw out', 'to bring up', to lead out', to train or to educate.9 It means
education refers to leading out internal hidden talent of a child or person. According
to its dictionary meaning the term can be interpreted in one or more of the following
ways: 10
It is clear by above interpretation that the term Education can be broadly defined in
three ways:-
i. As knowledge
Knowledge is the sum total of facts, truths, laws, principles, and ideas that
man has produced. The knowledge acquired by formal and informal means
from life until death is termed as education. In Indian tradition, meaning of
education includes knowledge of Brahma, knowledge of the universe and
knowledge of the self.11
ii. As a process
Education is the formal process by which society deliberately transmits its
accumulated knowledge, skills, customs and values from one generation to
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another; it is a process of educating or teaching. It is the process of
development of mental and physical skills- motor, thinking, communication,
social, and aesthetic. According to John Dewey, Education is not a
preparation for life, rather it is the living. Education is the process of living
through a continuous reconstruction of experiences. It is the development of
all those capacities in the individual which will enable him to control his
environment and fulfill his possibilities.12
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i. Education can never be a discipline
Some scholars (Peters 196314, Hughes 196315, Conant 196416 and Woods17)
believe that education is not a separate discipline. It is only a loose combination
of different disciplines such as philosophy, sociology and psychology etc.
According to them, education does not have its own knowledge base and
knowledge generation mechanisms. In addition, it borrows most of the concepts
and methods from other disciplines. This view raises many questions like, If
education is not a discipline than, is there its alternative in the form of any other
discipline? and What is the need of combining content of different disciplines in
the form of education if we can study its foundational disciplines separately? It
is also asked that if the owing of content and methods is the only criterion to be
recognized as discipline then most of the existing disciplines that share and adopt
content and methods would be considered as non- disciplines.
The study of education does not fit completely into any of the categories listed here; it
may, in fact, constitute an original approach to the study of a familiar and continually
interesting phenomenon. The clouds of doubt on the nature of education have
negative impacts on the growth of this field of study as also points out by Vashishtha,
2010:26
i. It is not yet regarded as a discipline. In administrative or competitive exams for
various recruitments, it is not given the status of a subject.
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ii. It is charged that education borrows most of its content from parent disciplines
like philosophy, sociology, psychology and even statistics. Thus, it does not have
its own subject matter.
iii. The discipline is reduced to mere teacher training.
iv. Some regarded it as a mere profession, rather than a discipline.
v. In many states of India, for e.g., in M. P. teacher education institutions come
under school education. At national level also, teacher education is covered under
school education department of the Ministry of HRD.
From the above discussion, it is clear that there is an urgent need to clear the doubts
over the disciplinary status of education. Since long the nature of the discipline has
remain unclear, while its identity is typically determined by administrative
convenience and market demand rather than analysis of its historical development and
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scholarly position within the system of arts and sciences. Marc Belth (1965)
answers the question, why there is a need to establish a discipline of education, in
these words, In a world in which knowledge is increased in terms of the ability to
make clean distinctions where none existed before, and where knowledge makes
possible activity not otherwise possible, why not develop distinctness which we have
all suspected were begun long ago, and which are now growing more evident, more
quickly? There is a great need for a distillation of the thinking of the past half century,
and for an understanding of the direction being taken by education.
The present study is an effort to go back over some of the ideas, which have led
education to where it is today. The study does not claim to establish education as a
discipline but attempts to give it an identity, which is most suitable for it. The study is
needed to know what is educational in education? that is how it is distinct from its
foundational disciplines? The study has tried to work out a basis from which
development of a clearly defined study of education, as a uniquely distinctive,
theoretical as well as practical, self-correcting, and internally directing mode of
inquiry can be instituted.
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1.7.0 Statement of the problem
Education: As discussed earlier, the term is used in different sense. The present
study deals with education as a subject of study and research at different levels. As a
subject, it mainly deals with studying the process and systems of educating.
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1.9.0 Research Questions and Objectives of the study
1.9.1 Research Questions
The present study is an attempt to find out answers of the following questions:
What is meant by the term discipline?
knowledge as a discipline?
Is it justified to evaluate all the bodies of knowledge on the same old criteria
of knowledge justifiably?
recognized as a discipline?
How and when did discipline of education evolve and its institutional study as
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To which extent does education fulfill the different criteria/ norms to be
recognized as a discipline?
How can we delineate subject matter, theories, research methods, terms and
disciplines?
o Is it still developing?
study of education?
discipline?
What are the controversies associated with the academic status of education?
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In which direction should future development of education be based?
boundaries of a discipline?
1. The present study does not claim to be an exhaustive exploration of the subject, nor
it is going to give any judgment over disciplinary status of education, rather it is a
systematic assembling and critical analysis of various opinions collected from
different sources and investigators own. The study is delimited to exploring
distinctness of education as a field of study.
2. The present study is delimited to studying education as an area of formal study and
research at various institutions. It does not deal with the process, systems and
levels of education.
Corresponding to the objectives of the study the framework of the thesis has been
organized under 9 chapters:
Chapter -1 is introductory. It deals with the background of the problem, which covers
the meaning of education and debate over its disciplinary status. In addition, need and
importance of the study were discussed. The chapter also includes objectives and
delimitations of the study.
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Chapter -2 reviews and analyzes the literature available in the concerned area and
draws out the extent and limitations of previously done work.
Chapter -5 covers the second objective of the study. It reviews and analyzes the
criteria of a discipline in detail.
Chapter -6 deals with the third objective. It analyzes the disciplinary status of
education from the view of accepted criteria/norms.
Chapter-8 discusses the findings, conclusion and implications of the present study. It
also puts forth limitations of the present research work and suggestions for future
research work.
Chapter -9 is the last chapter, which presents the summary of the study.
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References
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