Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:57:32.053Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Few Thoughts on Conceptual Analysis 30 Years Later

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2014

Bob Jickling*
Affiliation:
Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

Extract

I am enormously grateful to the readers of this journal for their kind attention to this work over the past 30 years. Conceptual analysis, the subject of my article, is primarily about clarifying meanings of those key concepts that are central to our collective work. Given the number of nebulous concepts in environmental education, and in education in general, this work has never ceased to be important — though, sadly, it is often neglected. Take, for example, a concept currently in vogue, social learning. Two ways of approaching this sometimes fuzzy concept would be, first, for authors to provide a clear articulation of the term, in their own view. What exactly does the idea of social learning involve for an author, and what are the implications for its use in the particular context in which it is used? This is a lot like clarifying one's own assumption about a concept for the benefit of the author and reader alike, and something we should be able to expect from all authors. Second, researchers can analyse the scope of a concept's usage within a body of literature, such as Rodela (2012) has done with social learning. This kind of analysis can provide a kind of heuristic for other researchers to navigate the extant usage of a key concept, and to point in future directions.

Type
Response Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barrow, R., & Milburn, G. (1986). A critical dictionary of educational concepts. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books.Google Scholar
Barrow, R., & Woods, R. (1982). An introduction to philosophy of education (2nd ed.). London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1994). What is philosophy? (Burchell, G. & Tomlinson, H., Trans.). London: Verso.Google Scholar
Jickling, B. (1997). If environmental education is to make sense for teachers, we had better rethink how we define it! Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 2, 86103.Google Scholar
Jickling, B., & Wals, A.E.J. (2008). Globalization and environmental education: Looking beyond sustainability and sustainable development. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40 (1), 121.Google Scholar
Peters, R.S. (1966). Ethics and education. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Peters, R.S. (1973). Aims of education: A conceptual inquiry. In Peters, R.S. (Ed.), The philosophy of education (pp. 1157). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rodela, R. (2012). Deconstructing the discourse on social learning: Conceptual and methodological aspects in natural resource management literature. Wageningen, Netherlands: Wageningen University and Research Centre.Google Scholar