Abstract
Pring (Philosophy of educational research. Continuum, London, 2004, p. 23) presents a holistic and philosophical approach to educational research and warns us that complexity of concepts and their relationship to each other should not push us toward reductionism. One way to take Pring’s warning seriously is to take some concepts and put them under explicit theoretical and empirical scrutiny. These should be basic concepts and abstract enough to allow space for reflection and development. Blumer (What is wrong with social theory. Sociological methods. Butterworth, London, pp. 84–95, 1970, p. 91) invented the term sensitizing concepts to distinguish them from definite concepts. “Whereas definite concepts provide prescription of what to see, sensitizing concepts merely suggest direction along which to look.” Social researchers tend to use sensitizing concepts as an interpretive tool and as a starting point for a qualitative study (Bowen in Int J Q Methods 5(3):12–23, 2006). Therefore, sensitizing concepts are a target for empirical inquiry and can be refined (Blumer in What is wrong with social theory. Sociological methods. Butterworth, London, pp. 84–95, 1970). The conceptual framework presented here includes sensitizing concepts that are based on (1) our previous studies (colleagues and I) aimed at creating a neuropsychosocial framework for youth studies, (2) observations mentioned in the introduction, (3) the Child Convention, (4) pragmatist educational philosophy, and (5) knowledge of neuroscience about mental capacity. These concepts are capacity, being, becoming, authority, and responsible citizenship. Together they help to create an intervention package suitable for creating a new literacy in schools.
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Moula, A. (2017). Building a Framework for Sensitizing Concepts. In: Brain, School, and Society. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55170-8_3
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