Since the linguistic and cultural turn, the concept of a reflexive modernity (Beck/Giddens/Lash 1994) has become crucial for conceptualizing post-industrial societies. One of its core constituents is uncertainty, which impacts on various areas of the postmodern condition: Knowledge and values are affected, because due to the loss of the grand récits, both are no longer secured by set beliefs (Lyotard 1984). This reshapes peoples’ (cultural) identities, which postcolonial research has identified as hybrid (e.g. Bhabha 1994) that result from processes of subjection (Butler 1997) within constellations of power (e.g. Foucault 1982). Moreover, uncertainty has been identified as a key element of scientific theories themselves: positivist determinism has given way to probabilistic or constructivist thinking. Finally, there has been a rapid increase in social, linguistic, and cultural diversity, particularly in urban centers, which also increased the rural-urban divide. All this has intensified the perception of risk in a social, political, economic and ecological sense, epitomized by the concept of the “risk society” (Beck 1992). 

Educational research has responded in at least two ways. On the one hand, preparing future citizens for the challenges of (super-)diversity and uncertainty necessitates classrooms that offer educational opportunities that foster transformative learning (cf. Laros / Fuhr / Taylor 2017), such as: (1) complex and challenging instructional designs that aim at higher order thinking and complex motor skills (e.g. Bähr et al. 2019, Dyson in this symposium); (2) open classrooms with individual and cooperative learning, which fosters positive interdependence, individual accountability and autonomy (Bonnet/Bracker 2019); (3) approaches, such as funds of knowledge (cf. Edmonds in this symposium), that deal with diversity induced uncertainty. On the other hand, uncertainty has been identified as a constitutive element of any pedagogical interaction. Constructivist research points out the individuality of any learning process and the impossibility of direct instruction (e.g. von Glasersfeld 1995). While coming from a different theoretical angle, sociologically informed teacher research shares the fundamental impossibility of a linear causality between teaching and learning, consequently identifying the negotiation of uncertainty as a key constituent of teacher professionalism (e.g. Helsper 2003). 

This symposium presents research on instructional designs and curriculum development, discusses empirical findings from classroom research and draws conclusions for teacher education. It merges general classroom research, subject specific education (PE and science) and teacher education research in order to discuss the following questions:

1)   What do different educational sub-disciplines understand by uncertainty?

2)   In what respect is uncertainty a constitutive element of pedagogical interaction in general and from the point of view of the respective educational sub-discipline?

3)   What ways of dealing with uncertainty does the sub-discipline have or see in the classroom?

4)   Which perspectives for curriculum development, research and teacher education do the respective sub-disciplines see?

The discussant will reflect on the four contributions to the symposium from a philosophy of education point of view. She will point out some of the aporias which emerge in this work on uncertainty within research, as well as between research and practice. Uncertainty in and for education will be addressed from an intergenerational angle: If education is framed as communication between generations, and the future of the younger generation is at stake, what kind of knowledge of the past will the younger generation be in need of, and how can the older generation help keep the future open and not close it? This said, the discussant sees her primary role in raising questions to open up the discussion with the audience.

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