In a recent interview, Gert Biesta and Stefan T. Siegel (2021a, 2021b) discussed current developments threatening the disciplinary “heart” of education. Taking a starting point in the continental “configuration” of the field, they argue that there are forms of theory considered distinctively educational. Based on this premise, they discuss why defining educational theories is so challenging, and why it is nevertheless a rewarding, worthwhile, and meaningful endeavour. I take this interview as the starting for a broader conversation on the contemporary difficulties that theorizing education faces in Europe, as a metapedagogical study of a “local” problem. I shall offer the thesis that theorizing education is an activity in danger of extinction, which would make it a safe candidate to integrate a possible “red list of disciplines in danger of extinction”. And this by applying criteria comparable to those of the IUCN: there is a reduction in population size, a smaller geographical distribution, and a decrease in the population of academics dedicated to research within the framework of a recognizable Educational Theory as such. When it comes to studying species in danger of extinction, the threat situation is often caused by the pressure suffered by the habitats in which their existence has been possible. Well, something similar also happens with the “disciplinary habitat” that enables theorizing education. I will list three phenomena that are well known to all of us who work in this field and that have exerted and continue to exert pressure on the survival of the field: (i) the disappearance of doctoral programs associated with departments and their normalization at the Faculty level, where “standard courses” of research methodology are promoted where the carrying out of theoretical research is presented as something almost inconceivable; (ii) a cultural aversion to theorizing and critical reflection in general and an overrepresentation of the empirical approach for understanding educational phenomena; (iii) the pressure to obtain research funds in competition with empirical disciplines, which has led to the almost total disappearance of funded projects with a strong or exclusive theoretical-philosophical component in the field of educational sciences. I will then address some ways in which we are facing the problems and difficulties for theorizing education today in the Spanish context and will finish with a hopeful “conservative affirmation” defence for the theorizing activity in education (with special attention to teacher education).

**Selection** - Biesta, G. (2014). Is Philosophy of Education a Historical Mistake? Connecting Philosophy and Education Differently. Theory and Research in Education, 12(1), 65-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878513517338 - Gaviria, J.L., Reyero, D., & Thoilliez, B. (2020). La Pedagogía y sus Problemas. Conversación. Colegio Oficial de Docentes. Colegio Oficial de Doctores y Licenciados en Filosofía y Letras y en Ciencias, 293, 16-20. - Gil, F. (2012). «Educación con Teoría». Revisión pedagógica de las relaciones entre la teoría y la práctica educativa. Teoría de la Educación. Revista Interuniversitaria, 23(1), 19-43. https://doi.org/10.14201/8575 - Siegel, S. T., & Biesta, G. (2021b). El Problema de la Teoría de la Educación. Teoría de la Educación. Revista Interuniversitaria, 34(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.14201/teri.27157 - Thoilliez, B. (2020). La Teoría de la Educación Española: 1 peligro, 2 reacciones, 1 propuesta. In, E.S. Vila, J. E. Sierra y V.M. Martín (Coords.) Teoría de la Educación: Docencia e Investigación (pp. 19-34). Editorial GEU. - Thoilliez, B. (2014). La Teoría de la Educación en España: Diagnóstico, Pronóstico y (posible) Tratamiento. In, T. Rabazas Romero (Coord.) El Conocimiento Teórico de la Educación en España. Evolución y consolidación (pp. 207-223). Madrid: Síntesis.