In our symposium we will present different, but strongly related, research projects that examine issues with regard to the ‘Education for All’ ethos. The research projects are conducted by members of the international Education for All research program which is part of the Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) research group. The overall aim of the program to explore how the dialectical relation between theory and practice is rooted in our different (Anglo-Saxon and continental European) intellectual traditions. 

One aspect of the research program is how praxis intersects with notions of Education for All. Underpinning this focus is a key principle of education as a human right, regardless of people’s ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds and/or physical and intellectual capacities. We explore these issues by concentrating on Education for All as a form of praxis. We define praxis as doings, sayings and relatings that can be evaluated in terms of moral intentions as well as moral consequences as they are played out in particular social situations. The overall framework that shapes our research questions, as well as our overall analyses, is the theory of social justice as formulated by Young (1990) and the praxis model as formulated by Ax & Ponte (2007). Young (1990) defines social justice as ‘doings’ instead of only ‘havings’. Havings refers to the distribution of material goods that can be ‘consumed’. Doing refers to a process that has to be realised within interpersonal interactions and which is geared to participation and self-determination. The praxis model of Ax and Ponte (2007) is used to explore education for all as ‘doings’ in terms of the scope of action and the scope of decision making. Such a model combines the perspectives of substantial and functional rationality (based on Weber (1946, first published in 1902-24 and Mannheim, 1940) on one dimension, and Habermas’s (1981) analysis of system and lifeworld on another.

The major aim of this symposium is to explore knowledge construction emphasising agency and critical citizenship, instead of knowledge construction restricted to instrumentalism. We do so in this symposium through the perspective of different domains (inclusive education, multicultural education, and curriculum studies), different stakeholders (school students, university students, teacher educators, researchers, and educational consultants), and different international contexts (Australia, Canada, Finland, The Netherlands, and Sweden).