Inferentialism and teaching and learning in geography

1. Inferentialism and teaching and learning in geography GTE Conference Oxford 2015

2. Introduction This session highlights a number of practical implications of some recent developments in philosophy (the work of Robert Brandom and John McDowell on inferentialism), and the philosophy of education (the work of Jan Derry on inferentialism’s theoretical and practical application in education) Some exploratory work on inferentialism has been done by David Lambert and myself over the last 3 years working with Jan Derry and others in relation to a research project to investigate: An inferentialist approach to developing [subject] teachers' content knowledge Unfortunately the funding application did not come to completion but the meetings and discussion that took place were very valuable

3. Introduction My interest in inferentialism continues in terms of how it connects to the ‘knowledge debate’ in geography education (social realism), Michael Young’s idea about ‘powerful knowledge’ and the possible implications of inferentialism for teaching and learning in geography Inferentialism and its potential significance was discussed at a recent GEReCo meeting and the ideas are worth sharing here It was suggested that we might develop a framework or protocol that colleagues may follow in order to undertake small scale observations and classroom interventions with ITE students So we might think about how we could take these ideas forward as a geography education collective

4. Potential significance of inferentialism (Critique of some educational outcomes and practices) The challenge to avoidinert knowledge—knowledge students have learned to reproduce but cannot use effectively The challenge to avoid atomisticapproachesfound in many textbooks, SofW, task design etc and to foster coherencefrom a student perspective The challenge of sequencing topics in alternative approaches which aim for coherence from a student perspective

5. Potential significance of inferentialism • It prevents a simple referential relation to the world for the student • Enables students to learn the systems of meaning and to develop the capacity to integrate meanings so that these meanings are not merely consumed at the point of its delivery • Enables students to be inducted into the body of knowledge that is geography

6. Potential significance of inferentialism ‘If recent Hegelian-influenced developments in philosophy concerning the nature of awareness and understanding were taken into account, the general understanding of subject knowledge and its relation to pedagogy would surely benefit’ ‘Robert Brandom is especially interesting here because, in stressing the inferentialism in Hegel’s thought, he has, like Vygotsky brought to the fore those aspects of the human condition that concern coming to know’ (Derry, 2013: 141)

7. Inferentialism • Based on the work of 2 philosophers: Robert Brandom and John McDowell • Builds on the work of Wilfred Sellars and G W F Hegel • Hegelian approach to thought and reason • Assists thinking about the systematic nature of disciplinary knowledge (its sociality) • Brandom, R. (1994) Making It Explicit: Reasoning, Representing, and Discursive Commitment, Cambridge, MA: Harvard U P • Brandom, R. (2000) Articulating Reasons: An Introduction to Inferentialism, Cambridge, MA: Harvard U P • McDowell, J. (1996) Mind and World, Cambridge, MA: Harvard U P

8. Inferentialism Its application to education: • Jan Derry – used within Mathematics Education and written more widely about its significance Also important: • Jan’s re-assessment of the philosophical underpinnings of Vygotsky’s work in which she brings together the philosophical tradition of Hegel and the recent work of Brandom and McDowell and emphasises the significance of inferentialism

9. A philosophical/theoretical starter! • We are concerned here with questions of ‘mind’ and ‘world’, of ‘word’ and ‘world’, the ‘ideal’ and the ‘real’, the ‘human’ and the ‘natural’, and their relationship • The Hegelian traditions of thought being engaged with here are opposed to dualist approaches • The mind is social and to give an account of mindedness and intellect it is necessary to look beyond the individual and to attend to external mediation in the formation of higher mental functions • Different from and stands in opposition to the dominant educational discourses of postmodernism/constructivism

10. So what is inferentialism? (Brandom reverses the conventional representationalist order of explanation, the all to common conception of coming to know within geography classrooms)

11. The semantic theory of inferentialism (Brandom) It prioritises inferentialism (inferential relations) over representationalism (referential relations) Inferentialism demonstrates that grasping a geographical concept (coming to know) requires attention to and accurate interpretation of the inferences implicit in its use in a social practice of giving and asking for reasons With representationalism the meanings of concepts are assumed to arise solely from its relation to the object, event or whatever that it represents and then are combined to make judgments and inferences That is, representationalism assumes that initial awareness takes the form of a representation and that only once this is grasped can inferences be made

12. The semantic theory of inferentialism (Brandom) I In other words inferentialism tells us: Our experience of the world – through our senses – is already ‘conceptual’ When we make a claim of knowing we are not, as is commonly thought, giving a description of an object or event (representationalism), but placing the claim about the object or event in a ‘space of reasons’ That is to say - making a claim on the basis of knowing what follows from the claim and what it is necessary to assume in order to make the claim in the first place

13. The semantic theory of inferentialism (Brandom) Where a word is used without the user being aware of its conceptual connections to other concepts, these connections are still present Participation in such a space does not require an immediate and full grasp of the reasons constituting the concept but rather only the ability to inhabit the space in which reasons and the concept operate in the first place

14. The semantic theory of inferentialism (Brandom) Summary: Inferentialism has, then, an explicit focus on reasoning (i.e. inference) underpinning concept use ‘one cannot have any concepts unless one has many concepts. For the content of each concept is articulated by its inferential relations to other concepts. Concepts, then, must come in packages’ (Brandom, 2000, p. 15-16) inferentialism is resolutely holistic

15. Implications for teaching and learning The all to common conception of coming to know, evident in the practice of teaching, is founded on a mistaken prioritisation of representation over inference – that is, on the assumption that initial awareness takes the form of a representation and that only once this is grasped can inferences be made Teaching would become much more sensitive to, and based upon, the complex system of mediating connections and relations disclosed in determinations of the concept - if an inferential approach was adopted

16. Implications for teaching and learning Students’ primary focus would involve the inferential connections that constitute concepts such that representations are already connected, through reasons, to other aspects of the knowledge domain to which they belong the development of concepts proceeds through activities in which the concepts function meaningfully. Hence a concept is not first learnt formally and then applied, but develops according to the domain of activity in which it functions

17. Implications for teaching and learning Inferentialism provides a basis for a conception of knowledge and the process of acquiring it whereby the use and understanding of language cannot be conceived simply in terms of the designative approach to meaning (where words are understood solely to take their meaning from the things they represent) Knowing requires a different stance, one which incorporates designation but only as secondary to the inferences that are the historical genesis of its meaning

18. Implications for teaching and learning The inferentialist view presented may initially appear counterintuitive. Teaching and learning has often relied on the idea that the simple terms must be learnt prior to those which are more complex, or prior to the combination of such terms in judgments before one can reason with those terms However, Vygotsky and Brandom alert us to the idea that it is possible to operate with a concept before fully understanding its meaning - for a student to begin to operate with complex structures before fully grasping simpler ones. The reason for this is that knowledge is not gained simply by an accretion of elements starting with the most simple

19. Summary Inferentialism can be understood as an epistemological structure that allows the tensions inherent in students’ fledgling attempts at disciplinary knowledge constructions and the kinds of knowledge that are the product of advanced disciplinary thinking to be played out It brings the knowledge that has been constructed, both disciplinary and individual into sharper relief for both teachers and their students It gives attention to the sociogenesis (development) of knowledge and mind The idea of reorienting teachers’ knowledge to pay attention to how inferential reasoning drives geographical thinking, harnessing geographical knowledge and discourse on the one hand and pedagogic development on the other, can be seen as potentially very significant for the development of geography education

20. References Derry, J. (2008) Abstract rationality in education: from Vygotsky to Brandom, Studies in Philosophy and Education, 27(1): 49-62 Bakker, A. & Derry, J. (2011) Lessons from inferentialism for statistics education, Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 13(1&2): 5-26 Derry, J. (2013) Can inferentialism contribute to social epistemology? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 47(2): 222-235

21. The philosophical/theoretical bit And where context is framed in terms of the sociogenesis of meaning/knowing/knowledge (genetic development) Also necessary to mention ‘constructivism’ – as ideas about the social mind can also be recognised in constructivism, and constructivism and Hegelian traditions of thought are both critical of foundationalism (secure foundation of certainty of knowledge) Constructivism has also been very influential in the conceptualisation of pedagogy in contemporary schooling i.e. the way that constructivist positions are taken in relation to the active participation of learners, both in their learning and also more radically in the constitution of knowledge

22. Normativity Hegelian thought avoids the conclusions of constructivism – namely, that knowledge itself has no secure basis/that it can only ever have local standing → and with the result that the possibility of knowledge itself is called into question (relativised) Whereas constructivism is not interested in the difficulties in establishing knowledge Hegelian thought confronts this problematic It builds on the possibility that a material history involving human constructive activity at some previous point may mediate (i.e. constrain) at a current point – which is excluded from constructivism

23. Potential significance of inferentialism Challenges some widely held beliefs about representation and the social construction of knowledge Challenges some of the constructivist discourses of classroom practice. A tension exists between allowing students to construct their own sense of disciplinary ideas and the development of students’ disciplined modes of thought and in particular the failure to appreciate that normativity is a necessary element of the sociality of knowledge (and of the sociogenesis of the mind) Links ideas about the nature of the curriculum and teaching and learning to epistemology (the nature of knowledge) Opens up new frontiers in contemporary educational theory and practice

24. By emphasising how propositional content and , in particular, how meanings are constituted in the social practices of what Brandom terms the ‘giving and asking for reasons’, inferentialism opens new ground for thinking about the nature of teaching and learning • In particular, an inferentialiist approach can assist in resolving the apparent opposition between constructivist ideas about learning, which emphasise the student’s construction of meaning, and the concern with the knowledge domain as a discipline

25. The semantic theory of inferentialism (Brandom Inferentialism attends to the distinctive nature of human awareness and puts inference at the heart of human knowing by providing an account of concept use that starts with reasoning rather than with representing The distinctive character of human psychological powers resides in our responsiveness to reasons, a capacity that develops in children as they are initiated into traditions of thinking and reasoning

26. The philosophical/theoretical bit Hegelian traditions of thought direct criticism at the ‘representationalist’ paradigm implicit in constructivism Having accepted that the foundational project of knowledge is untenable and, with it, the idea that the objectivity of concepts and words/sentences we use may be explained simply by their representational relation to the world – the common response within constructivism has been to withdraw to a modest position that restricts knowledge to the individual, local and contextual meaning making of participants Attention to local meaning-making and withdrawal from an interest in knowledge and meaning transcending the ‘context’ of production pervades pedagogic discourses in education today

27. Background And also a liberationist and anti-authoritarian bias which has had a profound effect on education – which fails to recognise the normative nature of human life. We need to understand thought, feeling and action as attributes of people rather than of minds (Wittgenstein) the social nature of rule-following implies that human learning is more than just an individualistic activity. Most psychologists and educators who concern themselves with learning pay little attention to this social dimension, and even where they do, it is given a very superficial treatment in terms of, for example, the importance of participation/collaboration – ‘group work’ Taken seriously, understanding the social nature of learning goes far deeper than this at a variety of levels ranging from the interpersonal to the political and where truth is normative Accepted approaches to T and L raise questions about how they support the development of students beliefs about the nature of K and of knowing – personal epistemology an example of how philosophy can be brought to bear on real problems of educational research and practice Different strand to social realism

28. Constructivist learning theory has been helpful to geography teachers in bringing attention to the ideas that students bring with them to classrooms and to enabling students to be active participants in the learning process rather than receivers of knowledge. Teachers have reoriented the hierarchical structure of teaching and learning into a more horizontal one in which student constructions of knowledge play a central role and there is continuity between lay and disciplinary knowledge. A tension exists, however, between allowing students to construct their own sense of disciplinary ideas and the development of students’ disciplined modes of thought.

29. In relation to teaching and learning It is argued that constructivism has led to particular pedagogic strategies that are influential in the rhetoric of classroom practice: the undermining of knowledge, the belief that knowledge is a matter of plurality in the sense that no one approach is better than any other and the undermining of the epistemic authority of the teacher as a representative of the discipline