Between philosophy and Educational theory: the realism-constructivism debate as a case study

Abstract

The proposed contribution aims to investigate the question of the relationship between
theoretical research in philosophy and education, by focusing on a specific case study: the
debate on constructivism. While this debate also takes place at the international level, in
Italy it has had a peculiar inflection, entering into a dialogue with the controversy around
New Realism. This paper will, first, highlight the – partly different – philosophical and
educational vocabularies marshalled in Italy and abroad, in order to better situate the
Italian ‘specificity’. It will, then, explore how the theoretical research in education has interacted
with the properly philosophical controversy, by not merely adopting or ‘applying’
it to the educational field, but rather by engaging with it through autonomous perspectives.
In conclusion, it will be argued that it is precisely this autonomy of inquiry that
has enabled the theoretical gaze of educational research to spotlight typically epistemological-
philosophical dimensions, which had previously remained concealed within the
exclusively philosophical debate.