“Words are also deeds”: Quentin Skinner, the contextual turn, and Educational Theory

Abstract

The paper analyzes the way in which it is possible to apply the Quentin Skinner’s analytical method to study the ideas in the academic discipline of Educational Theory. The methodology of the contextual turn is presented as a useful and appropriate hermeneutic tool for the rigorous clarification of the ideas developed by relevant authors for the educational thought. To undertake this endeavor, we assume that Educational Theory involves knowing to do; without ruling out that knowing is a way of doing. Therefore, we aim at incorporating a rigorous methodology to study the ideas, which leads to explore the intentionality of some of relevant texts for the educational debate in the Spanish academic context of pedagogy. We include the application of the Skinner’s method based on contextual turn for the theoretical study of the thought of Ivan Illich and Rudolf Steiner.

Keywords

• Giro contextual
• Quentin Skinner
• Historia Intelectual
• Teoría de la Educación
• Ivan Illich
• Rudolf Steiner