New Challenges for Research in Educational Sciences: Action/Activity Perspective

Abstract

In this text it is assumed that due to economic and social changes, both education and training, recognized as professional activity, as well as other fields of influencing the Other (management, counseling, care, social work, communication) are currently under internal recomposition and transformation of their social role. Therefore, they tend to organize themselves not only as fields of practice, that can be enriched by disciplinary approaches defining the object of study, but also within the research field. This transformation is accompanied by a number of epistemological, theoretical and methodological orientations, which require clarification. This paper aims to review these orientations and focus particularly on the relationship between education and professional activity on the one hand, and on the theoretical issues of action/activity on the other. The text is arranged around the initial hypothesis that the development of research areas corresponds to the fields of practice. Their analysis requires the use of a conceptual apparatus that could accurately combine the construction of activity with the shaping of individual and collective actors.