Repository | Book | Chapter

The chapter develops a specific perspective for thinking about the educational potential of research, related precisely to a very specific conception of research that might be particularly important for educational research. In contrast to the common knowledge-oriented/based way of doing research, the existential-ethical oriented way of doing research is explored. In the latter type of research, the existential and ethical conditions of the researcher are always at stake, and precisely for that reason her research is always clearly a form of self-education, i.e. research as education. Due to an existential-ethical transformation, the researcher, when speaking about her research results, can claim: "This truth that I say to you, well, you see it in myself". The knowledge-oriented researcher makes a different claim: "This truth that I say to you, well, the method and my disinterested research attitude prove it is based on true/valid knowledge." Elaborating on the later work of Michel Foucault , we explore the value of the existential-ethical way of doing research, suggesting philosophy of education (as a way of life) as being part of education research, and finally we attempt to reformulate the Humboldtian idea of "education through research'.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6809-3_11

Full citation: