PhD thesis: Learning has become dominant in RUC’s educational model
In late summer, Kasper Anthon Sørensen completed his PhD with a defence. In his PhD thesis, he analysed RUC's pedagogical approach. The pedagogical model is called 'problem-oriented project learning' (PPL).
"The project itself started as a curiosity about the pedagogical approach, where I tried to forget what I knew about the approach. I tried to distance myself from what I already knew and I asked questions: What exactly is this approach to education? What is the pedagogical purpose of this approach to learning?" says Kasper Anthon Sørensen.
He became interested in exploring how the pedagogy evolved over time and he decided to take a historical approach.
"I've been very interested in key texts about PPL. I have taken the 10 most central texts from the 1970s, when RUC started, to the present day," he says.
From social criticism to social relevance
The deeper Kasper Anthon Sørensen delved into the texts, the clearer it became that the purpose of RUC's pedagogical approach has changed over time.
"In the beginning, there wasn't much talk about project work. Here, the aim of social criticism was quite high on the agenda, drawing on Marxist perspectives, among other things. But as we move towards the end of the 80s, the social criticism disappears completely," says Kasper Anthon Sørensen.
According to the researcher, the purpose of the approach goes from being socially critical to being socially relevant, and the purpose keeps changing throughout history.
"If you look at how the purpose of PPL is formulated now, it is very much about creating competences for students. It's about student’s learning, and becoming qualified for a job," says Kasper Anthon Sørensen.
He hopes that the PhD can contribute to a dialogue about universities' pedagogical approaches.
"My PhD shows that the purpose of the problem-oriented project work and the educational task of universities is not really discussed today. The focus on learning and qualification completely dominates and makes other possible purposes, such as Bildung and knowledge, invisible. If the universities as educational institutions are to be governed by something other than value-neutral rationales about national economic growth and individualized learning, then there is a need to revive and expand the discussion of what we want with problem-oriented university education. I believe my thesis contributes to that by digging up some of the hidden and forgotten purposes from these texts," says Kasper Anthon Sørensen.