•  959
    The Semiotics of Education: A new vision in an old landscape
    Educational Philosophy and Theory 43 (10): 1135-1144. 2011.
    In this article, I attempt to describe how certain theoretical constructions of semiotics could be applied in educational theoretical work. First I introduce meaning as a basic concept of semiotics, thus also touching on concepts such as action, competence and causality. I am then able to define learning as a change of competences, and also refer to the pedagogical concept of learning i.e. Bildung, which can be roughly defined as valuable human learning. I then take up the problem of education a…Read more
  •  612
    From Ontology of Interaction to Semiotics of Education
    In Kirsi Tirri & Elina Kuusisto (eds.), Interaction in Educational Domains, Sense Publishers. pp. 51-62. 2013.
    In this article I try to show that the most deep level ontology can have rich meaning for our understanding of such practical and everyday phenomena as education and interaction. With this deep level ontology I mean the problem of universals. Starting from famous traditional stances of realism and nominalism, which both are for the modern theories of growth and Bildung, I continue to the third and more recently developed ontological theory, trope theory according to which the properties (qualiti…Read more
  •  340
    How can we theoretically and philosophically study the problem of values and authority in the context of education? The chapter uses the framework of action theoretical semiotics developed mainly on the conceptual structures of Greimassian semiotic theory. This detailed and elaborated theory of human discourse (utilized usually in terms of literary and “cultural” texts) will be expanded by biosemiotic and Peircean points of view to fit in the special problem area of education as transformation o…Read more
  •  325
    Eetu Pikkarainen describes the educational thinking of Johann AmosComenius (1592-1670) from a perspective of Bildung -theoretical problems. Comenius has had a remarkable influence on modern education, particularly through his language-learning and general didactical methods and principles. However, Comenius’ broader pansophic views have had somewhat more benign later effects. Comenius developed a reformation programme concerning the ‘main areas’ of reality, from theology and education to philoso…Read more
  •  86
    Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2016 Heft: 212 Seiten: 199-217.
  •  81
    Competence as a Key Concept of Educational Theory: A Semiotic Point of View
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 48 (4): 621-636. 2014.
    In this article, the concept of competence is studied from the point of view of the semiotics of education. It will be claimed that it is a central key concept when we are trying to analyse the meaning of education. Educational action can be reasonably understood as an insecure and complicatedly mediated trial to affect another person's competence. First, the recent discussion about the concept of competence and its relatives is shortly reviewed. Then, competence is analysed and defined accordin…Read more
  •  27
    Among the biggest challenges facing the contemporary human condition, and therefore also education, is responding to the climate crisis. One of the sources of the crisis is assumed to be _absent-mindedness_, presented by Leslie Dewart as a distortion of the development of human consciousness. Dewart’s poorly-known philosophical consciousness study is presented in this paper in broad outline. The problems in the study of consciousness, the most important of which are the qualitative representatio…Read more
  •  25
    Educational Semiotics, Greimas, and Theory of Action
    Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. 2015.
    This entry addresses the action theoretical semiotics derived from A. J. Greimas’s theory and positions it in the context of edusemiotics. Greimas’s narratological theory is discussed and investigated in terms of its fruitfulness for education. The entry focuses on the major features of Greimas’s theory such as his famous actantial model as well as the anthropomorphic, or human- and subject-centered, approach in general. According to Greimas, at the core of the meaning of every significant disco…Read more
  •  15
    Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2016 Heft: 212 Seiten: 27-44.
  •  13
    Semiotic Theory of Learning: New Perspectives in the Philosophy of Education
    with Andrew Stables, Winfried Nöth, Alin Olteanu, Sébastien Pesce, and Eetu Pikkarainen
    Routledge. 2018.
    Semiotic Theory of Learning asks what learning is and what brings it about, challenging the hegemony of psychological and sociological constructions of learning in order to develop a burgeoning literature in semiotics as an educational foundation.  Drawing on theoretical research and its application in empirical studies, the book attempts to avoid the problematization of the distinction between theory and practice in semiotics. It covers topics such as signs, significance and semiosis; the ontol…Read more
  •  9
    This study is about the meaning of education and the concept of meaning. The main aim is to develop a meta-theoretical object theory of education i.e. a theory about the research object of science of education, one which would be a valid reflection basis both for methodological and meta-theoretical questions of educational scientific research and for general pedagogical discussions. The development is based on the continental tradition of general pedagogy which acknowledges the pedagogical parad…Read more
  •  7
    Adaptation, learning, Bildung
    Sign Systems Studies 46 (4): 435-451. 2018.
    Learning and adaptation are central problems to both edusemiotics, or semiotics of education, and biosemiotics. Bildung, as an especially human way or form of learning, and evolution as the main form of adaptation for many biologists after Darwin are often regarded as mutually exclusive concepts even though human beings are undeniably one biological species among others. In this article I will try to build a bridge between the biosemiotical, edusemiotical and Bildung-theoretical stances. Central…Read more