Comparative Education Bulletin - Faculty of Education - The ...

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The ‘material field’, which comprises the set of objects in an
understanding at the common sense level.
The ‘subject matter’, which is the point of view from which a
discipline looks upon the material field or object.
The ‘level of theoretical integration’ of a discipline – the crucial
criterion – which refers to how the discipline tries to reconstruct
the ‘reality’ of its subject matter in theoretical terms in order to
understand, explain, predict phenomena and events involving
the subject matter.
The ‘methods’ of a discipline, which have two purposes: to get
the observables of its subject matter; or to transform observables
into data which are more specific to the problem under
investigation (by means of interpretive rules). A discipline
is said to have established its autonomy if it has developed
methods of its own.
The ‘analytical tools’ of a discipline, which rest on strategies of
logic, (mathematical) reasoning and model construction.
The ‘applications of a discipline in fields of practice’. The more
applied disciplines are eclectic rather than purist in their
epistemological concepts of themselves as sciences. The obligation
to find applications always has a strong impact on how
the organization, research and curricula of these disciplines
are structured within universities.
The ‘historical contingencies of a discipline’. Every discipline is
a product of historical developments and at any time is in a
transitional state. The historical contingencies which speed
up or slow down a discipline’s development are due to the
inner logic of the respective subject matter as well as the extradisciplinary
and changing forces (e.g. public reputation, sociocultural
values, political ideologies and economic conditions).
The extra-disciplinary forces not only control material resources,
they determine the climate for growth. Last but not
least, external contingencies add up to the Zeitgeist of the
scientists themselves, influencing their research interests and
theoretical preoccupations. This last criterion refers to the
changing nature and contingent features of a discipline, and
the factors which bring about change. This aspect of change
and contingency in the intellectual field is further developed
in poststructuralist theory (e.g. Foucault) as well as by other
social theorists, which I discuss in a later section.
Becher & Trowler (2001) offer a holistic approach to the nature of an
academic discipline by noting that both disciplinary epistemology and
phenomenology are important. They define disciplinary epistemology
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