Critical Education Research (KRUF)
Short description
Critical Education Research is one of three research programmes at the Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies.
More information about Critical Education Research
Critical educational research (KRUF) wants to contribute to change in the conditions that societal structures - characterized by power asymmetries - maintain. Our vision is to conduct high-quality research and to be a critical voice in academic and public debate on education, especially as regards issues about power, inequality, injustice and environmental destruction. We also strive to be a creative, democratic, and inclusive research environment where all members feel that they can develop as researchers and where we all support each other in our various academic ventures.
Our research encompasses a variety of theoretical orientations within the critical thought tradition. We understand "critical" as an effort to identify, question, and change the assumptions that lie behind mundane ways of perceiving, understanding, and acting. This means acknowledging the influence that history, culture, and social position have on perceptions and actions. Critical research thus becomes a matter of identifying, analyzing, and making visible alternatives that can upset routines and established orders in education at different societal levels, and to bring light to different forms of power relations and social dominance. This also means adopting a critical approach to any knowledge or solution that is presented as the only truth or the only alternative.
