r.Educology
Info
Definition & Background
About Educology
Educology is the fund of knowledge about education — the accumulated and systemized body of recorded true statements about the field of phenomena in which someone teaches and someone studies intentionally under guidance. It is knowledge about education, standing to education as sociology stands to society.
Educological research uses analytic, empirical and normative disciplines to address the most inclusive questions about education:
- What is denoted by the term education, what is its most appropriate use, and what terms in discourse about education require disambiguation? (philosophical educology)
- What constitutes good — valuable, ethical, moral — education? (philosophical educology)
- How has education been structured, made to function, and made to serve in past times, societies and cultures? (historical educology)
- What mandates, permissions and prohibitions are placed on education by statutes, case law and other rules and regulations? (jurisprudential educology)
- How is education structured, how does it function, and what purposes is it being made to serve in current times? (scientific educology)
- What relationships and practices prove effective in achieving desired states of affairs in and for education? (praxiological educology)
Educology provides knowledge for those who want to extend their general range of knowing about societies and cultures; for practitioners (teachers, counselors, administrators) in discharging their duties responsibly and accountably; and for interested third parties (parents, school boards, legislative bodies) in making well-informed and carefully considered choices and decisions about education.
We organize educological research by its objects of knowledge — the fundamental elements of education: teachers & teaching; students, studying & learning intentionally under guidance; content & curriculum; and the physical, social & cultural context — together with general educology (which integrates knowledge about all four objects of knowledge) and meta-educology (which is knowledge about how educology should be formed and verified).
"To understand education, one must first understand what education is — in all its historical, cultural, and systemic complexity. Educology is the fund of knowledge that makes that understanding possible."
How we use these terms
Words like educology — much like ornithology — are often used loosely to mean three different things at once: a body of knowledge, the research that produces it, and the rules of proof that research follows. We keep them strictly distinct.
- Educology
- The fund of knowledge about education — recorded true statements about teaching and intentional guided studying.
- Educological research (or inquiry)
- The activity that produces educology — asking questions about education, proposing answers, and adducing the evidence needed to verify them.
- The discipline of educology
- The rules of proof — the principles of verification used in educological research.
We also distinguish intentional guided study (what a student does under a teacher) from independent unguided study (research or inquiry) — two distinct acts that the single word "study" tends to blur.
Why r.Educology
Global Educological Research on Education as a System
We conceive of education (in and out of schools, academies, institutes, colleges and universities) as a system that consists of the basic elements of teacher, student, content and context, all standing in relation. We understand education to be a universal human experience, because every human being participates in the role of teacher and/or student in episodes of education in all societies and cultures, past and present. We use the educological perspective to treat education as our object of inquiry — accordingly, we treat education as the dependent variable, and we examine which independent variables have what effects on the structure, function and resultants of education as a total system, including effects on (1) the essential elements (teacher, student, content, context) and the relations among them; (2) the essential activities in education (teaching and intentional guided studying); (3) the process of intentional guided learning that occurs from effective education; and (4) the resultant ranges of knowing that are the products of the activities of teaching and intentional guided studying and of the process of intentional guided learning.
Critique of Existing Assumptions
We conduct educological exegeses of established assertions about education — subjecting accepted wisdom about education to analytic, empirical and normative educological scrutiny.
Multi-Fund Integration
In our global educological inquiry, we abduce relevant concepts, knowledge claims and descriptive, explanatory and normative theories from funds of knowledge as diverse as anthropology, economics, neuroscience, philosophy, political theory, psychology and sociology. We do so to synthesize educological insights that siloed funds of knowledge miss.
Accessibility, Choice and Authenticity
We advocate for reforms in education that expand accessibility to education, extend freedom of choice for students, and provide opportunities to students to learn intentionally under guidance authentically chosen and genuinely valued ranges of knowing. This approach contrasts with focusing on injunctions that students must achieve at, or above, targeted scores on tests for literacy and numeracy.
Knowledge-Based Reform
It is a never-ending challenge for educational programs in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions to keep abreast of social and cultural change; what was relevant, or best practice, ten or five years ago — or even a year ago — can be hopelessly outdated. The best reforms and adaptations in educational institutions are those based on sound educological knowledge, rather than on institutional inertia, traditions, old habits and notions of high and low status attributed to particular funds of knowledge and/or ranges of knowing.
Purpose & Values
Our Mission
r.Educology is a professional multi-disciplinary association dedicated to advancing educological research. We bring together scholarship from across disciplines to build a rigorous, evidence-based understanding of how education works — and how it can be made to work better.
Our core commitment is to expanding efficiency, freedom, and well-being in educational institutions — through continuous feedback loops that connect research to practice and practice back to research.
We believe that lasting educational reform is only possible when it is grounded in a comprehensive understanding of education as a system: its history, its sociology, its philosophical foundations, and its institutional dynamics.
We are committed to choice-preserving reform — approaches that expand opportunity and autonomy, rather than imposing uniform solutions. We are skeptical of inherited assumptions and respectful of the complexity of real educational contexts.
Long-Term Vision
r.Educology aims to become a leading international research institution in educology — building a network of researchers, policy-makers, and educators committed to the continuous improvement of education systems worldwide.
Our Framework
How We Work
Our research operates as a continuous chain — each stage feeds directly into the next, forming a self-reinforcing cycle of inquiry and improvement. No stage is final; all three are interdependent.
Observation
We begin by observing education systems as they exist — documenting outcomes, structures, policies, and assumptions across diverse institutional contexts. This empirical grounding ensures our work stays anchored to real conditions rather than abstract ideals.
Research
Observations are subjected to rigorous meta-analysis — drawing on philosophy, sociology, political theory, neuroscience, and economics. We interrogate inherited assumptions, build theoretical frameworks, and produce scholarship that explains why systems behave as they do.
Implementation
Research findings are translated into prescriptive frameworks and reform proposals — practical tools that educators, policy-makers, and institutions can apply. Implementation in turn generates new observations, restarting the cycle with richer data.
Get in Touch
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Submit an Article
Are you a researcher or scholar who would like to submit work for publication on r.Educology? Send us your article and we'll review it for inclusion in our library.