The theory-practice relation in critical pedagogy. Phenomenology and pedagogy

If we consider empirical-analytical, hermeneutical, and critical ped agogy from the viewpoint of the relation between theory and prac tice, the opinions of Greek philosophy seem to repeat themselves. Preeminent to the hermeneutical, Socratic version, is the practice of child raising and education. Here the function of theory is to clarify the practice situations and to make the practitioners aware of what is going on in the pedagogical relations and situations in which they are involved. So, we could say practice looks in the mirror of theory. Sometimes it looks as if theory could play a pioneering role in the re alization of practice. However, the direction in which theory can and should influence and possibly modify practice remains unclear, be cause theory has made itself all too dependent on the existing prac tice, which is largely determined by tradition. This is, for instance, very clear in the work of the hermeneutical pedagogue Erich Weniger (1975). In all his didactic work the scientific theory is th