Not a translation *2021) [EDITED August 2023] from Afrikaans, with a few editorial adjustments, of: Yonge, George D., 'n Onwaarskynlike onderbemming: 'n Ondersoek na die kritiek op fundamentele pedagogiek. Tydskrif vir Gwesteswettenskappe, 61(4-2) December 2021, 1327-1345.
- Fundamental pedgogics, in particular, and pedagogics, in general, as phenomenological studies of educating undertaken at the University of Pretoria between the mid-1960’s to the mid-1990’s, have been characterized as an attempted academic justification for apartheid education in South Africa. I try to refute this characterization by pointing out that any phenomenological study [of educating], as a search for essences (universal structures) is not in a position to advocate any particular religious, political or other specific contents for practice. Indeed, at the core of the phenomenological method used at Pretoria is the phenomenological reduction called bracketing that requires a researcher to hold in abeyance temporarily any such particulars. In this paper, I point out that the above misleading characterization arises, for the most part, from conflating universal essences and particular contents, i.e., theory and practice. The translations on this site provide the interested reader with the opportunity to evaluate first-hand some of the phenomenological findings of the Pretoria Faculty of Education.