Journal of Educational Sciences

Students' autonomy from Dearden’s point of view: Conceptualizing and Educational Principles

10.22055/edus.2025.47780.3643
Volume 32, Issue 2
December 2025
Pages 109-138
Journal of Educational Sciences

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Narges Sadat Sajjadieh 1
Mahdi Talebi 2

1 Associate Professor, Philosophy of Education, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 Ph.D. Student, Philosophy of Education, Allameh Tabatabaie University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract
In recent years, "autonomy" has been considered as one of the important goals of educational systems. At the same time, ambiguity about the concept of "autonomy" and its distinction from notions such as arbitrariness or irresponsibility may lead to a form of confusion in practice and may even result in educational fallacies. The present research was done with the purpose of explaining, criticizing and evaluating his analysis of autonomy. This goal is formulated in the form of two questions, the first of which concerns the meaning of autonomy and its conceptual prerequisites, and the second concerns the implications of this concept in the educational space. Thus, first, using the concept analysis approach and in the form of conceptual explanation, evaluation of the conceptual structure, and conceptualization, an attempt was made to evaluate its conceptual structure by analyzing Dirden's perspective on autonomy, and from within this evaluation, Dirden's view of the realization of  autonomy is expressed in the form of eight conditions, his perspective is criticized, and in the second stage, the educational implications of this concept are inferred. The findings regarding the first question present us with these conceptual conditions for autonomy: thinking, independence, freedom, originality, coherence of action and thought, and continuous criticism. In response to the second question, the educational principles that can be inferred are as follows: strengthening critical thinking as a basis for continuous critical  insight and perspective, strengthening self-knowledge as a basis for originality, granting freedom as a basis for choice and independence, emphasizing holistic thinking as a basis for the coherence of thought and action, a two-way view of freedom/law, a two-way view of institutional truths/individual discoveries and innovations, a gradual approach to the development and emergence of autonomy, and creating intellectual security for students and teachers.

Keywords

Autonomy
Derdean
Freedom
Originality
Responsibility
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