Konstruktionismin

Konstruktionismin is a term used to describe a family of theories that view knowledge, meanings, and social reality as constructed rather than simply discovered. In its broad sense, constructionism emphasizes that humans create and negotiate understandings through language, tools, and social interaction, rather than passively receiving truth from an objective world. It is closely related to constructivist ideas but foregrounds the social processes and artifacts through which understanding is produced.

Two mainstream strands are often distinguished. Social constructionism analyzes how social phenomena—such as categories of race, gender, or scientific knowledge—are produced, stabilized, and challenged through discourse, power relations, and institutions. Cultural and discursive constructionism focus on how language, metaphors, and shared practices shape perception and belief. In education, the term constructionism is often associated with a more active, maker-centered approach to learning, popularized by Seymour Papert, and drawing on Piaget’s constructivism; it advocates making external representations (models, programs, artifacts) as a means to learn.

Core ideas include: reality is mediated by language and shared conventions; knowledge is historically and culturally situated; authority and expertise are contestable; learning occurs through participation in communities of practice and the creation of external artifacts.

Applications span sociology, science studies, linguistics, and education. Critics argue that constructionism can downplay objective constraints and empirical evidence, potentially leading to relativism, and that its emphasis on discourse risks overlooking material conditions.

See also: constructivism, social constructivism, constructionism in education, Papert, Berger and Luckmann.