Thesis
Education as relation-improvement : a hermeneutic-comparative analysis of Orbis Pictus and the three character classic
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2026
- Thesis identifier
- T18213
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202068718
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- This thesis presents a hermeneutic-comparative analysis of John Amos Comenius’s Orbis Pictus and the Chinese classic The Three Character Classic. These two educational texts are highly influential within their respective educational traditions and serve as important introductory materials for young learners. This thesis does not treat these texts merely as literacy materials, but rather as forms of educational representation, through which the older generation represents a specific world to children and shapes their relations with certain aspects of that world. The thesis is grounded in a relational understanding of education, in which educators intentionally improve the learner’s relations with specific aspects of the world during the educational process. Methodologically, this research combines hermeneutic textual analysis, the 5W1H analytical framework, and Freiberger’s comparative framework. Using this approach, this thesis analyses and compares each text around five selected improvable relations: the relations between the learner and sound, words, discourse, action, and the world or social order. Through analysis and comparison, this thesis argues that Orbis Pictus introduces children to a world that is perceivable, nameable, ordered, and ultimately rooted in divine creation. By contrast, The Three Character Classic introduces children to a world organised through rhythm, recitation, moral exemplars, historical continuity and social hierarchy. In the teaching of these two texts, whilst pronunciation, vocabulary and sentences are taught and learnt, ideas about how to understand the world and how to act within it, as well as the kind of people learners are expected to become, are simultaneously conveyed. Through a direct comparison of these two classic texts, this thesis constructs a relational framework that interprets these texts as condensed pedagogical worlds, thereby contributing to educational scholarship.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Lewin, David
- Kenklies, Karsten
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Funder
Relations
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PDF of thesis T18213 | 2026-10-21 | Public | Download |