Practices and competences in education: some current and potential contributions of pragmatism

The aim of this article is to identify the specific and social potential of research in the field of Education carried out with a pragmatic “attitude’’. This contribution focuses on two current issues. In the first part, we show how “traditional” research based on teaching practices grasps them as somewhat inanimate objects, it “de-practises’’ them and how a pragmatist input of those practices should give them credit. The second part concerns the difficulties linked with the notion of competence – omnipresent in the field of vocational education, training and work- , and its use in competencies inventory. Some criteria are determined from which alternative notions should respond to overcome difficulties as well as some principles to promote the development of worker’s activity