![enter image description here][1] **Education’s Relative Autonomy: A Closer Look at the Discipline’s Past, Present, and Future** Stefan T. Siegel and Eva Matthes **Abstract** The relative autonomy of Pädagogik (education) as an academic field has always been in jeopardy. Consequently, we take a closer look at its past, present, and future. We begin by retracing the historical development of this field of study in the German-speaking context. In the second part, we look at the current state of the discipline and spotlight current developments threatening education’s autonomy, first and foremost the steep rise and dominance of Empirische Bildungsforschung (empirical educational research). In the last part, we argue for education as an independent discipline and outline how educationalists can strengthen its autonomy and disciplinary identity. **Publication** Siegel, S. T., & Matthes, E. (2022). Education’s Relative Autonomy: A Closer Look at the Discipline’s Past, Present, and Future. Nordic Studies in Education, 42(1), 13-29. https://doi.org/10.23865/nse.v42.3785 **Presentations at International Conferences** Siegel, Stefan T.; Matthes, Eva; Biesta, Gert (2022, September): Rediscovering Education’s Relative Autonomy: Reflections on the Discipline’s Past, Present, and Future. Talk at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER Plus Online) 2022, Yerevan, Armenia https://osf.io/m7rch Siegel, Stefan T.; Matthes, Eva; Biesta, Gert (2022, September): Rediscovering Education’s Relative Autonomy: Reflections on the Discipline’s Past, Present, and Future. Talk at the Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) 2022 at the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom https://www.bera.ac.uk/conference/bera-conference-2022 **Contact** Stefan T. Siegel, stefan.siegel@unisg.ch Eva Matthes, eva.matthes@phil.uni-augsburg.de [1]: https://files.osf.io/v1/resources/bvzah/providers/osfstorage/60a7b38f8a5d3d00970c848e?mode=render