A Habermasian Approach to Critical Reading

This article explores the connection between critical reading and Jurgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action. It proposes that Habermas’s criteria used for evaluating validity claims in communicative action can be applied in reading texts critically. Analyses of different types of texts are presented to show how critical reading is done in a Habermasian way. This article ends with a discussion of the application of Habermas’s theory in addressing educational issues.     

‘Untangling Sickle-cell Anemia and the Teaching of Heterozygote Protection’

Introductory biology textbooks often use the example of sickle-cell anemia to illustrate the concept of heterozygote protection. Ordinarily scientists expect the frequency of a gene associated with a debilitating illness would be low owing to its continual elimination by natural selection. The gene that causes sickle-cell anemia, however, has a relatively high frequency in many parts of the world. Historically, scientists proposed and defended several alternative theories to account for this anomaly, though it is now widely recognized among the scientific community that high frequencies of the gene reflect its benefit to heterozygotes against malaria. Textbooks normally develop this concept with reference to the often-used maps of Africa showing how in areas where the frequency of the sickle-cell gene is high, there is also higher exposure to the disease malaria. While sickle-cell anemia is often the example of choice for explaining and illustrating the concept of heterozygote protection, the present paper argues that exploring the history of scientific research behind our contemporary understanding has advantages for helping students understand multiple factors related to population genetics (e.g. mutation, gene flow, drift) in addition to heterozygote protection. In so doing, this approach invites students to evaluate the legitimacy of their own alternative conceptions about introductory population genetics or about the genetics of the disease sickle-cell anemia. The various historical theories scientists proposed and defended often resemble those of students who first learn about the disease. As such, a discussion of how scientists reached consensus about the role of heterozygote protection may help students understand and appreciate what are now recognized to be limitations in the views they bring to their classrooms. The paper concludes by discussing the ramifications of this approach in potentially helping students to examine certain aspects of the nature of science.     

Reviews

National curricula convey narratives that are never inclusive of whole communities, and history curricula in particular need examination of their role as forms of 'identity politics'. Minorities tend to be excluded from the master historical narratives. The examples are derived from Estonia and the new German Lander, which made up the German Democratic Republic. In both cases, the grand narrative of communism was used as the backbone of history curriculum. When, abruptly-around 1990 - the narrative lost its credibility, a quest for a new narrative arose. In the case of Estonia, history was needed for nation-building and was, therefore, framed within the grand narrative of nationalism. In Germany, the educators challenged themselves by attempting to make school history into a Habermasian open space for critical communication. However, the question remains: how far can a curriculum be socially inclusive?     

The conservative response to the 2011 Chilean student movement: neoliberal education and media

This paper focuses on the relationship between the media and educational policies in the context of the ‘neoliberal newspeak’, which has characterized the current circulation of ideas in cultural production. Using framing theory, this article presents a critical discourse analysis on the editorials published about the 2011 student movement by El Mercurio, the most influential newspaper in Chile. El Mercurio is more than a newspaper. It is an institution; an institution that supports conservative ideas. El Mercurio framed the public discussion about educational policies and defended neoliberal education based on three discourses: the neoliberal system is absolute, public education is valued less than private and education is a technical issue, not political. By invoking this rhetoric strategy, these discourses attempted to maintain the neoliberal education system in Chile, which in turn rejected the social struggles of the student movement.     

后现代主义思潮及其对马克思主义理论创新的启示与借鉴

后现代主义是当代西方的一种社会思潮,它源于现代主义。又是对现代主义的反叛和超越,它在批判和解构现代主义以及西方资本主义文明种种弊端的过程中所体现的后现代思维、方法与精神,对马克思主义理论的创新具有重要的思想启迪与借鉴作用。后现代视域下发展和创新马克思主义理论,我们应当坚持科学性原则、实践性原则、主体性原则、建设性批判原则、历史进步的乐观主义原则等。     

In Excess of Epistemology: Siegel,Taylor, Heidegger and the Conditions of Thought

Harvey Siegel's epistemologically‐informed conception of critical thinking is one of the most influential accounts of critical thinking around today. In this article, I seek to open up an account of critical thinking that goes beyond the one defended by Siegel. I do this by re‐reading an opposing view, which Siegel himself rejects as leaving epistemology (and, by implication, his epistemological account of critical thinking) ‘pretty much as it is’. This is the view proposed by Charles Taylor in his paper ‘Overcoming Epistemology’. Crucially, my aim here is not to defend Taylor's challenge to epistemology per se, but rather to demonstrate how, through its appeal to certain key tropes within Heideggerian philosophy, Taylor's paper opens us towards a radically different conception of thinking and the human being who thinks. Indeed, as will be argued, it is through this that Taylor and Heidegger come to offer us the resources for re‐thinking the nature of critical thinking—in a way that exceeds the epistemological, and does more justice to receptive and responsible conditions of human thought.     

Individual and Distributed Cognitions in Interdisciplinary Teamwork: A Developing Case Study and Emerging Theory

We present a developing distributed cognition theory of interdisciplinary collaboration that incorporates concepts from both situated cognition and information-processing theory. This theoretical framework is being refined as it is used for analyzing interdisciplinary collaboration within the National Institute for Science Education (NISE). Our analyses are intended to improve scientific understanding of collaborative processes that influence productivity and quality of interdisciplinary work within the NISE and beyond. A critical group meeting in the early development of one interdisciplinary working team is analyzed using language and ideas from our theoretical perspective.     

中央苏区时期毛泽东的民生思想探源

中央苏区时期毛泽东对民生问题的思考、有关论述以及践行蕴含了极为丰富的民生思想。尽管这一思想是以后才明确丰富起来的,但在中央苏区时期就显出其雏形。它的产生有着深厚的历史、理论和实践渊源：以我国传统文化中的民本思想为历史之源;以马克思主义唯物史观为理论之源;以科学总结我国革命斗争经验为实践之源。     

Romanticising Resistance,Romanticising Culture: problems in Willis's theory of cultural production

Paul Willis's theory of cultural production, first elaborated in Learning to Labour and defended in later work, suffers from two errors, essentialism and dualism. These are more serious than the objections against which Willis has tried to defend his theory—that it is left functionalist and politically pessimistic—and indeed are the reason why he cannot answer such objections satisfactorily. The consequence, notwithstanding Willis's disavowals, is an entrenched romanticising of both ‘resistance’ and ‘culture’, especially male working class culture.     

论科学发展观对唯物史观的拓展与创新

马克思主义唯物史观是关于整个人类社会的科学发展观,是揭示人类社会发展一般规律的科学。科学发展观是马克思主义关于发展问题的世界观和方法论的集中体现,它的重要哲学基础是马克思主义的唯物史观。科学发展观与马克思主义的唯物史观是一脉相承的。科学发展观是马克思主义唯物史观的当代运用,它丰富和深化了马克思主义关于人的全面自由发展理论。科学发展观既抓住了马克思主义社会理想的本质,又鲜明地体现了中国特色与时代精神。     

White Noise: The Attack on Political Correctness and the Struggle for the Western Canon

This paper provides a critical overview of the debate about political correctness and the status of the Western Canon in education. The paper analyses a number of critical themes in the debate: Who is it under attack? What is the Canon which is to be defended? Why does it need to be defended? And what notions of knowing and learning underlie the arguments of the proponents of the Canon? After outlining the ways in which the arguments of those attacking political correctness and defending the Canon are profoundly flawed, the paper suggests that the case for multiculturalism and diversified curriculum needs to be substantially strengthened if it is to present a viable alternative.     

浅谈科学社会主义理论的发展历程与发展前景

科学社会主义理论经历了一个半世纪的历史发展过程,在经历了高潮与低潮交织、胜利与挫折并存的曲折变化中,形成了一套适应历史发展的理论体系。科学社会主义理论要保持其活力和生机,必须正确面对全球经济的机遇和挑战,积极探索理论发展的新路子,做好解放思想、改革开放、与时俱进、机制建设、驾驭全局、自身建设等方面的工作。     

马克思主义交往实践观与构建社会主义和谐社会

作为历史唯物主义的重要组成部分,马克思交往理论在本质上是科学的社会发展理论,它不仅要回答社会发展何以可能的问题,而且要解答社会的延续性问题。从全球化时代背景出发,针对现实中人们在交往实践活动中的困惑,从交往实践对人的全面发展的视角来探索交往问题,有助于人们积极、主动地发展交往实践活动,有助于充分发挥社会交往的功能和努力实现人的全面发展。     

How to Conceive of Critical Educational Theory Today?

This paper starts from a brief sketch of the ‘classical’ figure of critical educational theory or science (Kritische Erziehungswissenshaft). ‘Critical educational theory’ presents itself as the privileged guardian of the critical principle of education (Bildung) and its emancipatory promise. It involves the possibility of saying ‘I’ in order to speak and think in one's own name, to be critical, self‐reflective and independent, to determine dependence from the present power relations and existing social order. Actual social and educational reality and relations are approached as a limitation, threat, alienation, re/oppression or negation of ultimate human principles or potential. The task of critical educational theory becomes one of enabling an autonomous, critical, self‐reflective life. While ‘critique’ and ‘autonomy’ have meanwhile become commonplace, and ‘critique’ and ‘autonomy’ are reclaimed and required from everybody, we should also consider the question of the relation between an institutional or ideological framework as that which claims to question this frame and to constitute its opposite. The trivialisation of critique is taken as occasion to recall Michel Foucault's analysis of power relations and especially his thesis according to which the ‘government of individualisation’ is the actual figure of power. Starting from the framework offered by Foucault, it can be made clear that the autonomous, critical, self‐reflective life does not represent an ultimate principle but refers to a very specific form of subjectification operating as a transmission belt for power. The autonomous, critical, self‐reflective person appears as an historical model of self‐conduct whereby power operates precisely through the intensification of reflectiveness and critique rather than through their repression, alienation or negation. This brings us back then to the question of how to conceive of the task of a critical educational theory at a time in which critique, autonomy and self‐determination have become an essential modus operandi of the existing order.     

考茨基的“超帝国主义论”及其当代启示

"超帝国主义论"深刻地揭示了帝国主义产生的根源和历史地位,反映了考茨基关于资本主义现代形态的若干理论创见。长期以来,受列宁帝国主义理论的影响,中国学术界一直对考茨基的"超帝国主义论"持批判和否定的态度,而缺乏应有的科学分析。冷战结束后,随着全球化时代的到来,考茨基"超帝国主义论"所包含的合理成分日益显现出来。     

Are we promoting critical autonomous thinking? A discussion on conversational genres and whether they can help us answer this question

This work is based on the assumption that if the classroom is a space in which manifestations of critical autonomous thinking appear systematically, then it promotes that same kind of thinking by the students, in other contexts. But what count as manifestations of critical autonomous thinking, and how can we observe them? As Robert Young's Habermasian work on indoctrination and conversational genres seemed a promising conceptual framework for understanding classroom situations in this respect, we took it as a starting point for exploring answers to these questions. Our exploration, both through fieldwork and theoretical reflection, led us to some findings, among which are (1) the existence of new genres which refine the conceptual categories originally formulated by Young; (2) that analysis of function is not enough, requiring also a contents dimension with which one can study what critical autonomous thinking is promoted about, in particular classroom situations; and (3) that classroom situations can be more contradictory and fragmented than presupposed by the very idea of genre.     

Exploring the Role of Ideology in Interdisciplinary Science Education Policy

Despite its popularity in education studies literature, interdisciplinary science education is mostly considered outside the multitude of social forces that drive education reform. This has contributed to a mythologizing of interdisciplinary science education and lead to assumptions about the necessity of its intervention into science education practice. This research constructs a critical analysis of interdisciplinary science education by exploring a philosophical understanding of the relations between scientific disciplines, investigating discourse about interdisciplinarity in science education policy literature, and provides socioeconomic context for this reform movement. In particular, Louis Althusser's theory of ideology as material force, his conception of the spontaneous philosophy of scientists, and his theses on the ideological nature of interdisciplinary science are foundational to this critique. Althusser's contributions allow for critical reflection on interdisciplinarity and the effects of promoting it throughout scientific enterprise. Viewing interdisciplinary science education through this critical lens allows for demarcating the ideological narratives of reformist discourse from the intended outcomes of reform. This investigation elucidates the intervention of interdisciplinarity as an ideological force governing the reproduction of scientific labor, with intended downstream socioeconomic effects, such as shifting science labor from the public sector to private industry to accommodate for austerity. The conclusions of this analysis advocate for historical materialist methodologies in science education research and critical education studies, while emphasizing the role of ideology in socioeconomic reproduction.     

马克思主义视角下的西方公共产品理论批判性解读

公共产品是一个历史概念,公共产品理论只有以历史唯物主义为指导,才能科学揭示其本质,正确看待其供需特性以及选择合理的供给模式.西方公共产品理论之所以会在定义、特性以及分类上具有误导性,在满足公共需求和公共利益上具有虚伪性,在以市场失灵作为划分政府、市场供给边界上具有局限性,其根本原因在于方法论上的错误性.     

“一国两制”是邓小平运用对立统一学说的典范

“一国两制”这一科学构想和重大决策,是基于对现实矛盾的具体分析,依据一定的历史条件而提出的,它的创造性就在于找到了解决矛盾使对立面结合的最佳方案。”一国两制”的具体构思也充满着唯物辩证法的哲理,深刻地反映了既对立又统一的矛盾运动的规律。运用“一国两制”的构思,不仅使香港、澳门顺利回归,而且必将推动台湾与祖国大陆在一个中国原则的基础上早日实现和平统一。“一国两制”的构思,是邓小平在实践中对对立统一学说的创造性运用与发展,是灵活运用对立统一学说的一个典范。     

唯物史观与共产主义、社会主义价值观的统一——《共产党宣言》与邓小平理论的一个共同特征

唯物史观与共产主义、社会主义价值观的统一 ,是马克思主义的一个基本特征 ,也是社会主义由空想变为科学的前提条件。《共产党宣言》作为一部阐述阶级斗争学说的经典著作 ,体现了唯物史观与共产主义价值观具体的历史的统一 ;它作为科学社会主义理论 ,把共产主义价值观奠定在唯物史观的基础上。邓小平理论在社会主义本质问题上 ,把唯物史观与社会主义价值观融为一体 ;在怎样建设社会主义问题上 ,体现了唯物史观与社会主义价值观相统一的原则 ,也反映了唯物史观与社会主义价值观具体的历史的统一