Searching for Missing Links: neo‐Marxist theories of education

Since the appearance of Bowles & Gintis’ (1976) ‘correspondence thesis’, neo‐Marxist theorizing about educational change has gone in several directions. Different approaches have emphasized capitalist reproduction requirements, contradictions between these requirements and the democratic state, hegemony theory and processes of class formation. While studies with affinity to a Marxist problematic of subordination and oppression have become more theoretically open and empirically grounded, some of the core explanatory ideas of the historical materialist perspective tend to have been ignored or dismissed. In consequence, the main conceptual, empirical and theoretical limitations of the correspondence thesis are being repeated, notably in arguments about a ‘post‐Fordist’ form of education. After a discussion of the contemporary relevance of historical materialism's core ideas for explaining educational change, the limited foci of neo‐Marxist theories of education are critically reviewed. Some suggestions are then made for overcoming these persistent limitations—most notably a hyper‐rationalistic image of education and a lack of direct attention to both production relations and educational relations per se.     

美国要素主义教育思想的当代发展——新要素主义者黛安·雷维奇的教育思想探析

要素主义是当代西方重要的教育思潮之一,在美国基础教育改革中扮演着重要的角色,是当前美国基础教育改革的主流取向。作为美国当代要素主义教育代表人物之一,黛安·雷维奇阐发了美国当代要素主义的基本主张。文章从课程、教师、学生、学校体制、教材、民主教育、学业标准等七个方面探讨了黛安·雷维奇的教育思想,从而为了解美国当代要素主义教育思想动向提供一个可供观察的窗口。     

Newman's Theory of a Liberal Education: A Reassessment and its Implications

John Henry Newman provided the basic vocabulary and guiding rationale sustaining the ideal of a liberal education up to our day. He highlighted its central focus on the cultivation of the intellect, its reliance upon broadly based theoretical knowledge, its independence of moral and religious stipulations, and its being its own end. As new interpretations enter the debate on liberal education further educational possibilities emanate from Newman's thought beyond those contained in his theory of a liberal education. These are found in Newman's broader idea of a university education, incorporating social, moral, and spiritual formation and in his philosophical thought where he develops a theory of knowledge at odds with the Idea of a University. There are, in addition, intriguing possibilities that arise from Newman's theory of reasoning in concrete affairs both because of their implicit challenge to inherited theories of a liberal education and because of the educational possibilities they hold out in their own right and in actual educational developments to which they may lend support.     

Ugly

Upon its publication in 1976, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis’ Schooling in Capitalist America was the most sophisticated and nuanced Marxian social and political analysis of schooling in the United States. Thirty-five years after its publication, Schooling continues to have a strong impact on thinking about education. Despite its unquestionable influence, it has received strikingly little historical attention. This historical article revisits the scholarship of Bowles and Gintis and the milieu in which Schooling was conceived. Specifically, it contextualizes the production and reception of Schooling to better understand the emergence of Marxist thought in the field of education in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. It also seeks to understand how the emergence of Marxist thought in the field was connected to the rise of an Academic Left—an intellectual shift in the academy toward Marxist social and political theory as a framework to theorize democratic socialist movement-building against capitalism and concomitant state sponsored oppression in the 1960s and 1970s. This history suggests that as we engage in historical and contemporary work on radical ideas in the field of education, we need to push ourselves continually to think about the intersection of education with other fields and disciplines. The article also pushes back against a widespread depiction of Schooling as crudely mechanistic.     

何谓“自由”教育——马克范多伦（Mark Van Doren）的人文教育理念简论

＂Liberal Education＂一词的意义在西方教育界早已有定论,一般较为人熟知的中文翻译是＂人文教育＂。美国上世纪30年代,大学教育弥漫＂实用＂之风,此时保守的学者有感当代教育重专业技能而轻人文课程的危机,乃重新诠释＂人文教育＂的内涵,并致力于人文课程的设计。这些学者中,上世纪40年代曾获得普利策诗人奖的美国哥伦比亚大学马克范多伦教授,结合诗人感性的笔触与自己投身教育的经验,写成著名的《人文教育》一书,他极力主张教育不只是改造社会的工具,更应进一步提供如何精炼人性的必要途径。他这种与当时宣称沿袭＂进步主义＂而号称自由派学者的对立思维,使他成为美国人文教育最有影响力的代言人之一,本文主要介绍他的教育理念,并阐述西方人文教育的本质与传统。     

Immigration in the United States and the Golden Years of Education: Was Ravitch Right?

In this article I address some assertions made by one of the most outstanding educational historians, Diane Ravitch, regarding the relation between immigration rates and academic achievement among children in the United States. In her book The Great School Wars Ravitch asserted that low immigration levels during the 1920s to early 1960s period played a large role in producing a golden age of education in New York and probably in the United States. The research undertaken for this article does confirm some of Ravitch's assertions but questions whether other claims of hers may be overly simplistic. Among her assertions that the research supports are that academic achievement rose among New York City elementary and secondary students during this "golden age," children from most immigrant groups did perform poorly compared to children born in the United States, and that the increased volume of enrollment and language factors did exert added pressure on the school system. Nevertheless, other factors lead one to believe that Ravitch's claim, although possessing merit, may be overly simplistic. For example, certain immigrant groups performed very well academically after coming to the United States. This fact supports the notion that the makeup of the immigrant population may be as important as the immigration volume. In addition, the decline in American student academic achievement in the 1960s and 1970s began well before the United States fully liberalized its immigration policy. One would not expect this, if immigration has the level of impact that Ravitch claims.     

Scorched Earth: prelude to rebuilding Marxist educational theory

This paper focuses on the internal degeneration of the Marxist educational theory flowing from Bowles & Gintis (1976) and Willis (1977). It explores five interlinked ‘debilitating problematics’ ‐‐ the base/superstructure metaphor, Left functionalism, relative autonomy, resistance theory and the education for autonomy/revolution dilemma ‐‐ which have simultaneously formed the backbone of Marxist educational theory and constituted the roots of its theoretical weaknesses. The general argument is that these weaknesses are so deep‐seated that Marxists interested in theorising capitalist schooling need to start afresh. The paper points towards some possible starting points for new Marxist thinking on capitalist schooling, the preferred option being an analysis of labour‐power. One consequence of taking labour‐power as the starting point for a Marxist analysis of education is that it entails the dissolution of Marxist educational theory’. Instead, educational theory and politics become subordinated to a concern with the social production of labour‐power in capitalism.     

DEGREES OF DISENCHANTMENT: A REVIEW ESSAY

In this review essay, Mark Brenneman and Frank Margonis address three recent book‐length contributions to the ongoing discussion around cosmopolitanism and educational thought: Mark Olssen's Liberalism, Neoliberalism, Social Democracy: Thin Communitarian Perspectives on Political Philosophy and Education, Sharon Todd's Toward an Imperfect Education: Facing Humanity, Rethinking Cosmopolitanism, and Ilan Gur‐Ze’ev's Beyond the Modern‐Postmodern Struggle in Education: Toward Counter‐Education and Enduring Improvisation. Brenneman and Margonis argue that these contributions exhibit a marked disenchantment with Enlightenment conceptions of human possibilities as these inform concrete recommendations in the field of the philosophy of education. All three books call for a rethinking of modernist categories in educational thought, a call that is supported by the authors' respective distrust and ultimate disenchantment with the residual presence of ideas of human perfectibility harbored in the philosophical categories that animate discussions in multicultural, liberal, neoliberal, and postmodern educational discussion. Brenneman and Margonis argue that each of these books theorizes from its own respective regionally specific circumstances, and they therefore prove valuable to philosophers of education who struggle toward their own local responses to human difference and the pedagogical possibilities of educational relations.     

自由教育与美好生活-施特劳斯学派自由教育观述评

本文主要梳理了以列奥·施特劳斯以及艾兰·布鲁姆为代表的施特劳斯学派的自由教育观。为了更清晰地理解这一学派的自由教育观念,本文首先评述了他们之反思的哲学起点(对现代性的反思与对相对主义的抨击)和现实起点(现代民主制度下自由教育的危机),继而就“美好生活”和“伟大著作”这两大主题提炼出该学派的自由教育主张及其背后的政治教育意蕴。本文认为,施特劳斯学派的教育主张是一种精英主义的教育观,他们对经典名著的推崇,对于德性与教养教育的标举,值得我们深入思考。     

The Innovative Educational Thought of Jane Roland Martin: A Review Essay

D. G. Mulcahy highlights some of Jane Roland Martin's major contributions to the field of philosophy of education in this review essay. He focuses on several of Martin's better‐known works — including Reclaiming a Conversation, The Schoolhome, Changing the Educational Landscape, Coming of Age in Academe, Educational Metamorphoses, and School Was Our Life — tracing through them the development of her reconceptualization of the idea of a liberal education from the early1980s to the present day. Viewing Martin's contribution from the perspective of liberal education, he contends, underscores the optimistic spirit of her work as well as its originality and significance for the theory of education as a whole. Mulcahy gives particular attention to these elements of Martin's thought: the importance she attributes to educating the young for active participation in the world and not mere observation of it; her analysis of the range and complexity of our cultural wealth; her concept of a gender‐sensitive education; and her emphasis on the unique contribution of the experience of women to education. Martin's substantial body of work, Mulcahy concludes, stands as a compelling alternative to mainstream educational theorizing, one that offers hope for the potential of educational renewal.     

证成批判思维——兼回应批判思维只适用自由社会吗

批判思维可算是20世纪英美世界主流的教育目的,同时反映了西方知识论的理性传统,以及道德论上的尊重人的康德启蒙传统。大多数学者都从实用的角度,认为批判思维是因应现代社会快速变迁所需具备的基本能力。杜威、彼得斯都曾严谨地从哲学立场检视教育目的之探索意义。美国马克佩克从知识的条件证成教育蕴含批判思维,西格尔则从尊重人的原则、自足性作为成人生活预备、引领理性的传统、批判思维与民主生活等四个维度来证成批判思维作为教育理想。西格尔的论证是建立在理性、自由主义的氛围之上,这也引起了部分政治哲学家的反思,即民主社会是否可接受少数族群进行非批判思维的教育之提问。史特图与史贝克归纳了批判思维涉及民主社会的三个主题:政治体制与合法性、自由政体架构与善的概念、善的概念与其内在价值,一一加以检视,二氏认为支持性论证可以说明一、二主题,福祉论证较支持性论证更可涵盖,但仍未能完全证成将批判思维视为第三主题的内在价值。主流社会在推展批判思维之余,若少数族群没有违反重大社会共通价值且没有限制其子女参与主流社会,宜适度尊重其教育价值观。综合来说,批判思维对于非认同自由主义社群仍是可欲而非强制的教育价值。哲学论证,可以丰富教育概念的讨论,有助于体现批判思维的精神及理解其可能的限制,也具有教育实践的意义。     

Group Differences in California Community College Transfers

This study explores the extent to which community colleges succeed in assisting students to transfer to four-year colleges. The study uses data from the California Community College system to test hypotheses about overall transfers and transfers of underrepresented students, It utilizes a framework based upon social reproduction theory (Bowles & Gintis, 1976) that also includes institutional factors. First, transfer rates differed significantly between groups, with African-American transfer rates being the lowest. Some of our hypotheses were supported, particularly those on the significance of communities with younger students and higher levels of education for transfer levels. A critical mass of students of underrepresented groups is also important for institutions that wish to transfer higher numbers of these students. Institutional effectiveness and level of funds spent on transfer programs did not appear to make any difference in transfer levels. One of the most important findings is that transfer dynamics are very different for each group, suggesting that administrators and policy-makers need to develop more detailed strategies to encourage higher rates of transfer.     

Hopes and challenges for progressive educators in Japan: assessment of the ‘progressive turn’ in the 2002 educational reform

A variety of perspectives exist on the evaluation of Japan’s educational reform of 2002, which has evolved since the 1980s. However, thus far, little attention has been paid to the emerging influence of civil society on educational policies and practices. This paper shows that the origin of the current educational reforms can be traced to reports prepared by various neo‐liberal/conservative business leaders and politicians. Further, it shows their privatization and decentralization principles happen to coincide with the increasing interest of progressive citizens’ groups and educators. Their impact on the Japanese education system remains latent, especially as more scepticism grows towards progressivism as a philosophy behind the current educational reform. However, the expanding civil society and new progressive education movements in Japan are trends worth exploring in the context of globalization at the grass‐roots level.     

Comment on Christopher Winch's ‘The Economic Aims of Education’

This paper argues that Christopher Winch's contribution to the debate on the aims of education contains some significant errors and omissions. His definition of work is problematic and leads to the conclusion that education should be directed towards very narrow vocational targets. His argument makes unstated and contestable assumptions about the source of educational aims. Lastly, he underplays the implications of the economic aims of education for the achievement of liberal aims. His programme would lead to less pluralism than the liberal alternative.     

新社会背景下教育与经济生活之关系-再思"符应原则"

教育与经济生活之关系是教育社会学研究的基本主题,鲍尔斯与金蒂斯提出的“符应原则”是在该主题上的一个重要表述。本文以此为理论起点,探讨了20世纪80年代以来西方资本主义国家在新社会背景下教育与经济生活的关系。研究表明相对于“符应原则”,新社会背景下,教育与经济生活之间的符应关系愈趋紧密,并呈现诸多新特征。在此结论之下,本文进一步透析教育社会学在这样的大背景下所遭遇的新问题。     

隐匿的对话:通识教育与自由教育的思想论争

"通识教育"与"自由教育"经常被学界无差别地当作"素质教育"的代名词来使用,实际上二者并不能简单等同。通识教育在对古典自由教育进行改造之后,与现代自由教育之间形成了一种隐匿的思想对话关系:两者都致力于从政治哲学的视野反思现代社会的文教品质,并致力于教育质量的改进。然而,由于在西方文化古今之争中思想立场各不相同,两者在教育反思的起点、教育目标、教育对象、教育方式等问题上大相径庭。质言之,通识教育与自由教育其实是现代社会应对高等教育大众化、专业化和职业化危机的互补性方案,中国当下的高等教育改革应该从两种思想对话中获得重要的启示。     

Towards an assessment of educational theory: An historical perspective

Throughout the last twenty-five years all areas of educational thought have been preoccupied with the continuing conflict between conservative middle-class dominance of the schools and a liberal movement determined to provide a theory of equality and provisions for access. The radical extreme of this movement has gone further and demanded the total reconceptualization and reconstruction of education. This movement has attacked the standard histories of education which have their origins in the late nineteenth century. At that time, it is now argued, education was dominated by anarriviste bourgeoisie embracing a version of late-Hegelian philosophy with a doctrine of Eurocentric progress. Seeking legitimacy, the middle class supported the classical revival which stressed liberal education, expressed aspaideia, and mediated through the limited access to grammar school and university. Traditional educational historiography is now seen as reflecting these assumptions through “grand histories” written around “great educators” and “noble ideals”. As educational thought expanded throughout the twentieth century with the emergence of the contributing disciplines, this tradition was challenged as critical historians had a wider data-base from which to draw. By the 1930s and 1940s in the seminal work of R. H. Tawney and Lloyd Warner a literature of dissent began to appear, which, by the late 1960s had increased to a torrent, issuing in violently provocative criticisms of educational assumptions and practices, accompanied by an equally strident literature of historical interpretation, which, drawing from revisionist work in the contributing disciplines, chiefly sociology, began to re-interpret the past twenty-five years of frenetic activity as the legitimate aspirations of the world's masses. Yet the methodology of both positions is itself being reinterpreted in the present post-empiricist stage, which is characterised by phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches. Both history as the events of the past (data-base) and as interpretation (historiography), are now being seen as facets of the one activity, and, with education considered as part of a wider social process, both traditional and radical positions are themselves becoming criticised for their inadequate positivist assumptions and methodology.     

纽曼的自由教育思想解读

约翰.亨利.纽曼是19世纪英国著名的神学家和教育家,其教育名著《大学的理想》一书,是世界高等教育史上的经典之作。在书中,纽曼通过对大学的性质、目的、功能的经典阐述,展示了其自由教育思想的深刻内涵。虽然纽曼的自由教育思想有其局限性,但对当前我国高等院校通识教育改革仍有重要的借鉴意义。     

雅斯贝尔斯的大学自由教育观及其启示

雅斯贝尔斯的大学自由教育思想体现在他的教育哲学中,他详细阐述了大学的理念、大学的精神、大学教育的本质及实施大学教育的途径。在目前因美国华尔街金融人才的自我膨胀和过度贪婪造成全球性的金融危机及我国社会过分商业化,市场价值弥漫到校园,自由教育受到威胁之时,重温雅斯贝尔斯的大学自由教育思想,对提升我国的大学教育具有特别重要的意义：我们要重新认识大学自由教育的意义,注重大学生的人格健全,尤其要培养大学生的责任感、使命感与自由交往意识。     

Liberal education: An overlapping pragmatic consensus

In reviewing the course of liberal education in the US during the 20th century, Bruce Kimball in 1995 proposed that a pragmatic consensus was emerging about the understanding of liberal education. The two-fold tradition of liberal education, with its shifting emphases and accommodations between 'orators' and 'philosophers,' was being transformed into a 'new American tradition of liberal education deeply rooted in the resurgent intellectual tradition of pragmatism'. A number of different, even contradictory, criticisms of Kimball's thesis have been offered concerning the existence and nature of such a consensus and its relationship(s) to pragmatism. We suggest that the consensus thesis and the criticisms it has encountered might be best understood by comparing it to Rawls's idea of an 'overlapping consensus'. Comparing and contrasting Kimball's project and Rawls's approach suggests that the emerging consensus concerning liberal education at the beginning of the 21st century is an overlapping consensus, that is, a consensus whose nature is pragmatic, as well as a consensus whose substantive tenets are rationalized by pragmatism. Understanding the consensus in this way accounts for the varied criticism that Kimball's thesis has received and makes a significant difference in understanding the theory and practice of liberal education in the 21st century.