Criticising Critical Philosophy of Education

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a substantial rise in the number of ‘good’ first degrees awarded in Higher Education and much discussion has focussed on whether this trend represents a decline in ‘standards’. A study of University degree award patterns between 1979 and 1989 indicated gender, subject and size and age of University as factors of some limited importance. A questionnaire distributed to 18 Universities in England and Wales resulted in over 70 individual responses with the identification of improved quality of entrants, improved teaching quality and increased use of continuous assessment as perceived factors. Evidence supports the notion of improved quality of entrant on the basis of improving A Level grades coupled with a relatively small increase in University undergraduate numbers during the 1980s. There is also strong anecdotal support among members of the University community that students worked harder during the 1980s influenced by the ‘Thatcherite’ competitive culture and fears about future job prospects.     

Philosophy of Science,Critical Thinking and Science Education

In this article I explore a case for the inclusion of some aspects of critical thinking and of philosophy of science within science education that appeals to two commonly accepted aims of science education. Although motivated by reading Harvey Siegel's Educating Reason (1988), and emerging from his discussion there, the aspects I explore go beyond that discussion.     

批判性思维:教育哲学的课程目标

哲学的批判精神决定了教育哲学的批判精神,教育哲学的批判精神和独特地位决定了批判性思维为教育哲学的课程目标。批判性思维的对象为教育生活的思想前提,包括事实判断前提和价值判断前提。以教育生活的思想前提为对象的批判性思维分为呈现、分析和重构思想前提等三个步骤。     

Five Critical Stances Towards Liberal Philosophy of Education in Britain

In this paper John White argues that there has been a decline in interest in and support for liberalism in British philosophy of education. He provides examples of work by leading figures in the field that demonstrates scepticism about the key liberal value of autonomy and offers an analysis of new influences in the field that have contributed to this decline. In particular he notes the increase of work from a religious perspective. Doubts are expressed about the practical relevance to education of some of these avenues of thought, and the suggestion is made that they cause those within the field to be more out of touch with society at large, in which liberal values have continued to be the major source of animation. The paper is followed by short responses from four philosophers of education whose work he criticises.     

论康德哲学的批判精神

哲学终究是绕不过康德这一关的,无论你是赞同他还是反对他。在过去一个漫长的世纪里,我们的所谓科学由于自甘愚昧而遭受惩罚,始终被停滞在实证主义乃至实用主义的牢笼里。而所谓的知识,也就始终被局限在感性的和悟性的两个层次上。在此意义上讲,由康德所奠定的那种高瞻远瞩的理性批判精神,是永远值得人们珍惜和深思的。     

论比较教育相对主义范式的变革与超越

范式的探索和争鸣始终是比较教育发展史上的主旋律。相对主义范式贯穿了比较教育方法论发展的始终。它的产生冲破了实证主义的羁绊,打破了民族中心的观念,但其自身也存在明显的缺陷。相对主义的历史演变与发展印证了它顽强的生命力,同时也证明了其不可能战胜实证主义成为永恒的真理。范式之间并非不可通约。范式间的争鸣促进了比较教育理论与方法的发展,并逐步走向视阈间的融合。     

Critical Pedagogy and the Praxis of Worldly Philosophy

This essay is a review of Peter McLaren's most recent work, Capitalists and Conquerors: A Critical Pedagogy Against Empire. The essay situates McLaren's work in the philosophical tradition of Marxist Humanism, with reference specifically to Raya Dunayevskaya and Paulo Freire. Despite invoking the work of Dunayevskaya as a foundation for his own project, McLaren does not offer a robust explication of this important thinker, nor of the Hegelian-Marxist discourse she embraced. Here, as in much of McLaren's work, the reader is not offered rigorous analysis of his philosophical assumptions. The dearth of such analysis, this essay argues, compromises the critical thrust of McLaren's work. In turn, the essay sketches a framework for unpacking the Marxist Humanist paradigm, and, thereby, rethinking the philosophical foundations of contemporary critical pedagogy.     

哲学与教育:论唐君毅的教育哲学

对唐君毅哲学进行教育哲学的考察有着现实的可能性和必要性。唐君毅认为,教育哲学是哲学在教育领域的具体运用,它包含教育知识论、教育存在论和教育价值论三个部分。在唐君毅看来,教育是世界(或"境界")的一部分,其本质是自我与外界(包括他人)感通的产物;而现实的教育现象的发生,则根源于人的教育意识。唐君毅认为,解决时代问题需要个体理想人格的培养,这是理想教育应该达成的目标,也是哲学的主要功能。在现代新儒家当中,唐君毅较早认识到了作为专门学术领域的教育哲学的独立性,他在教育存在论和教育认识论方面的诸多观点也颇有特色。     

An Objectivist Critique of Relativism in Mathematics Education

Many constructivists tag as `absolutist' references to mathematics as an abstract body of knowledge, and stake-out the moral high-ground with the argument that mathematics is not only utilised oppressively but that mathematics is, in-itself, oppressive. With much reference to Ernest's (1991) Philosophy of Mathematics Education this tag has been justified on the grounds that if mathematics is a social-cultural creation that is mutable and fallible then it must be social acceptance that confers the objectivity of mathematics. This paper argues that mathematics, albeit a social-cultural creation that is mutable and fallible, is a body of knowledge the objectivity of which is independent of origin or social acceptance. Recently, Ernest (1998) has attempted to express social constructivism as a philosophy of mathematics and has included the category of logical necessity in his elaboration of the objectivity of mathematics. We argue that this inclusion of logical necessity not only represents a U-turn, but that the way in which Ernest has included this category is an attempt to maintain his earlier position that it is social acceptance that confers the objectivity of mathematics.     

现代性教育的沉疴：批判哲学构境中的诊疗

＂真实＂的教育死了,当然教育的死亡并不意味着教育的灭亡。走向虚无主义、痞氓之性、文化荒漠、规范正义与符号自由之途的教育注定只能一死,或许,＂真实＂教育的埋葬之地又会是＂真实＂教育的重生之地。     

对相对主义道德教育理论基础的批判

在当代价值多元社会中,学校德育面临道德相对主义的挑战.相对主义道德教育理论建立在两个基础观念之上:一是伦理学上的相对主义观念和从这种相对主义推论出来的价值中立观念;二是自主个体自由选择的观念.然而,这两个基本观念不能成为道德教育的坚实基础.道德教育一方面要反对道德专制主义,另一方面要克服道德虚无主义,追寻、尊重和维护人类珍视的普遍价值,只有这样才能使人类更好地彼此理解,和平相处,共享人类文明.     

论哲学、哲学教育与心理素质教育

哲学是追求生活中的智慧。哲学教育的目的和功能在于使人学会思考、教人经得起痛苦和磨炼。在素质教育视域中,哲学教育是心理素质教育和人文素质教育。当前中国高校普遍存在以"非哲学"的方式进行所谓的哲学教育。哲学教育改革的关键在于以"哲学对话"的方式恢复哲学教育的应有功能。     

批判性回应式大学教学理念解读

布鲁克菲尔德的批判性回应式教学理念是当今大学教学理念的翘楚。善于做批判性回应的大学教师一方面受到自己深刻信念的引导,另一方面是在具体的学习环境中,面向具体的学习者,从而培养学习者的敏锐的批判性、勇于质询的思维模式。开展批判性回应式教学是大学教师走出生存困境的方法,也是时代的召唤,更是面向学习者的需求。与批判性回应式教学理念相一致,大学教师开展批判回应式教学一方面要有批判的眼光,另一方面要有回应学习者的理念。     

哲学视域中的教育及教育哲学的理性定位

哲学作为形上之知和形上之境相统一的基底的思维方式,发挥着为教育服务,即为科学的任务服务和为人生的意义服务的双重职能.哲学作为基底的思维方式,为教育提供了理论上的逻辑支撑点,表现为从认知框架和价值趋向两方面对教育产生的影响.具体地讲,不同的哲学范式决定了人类认知水平的差异,哲学的不同价值定位决定了不同时期的教育职能的差异;处于哲学视域中的教育,其学科特性可界定为实践性、反思性、批判性和价值性.     

Philosophy and Education

This paper argues that the anxieties being expressed in the UK and elsewhere about the lack of impact that philosophy now has on education are nothing other than the inevitable manifestation of a fundamental intellectual disorder deeply rooted in our contemporary understanding of the philosophy of education. In trying to substantiate this claim, the paper offers an historically informed philosophical analysis of how philosophy is related to education and education to philosophy that concludes by clarifying how any debates about the current problems and future development of the philosophy of education ought to proceed.