PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION BY NEL NODDINGS Chapter 9: Social and Political Philosophy Note: To click on links you must be in Slide Show mode
Mar 31, 2015
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATIONBY NEL NODDINGS
Chapter 9: Social and Political PhilosophyNote: To click on links you must be in Slide Show mode
THE CURRENT DEBATE
Focused on individuals Concerned with liberty
and equality Liberals-greater
emphasis on equality Conservatives-greater
emphasis on liberty Classical Liberalism
Click on link above
Focused on communities
How individuals are developed within communities
What individuals owe to their community
LiberalismCommunitarianis
m
IMMANUEL KANT(1724-1804)
Ethics is highly individualistic Liberated ethics from the
authority of the church, ruler, and community
Rely on individuals “good will” and logic
“Act that you can logically will that your act should become law; that is, act so that you can logically will that all others in similar situations will be bound to do what you have chosen”
RENE DESCARTES(1569-1650)
Emphasis on individual knowers working toward knowledge through systematic doubt
Knowledge liberated from authority and placed on a rational base
The “individual” is a generalized rational agent – not a real person with attachments, emotions, and community affiliations
KANT AND DESCARTES Individuals are a general mechanism of
practical reasoning The individual as an actual, embodied person
is irrelevant Complex people are reduced to a reasoning
machine Paradox: great emphasis on autonomy but
uniformity is expected for the products of that autonomy
KANT AND UTILITARIANISM Utilitarianism – assumes an impartial, individual
calculator Prioritizes the good (usually happiness) over the right
Increased theoretical and practical interest in individual rights
All attention focused on the rights of individuals Critics claim it has become difficult to talk about
the rights or legitimate demands of a community Strips people of their identifiable social
characteristics and reduces them to utilities Require thinking that is hyperrational and is not
the sort of thinking that most of us do in moral situations
JOHN RAWLS(1921-2002)
Locates himself in the Kantian tradition
“The original position” – people are fully rational, but have no idea what their actual positions in society will be; they must create the rules by which they will live
The “individualist paradox” – the individual is sacred, his or her rights are “settled,” and yet he or she is not recognizable as an individual
More on Rawls Click on link above
JOHN RAWLSTHEORY OF JUSTICE
Persons in “the original position” are behind a “veil of ignorance” – they know nothing of their own character or personality The “veil of ignorance”
Click on link; ignore the parts where he talks about video games
First Principle: each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others
Second Principle: social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage, and attached to positions and offices open to all
The underlying assumption: individuals exist before communities and that they enter a “social contract” when they form communities and societies
RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS
Certain rights are settled and not subject to political bargaining
Products of negotiation or a consensus of beliefs
Describe how certain ethical rules, customs, procedures arise from the moral life of communities
Prescribe how we should think and act in building and critiquing moral communities
Rawls Communitarians
THE COMMUNITARIAN ARGUMENT
The persons deliberating behind the veil of ignorance are not real people and what emerges are just hypotheses for real people to try out
Rawls and Kant rely too much on rationality and the procedures that come from purely logical processes
Real people are affected by things that are not strictly logical
JOHN DEWEY(1859-1952)
Rejected utilitarianism A mistake to claim one greatest
good Objected to the separation of
means and ends He is a “pragmatic liberal” or a
“democratic communitarian” “What the best and wisest
parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.”
JOHN DEWEY(1859-1952)
Has sympathies for just procedures but insists they be tested in real communities
Justice comes from consequences, not procedures that come before deliberation and reflection
Separates himself from the whole social contract
Does not agree with hierarchy, elitism, and exclusivity (common with communitarians)
Insisted on a dynamic view of community
People must be taught the values and mores of a community before they can communicate effectively
“Pragmatic Liberal”“Democratic
Communitarian”
JUSTICE & EQUALITY IN EDUCATION
Inequalities in physical resources Physical facilities Instruments Maps Books
Inequalities in relationships Children with no academically competent, loving
adults in their lives Inequalities in the curriculum
All the same curriculum?
INEQUALITIES IN PHYSICAL RESOURCES
Jonathan Kozol’s description of urban schools: “Savage Inequalities” –
windows boarded up, faulty heating systems, toilets that do not work, sewage backing up, paint peeling from walls and ceilings, crowded classrooms
Review of Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol Click on the link above
INEQUALITIES IN PHYSICAL RESOURCES
Arguments: A certain amount of inequality in society is
necessary to promote the general welfare We would not seek equality if it meant misery for
all of us When a substantial part of the population is
content, social change is very hard to effect
UTILITARIANISM & INEQUALITY
Some people can live in comparative misery, but does not allow huge numbers to suffer Does not allow a small number to suffer horribly for the
hedonistic happiness of many Does support a world in which most of the
inequalities described by Kozol exist There is only so much money to spend on
education How should it be spent to achieve the maximum benefit If children in community A are destructive to the school
building, why waste money making repairs The money would be more effectively spent on science
equipment and books for children in community B, who will not destroy what is bought for them
RAWLS & INEQUALITY “The intuitive idea is that the social order is not to
establish and secure the more attractive prospects of those better off unless doing so is to the advantage of those less fortunate.” Liberty and Equality (click on the link)
The “difference principle” – to support inequalities, one has to show that the extra funds invested in the education of well-off children benefits the least advantaged
First the conditions of the first principle have to be met – “each person has an equal right to the most extensive liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others”
More on the Theory of Social Justice Click on the above link
OPPONENTS OF RAWLS Financial resources do not determine the
quality of education Class size does not affect how teachers teach The low number of students taking college
preparatory courses in poor schools is a result of poor student attention and ability Not a sign of neglect or the limitation of a basic
liberty
What can be done to demonstrate that children living in schools described by Kozol are deprived of basic liberty?
DEWEY & INEQUALITY Face-to-face community life is key The problem with Dewey’s approach:
important political decisions are no longer made in such communities
Minorities and the poor are increasingly isolated in their own communities No communication between poor communities
and those making the political decisions We must act in direct communication with
one another
CRITICS OF DEWEY If nothing changes, how can we justify
pouring more money into poor schools? Money is not the answer
Dewey would respond “give money a chance” We should provide adequate resources Look for more than higher test scores when
assessing consequences Care advocates:
The conditions, not the money spent, are the real inequality
No defense for miserable conditions
INEQUALITIES IN BASIC RELATIONSHIPS
School reforms mention importance of family involvement, but very little about quality of relationships to help build healthy intellectual, moral, and emotional development of children
Two main reasons for this neglect: Theorist are reluctant to talk
about the quality of relationships in cultures other than their own
Traditional theories have concentrated on the public aspect of lives, not the private
IMPORTANCE OF RELATIONSHIPS
An impoverishment of spirit often accompanies financial poverty Working hard with little return; suffering
humiliation of being helped; feeling helpless Doubting that their children’s efforts in school
will ever pay off Poor parents become the living
representation of meaninglessness and helplessness
Teachers must represent whole persons, not just instructors
Students need to see that possibilities in education are real for their own future
RELATIONSHIPS & COMMUNITIES
Growing emphasis on importance of community
Care must be taken Communities can be self-serving, exclusive, and
demanding Communities can be coercive as well as
cooperative, unforgiving and punitive as well as protective
Community can be either good or bad, wise or foolish
Liberty and Community Click on link above
CURRICULAR INEQUALITIES Mortimer Adler’s Paideia
Proposal: All students should have the same
curriculum through 12th grade Same education for all is a
requirement of democracy Children have many different
interests and talents Academic, mechanical, artistic,
athletic, musical, etc. Society has organized schools
and their curriculum by class not by individual interests
CURRICULAR INEQUALITIES Michael Apple:
“The decision to define some groups’ knowledge as the most legitimate, as official knowledge, while other groups’ knowledge hardly sees the light of day, says something extremely important about who has the power in society.”
“…behind the educational justification for a national curriculum and national testing is an ideological attack that is very dangerous.”
In the interests of national competitiveness and the privileged classes, children of the poor will be more rigidly ranked and more firmly stuck in their lower places
DEWEY AND CURRICULUM The content of study is not nearly as
important as how it is learned and the amount of thought invested in learning
Dewey recognized the importance of some common learning (i.e. geography)
The “best and wisest parents” do not define equal education as identical education
Education organized around a few broad talents and interests and enhanced by a serious study of common human problems, stands the best chance of achieving a meaningful equality
CONCLUSION Today, the best the
school can do is provide: Adequate facilities
for all children Long-term caring
relationships that support intellectual development
Differentiated curricula