In fact, reformism was born at the beginning of the progressive education movement.
Before Dewey founded the experimental school of the University of Chicago, some scholars were making another effort. Compared with Dewey, they pay more attention to social change.
For example, in 1889, jane addams founded Hull House for poor immigrants in Chicago. On the one hand, it teaches employment skills, helps the poor find jobs and improves their living conditions; On the other hand, jane addams and the faculty of the school actively participate in local social reform activities, and any social reformer can participate in the activities of the Hull workshop for the poor. In this way, the Hull workshop for the poor has become a public place for people to express their social views. In the evening and Sunday, liberals, socialists, anarchists, communists and others gather here to exchange their ideas.
Of course, the wing of progressivism represented by jane addams and his colleagues has not developed into the mainstream of the progressive education movement. Especially after the establishment of 19 19 progressive education association, the progressive school mainly focuses on school education, and the wing of children's center has a greater influence. In this way, the two forces of caring about social reform and caring about children's center in progressive education are respectively
In the 1920s, the Teachers College of Columbia University was in its heyday. In addition to Dewey, other famous figures of progressive education have also gathered one after another. Among these people, Harold Lager, William Cappucci, John Childs and George Kantz often meet to form a discussion group headed by Cappucci to discuss schools and schools. Let them better understand and guide social changes and establish an ideal society. It should be said that these people are important figures in progressive education. However, it is the members of this group as the core that led to the rise of reformist educational thoughts in the 1930s.
2.reformism in the 1930s
From 1929, the United States first fell into economic crisis. As the global economic crisis continues, some progressive educators who originally advocated children's centers began to think more about how to make schools contribute to building a society without economic crisis. They believe that the ideal school advocated by progressive education can not solve the social problems during the economic crisis, and progressive education must turn. That is, from the education that emphasizes individual center and individualism to the education that emphasizes social center and social transformation, from caring for personal growth to caring for social transformation. Undoubtedly, this shift of focus was the most profound foundation for reformism and progressivism to part ways in the 1930s.
The formation of reformist philosophy: Generally speaking, the formation of reformist philosophy can be traced back to the discussion group headed by Ke Qubo of Columbia University. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, members of this group published many articles and works on how to build a more ideal new society through education. From 1938 to 0934, Ke Qubo compiled articles written by members of this group into a book, The Frontier of Education.
Kanz's book Challenging Schools to Establish a New Social Order laid a theoretical foundation for reformism. In this book, Kanz emphasizes that schools should be the center of building a new society to eliminate poverty, war and racism. To make America more just and magnificent than it is now, education must play a role.
Characteristics of reformism in the 1930s: One of the characteristics of reformism in the 1930s was its radical viewpoint, so it was also called "frontline thinker". Another feature is that among the reformists in the 1930s, not only educational theorists, but also many educational administrative departments and school administrators are exploring social-oriented educational plans.
3, S reformism 50
In the 1950s, it was Bremerd who gave the remodeling a new look, attracted people's attention and brought great vitality to the remodeling. Some scholars believe that Brameld laid the foundation of remolding, and some people call him "the father of remolding".
Brameld has published a series of works. In An Educational Philosophy in Urgent Need of Reform, he expressed the origin and inheritance of his reformist thought and progressivism. He believes that social change can be attributed to cultural crisis, and the purpose and method of education must be reformed. To solve the current cultural crisis, education should pay attention to methods, purposes, processes and results.
Second, the ideological basis of reformist educational thought
The idea of realizing social transformation through education is not uncommon in history. For example, Plato's exposition on the relationship between politics and education, individual and society in the Republic can also be regarded as a reformist thought, because its purpose is to realize a "philosophy king" who manages the country through education. The reformism we are discussing today mainly refers to an educational trend of thought that originated in the United States in the 1930s. It is different from history.
(A) the philosophical basis
1, ontology
Like progressivism, reformism also thinks that human experience comes first.
Difference: the experience mentioned by reformism mainly refers to group experience, not personal experience emphasized by progressivism. In addition, unlike progressivism, which emphasizes "present", reformism believes that the past, present and future are inseparable, and the future is also a part of ontology and a general feature of existence.
* Reformism pays more attention to group experience than personal experience. In the reformist view, individuals are subordinate to social groups, so individuals are bound to be restricted by groups, and groups are decisive factors for individuals. What is the so-called group experience? Brameld believes that group experience is a cultural reality, which includes the conflict and consistency of social groups, their loyalty, obligations, ideals, relations with other groups, and the historical development of the whole society.
* The future is a part of reality and a universal feature of existence. In the reformist view, time is a continuous movement from the past to the present, and then affects the future. Among them, it is very important for the future ideal, necessary for understanding the past and the present, and has real planning and transformation power for the present.
2. Epistemology
In epistemology, reformism and progressivism have many similarities, especially Dewey's point of view. Reformism holds that knowledge comes from experience. Ideas, concepts, theories and other measures to transform the environment are instrumental things, and their value depends on whether they can be successful. Moreover, reformism does not recognize absolute ultimate truth.
The difference between them is that (1) the starting point of knowledge and truth is the society that pursues the goal, not the individual. (2) In terms of knowledge acquisition, reformism thinks that the experiment and "problem-solving" methods advocated by progressivism have their shortcomings. Among them, Brameld's "social consensus" method of exploring truth is representative.
The so-called social consensus does not involve the process of understanding a certain fact, but only involves how to plan the ideal society in the future. Social consensus requires group members to prove the proposed future goals and produce evidence. Evidence can be personal direct experience or indirect experience such as science and history. The process of confirmation is carried out in groups and requires four stages: everyone produces evidence that meets the needs of social goals; Communicate in open discussion; Through communication and discussion, reach an agreement within the group; Action to test the plan in society.
In other words, the truth depends on the consent of as many members as possible in the group and whether to act according to this consent. The goal and means agreed by the group are the truth sought.
3. axiology
In axiology, reformism is more in line with Dewey's values. Dewey believes that value is closely related to the existing situation, and the value under different existing backgrounds is also different. The reformists accept Dewey's view that value is not eternal and absolute, but a social goal determined by "social consistency", and value will change with social changes.
Anthropological basis
The economic crisis that swept across the world in 1930s not only triggered the criticism of progressivism by eternalism, essentialism and reformism, but also inspired anthropologists to analyze educational problems by using anthropological research results and methods, which had a great influence on reformism.
The reason why reformism is consistent with anthropology's educational view is mainly because they have the same view on human nature and the relationship between man and society.
1, the concept of human nature
Anthropologists generally don't like to use the very vague concept of "humanity". They don't care about human nature in the natural state, but pay more attention to the relationship between people and culture.
Revelation:
Anthropological point of view holds that culture is not only the creation of human beings, but also the condition of human life.
Anthropological research shows that when a baby is born, it doesn't matter whether it is good or bad, nor does it have the ability to effectively participate in social processes. On the contrary, babies have infinite plasticity.
Children who grow up in the same society have great similarities, but they are very different from children in other societies. The reason is that different societies have different cultures, that is, different societies have different social goals for children and adopt different methods to socialize children.
Anthropology points out that all social structures have the same purpose under the same social and cultural background.
2, the relationship between people and society
It is wrong to assume that education is mainly the basis for transmitting cultural ideas. This assumption holds that society must adapt the younger generation to the existing society. Reformists believe that education must break this traditional assumption. Because the living environment of the younger generation is different from that of their parents, if education is mainly to adapt children, then children will not care about change, will not devote themselves to improving the existing environment, and society will not develop.
Taking education as the practice of transmitting culture leads people to fail to fully understand the relationship between their lives and the whole society, and their value choices are one-sided, unreasonable and narrow. The highest value of a person is that his innate potential ability is brought into full play. Therefore, the most adequate education is to fully liberate individual creativity and make individuals full of confidence in their creativity.
The resistance of individual self-realization in society comes not only from individuals, but also from social, political and economic environment. Therefore, to make people realize themselves and live a better life, we must transform society.
Individuals are closely related to society and cannot be regarded as irrelevant and antagonistic to each other. At the same time, it emphasizes the individual's freedom to deal with the existing culture and the individual's ability to change the existing culture.
People can not only understand the environment, but also transform it. In order to realize the purpose of understanding and transforming the environment, people must establish the belief that man and science about man are two useful resources for human beings to achieve the highest cultural achievements.
Third, the basic idea of reformist education thought
The most fundamental idea of reformism is that society needs constant transformation and change, which involves the transformation and change of education, and the realization of social transformation needs the application of education.
Educational purpose
The main purpose of education is to promote social change and design and realize an ideal society.
There is a fundamental difference between reformism and progressivism in the relationship between school and society. According to reformism, progressive education is a tool to help people adapt to society, not a tool to transform society. The primary task of education is not to help people adapt to society, but to directly promote the continuous change of society.
* Kantz's point of view: In 1930s, people thought that schools should devote themselves to social transformation rather than personal development, and the value and goal of education originated from society.
Lager and Childs also advocate that education should further understand its social responsibility.
Brameld made a systematic and complete exposition: the standard to measure the appropriateness of any educational theory is to see whether it suits the needs of its own times. Brameld attributed the social changes after World War II to the cultural crisis. He believes that at the time of crisis, essentialism, progressivism and eternalism popular in the United States at that time are not applicable, and the only thing that can solve the problems in the crisis era is reformist philosophy.
Education has two tasks: one is to undertake the task of transmitting a certain culture; Second, education must undertake the task of correcting, improving and changing culture. In times of crisis, education plays a more prominent and important role in changing culture.
(2) Courses
Reformists believe that school curriculum should include all kinds of social problems.
Progressivism advocates curriculum based on children's interests and needs, aiming at providing children with creative opportunities for self-expression and growth. It has not adapted to the needs of social transformation. What is urgently needed in the course is to make students realize the various political, economic and social forces at work and see the chaos and social instability brought about by the uncontrolled capitalist economy.
* Bramel systematically put forward the curriculum theory:
He criticized the structure and content of the popular curriculum at that time. He thought that the popular course at that time (1) was an outdated "egg basket" course and "an incoherent hodgepodge of teaching materials" in terms of structure. The course is divided into independent disciplines, and each discipline is divided into several incoherent units. For ordinary students, every subject is
Curriculum view: curriculum is the carrier to realize future social changes. The curriculum design of general education and general education "must make the curriculum structure have meaningful consistency" Because in Brameld's view, people's tasks and goals are the most important in education, and "unity of meaning" means that curriculum goals must be unified in the sense of social transformation, and the core of this unity is people.
# Two characteristics of reformist curriculum view:
(1) advocates students to participate in society as much as possible, and society is the laboratory for students to seek solutions to problems.
Reformism holds that traditional classroom teaching is valuable, but it is more important to let students apply what they have learned to society. At the same time, students can learn a lot from society. Courses should have centripetal force and centrifugal force. The so-called centripetal force means that schools and communities focus their attention on some common problems. The so-called centrifugal force means that the activities of teachers and students should not be confined to schools, but should be extended to communities. It is this dynamic relationship between schools and communities that can realize cultural change.
(2) Pay attention to a wide range of social problems.
For students, school curriculum can not avoid contemporary social problems, and social problems at home and abroad should be reflected in school curriculum. School curriculum should pay special attention to social problems, such as urban problems, crime problems, traffic congestion, family division, environmental pollution and housing congestion. Moreover, in order to give students the background knowledge to understand and solve these problems, the school curriculum should also include the following topics: industrialization, media, automatic control, ecology and so on.
(3) Educational methods
Reformism was critical of most teaching methods used in schools at all levels at that time. It believes that the traditional teaching method is a kind of "hidden course", whose function is to make students adapt to the pre-existing life mode, strengthen the traditional values and status quo, and resist changes, but teachers know nothing about it. They maintain the status quo through their own educational methods and processes and unconsciously become defenders of traditional values and concepts.
The reformists believe that education is a tool for human beings to achieve a specific goal, and the educational goal must be unified to solve the cultural crisis, achieve higher cultural achievements, and make students take a positive attitude towards this real educational goal. Therefore, the methods and processes of education should help to develop students' ability of analysis, criticism and decision-making, which can only be achieved through democratic educational practice.
Reformers have different views on the choice of specific educational methods. Here are two main educational methods:
1, instillation method
* Kantz advocates indoctrination. Dare he establish a new social order in the school? To achieve the educational goal, education should not only have the courage to face up to social problems and the reality of life, but also establish an organic connection between schools and society, and can no longer regard forced acceptance and indoctrination as a scourge as before.
He pointed out that from the essence of education, it is impossible to exclude forced acceptance, and all education contains a lot of forced acceptance. The school emphasizes that the key points cannot be impartial. Schools must standardize the attitude of the educated and even force them to accept some ideas. Because it is impossible for schools to impart all the knowledge to students, when teachers, courses, school organizations and teaching methods make choices, they show the bias and emphasis of the choosers. Therefore,
* There are also some reformists who disagree with forced acceptance and indoctrination. They believe that students should be persuaded to transform the society in which they live, and this theory should be subordinate to the school. The responsibility of teachers is to convince students that the reformist solution is correct, reliable and necessary, to understand the ideal of the future society ideologically, and to undertake the obligation to realize this ideal.
Brameld emphasized that the solution to the cultural crisis must not be forced acceptance and indoctrination, but through the democratic decision-making process. To this end, he put forward the "subjective defensible principle". In other words, in the process of freely testing those divergent views, educators should test all kinds of evidence. Determine various alternatives and finally make a decision through democratic means, which is not based on dogma or arbitrary authority, but on the conclusion of scientific research.
2. "Social consistency"
Brameld believes that the purpose of democracy can only be achieved through the democratic process of "social unity", and the process of school education should become the process of democratic practice. He divides students' learning process into four aspects, which is characterized by: starting from learners' experience, reaching "unanimous" opinions through various studies, and such unanimous opinions are oriented to future goals.
Four aspects of learning activities to achieve "social consistency": learning through evidence; Learning through communication; Agree to study; Learning by action.
* Learning through evidence. Evidence learning must be carried out in a specific learning situation, that is, students are stimulated by their own interest in seeking goals. Evidence includes direct experience and indirect experience, in which direct experience includes not only children's personal experience, but also the group's direct experience. In addition, unlike progressivism, reformism attaches importance to the indirect experience provided by science, history and cross-cultural research.
* Learning through communication. Learning through communication and learning through evidence cannot be completely separated. Learning through evidence includes personal direct experience and group direct experience. So there is communication as well as learning through evidence.
Communication is the characteristic of the democratic practice process: (1) Communication is not only transmitted from top to bottom through textbooks, handouts and pictures. And students are not just recipients of information. The process of communication is two-way, and teachers and students learn from each other in communication. (2) Communication methods are not limited to classroom teaching. Speech, writing and artistic performance are all optional expressions. (3)
* Agree to study. On the basis of collecting and exchanging evidence, groups can learn by agreeing. The ideal goal of this kind of learning is to reach an agreement on empirical evidence. Whether an agreement can be reached depends on the quantity, quality and exchange of empirical evidence.
* Learning by doing. Achieving the agreed goals needs to be tested and confirmed by actions. Therefore, schools should turn the agreed goals into actions and provide opportunities for this transformation. Learning through action includes immediate or delayed action and direct and indirect action. For example, the agricultural class decided to plant fruit trees in the yard, which can be implemented immediately, but some decisions cannot be acted directly at once. Such as housing reform, housing reform, and so on.
(D) the role of schools
There is a profound difference between reformism and progressivism in the role of schools.
Dewey's point of view: schools cannot be the creators of social order. In Dewey's view, the improvement of society is not completely influenced by personal subjective factors, nor is it completely influenced by personal factors. Society is composed of individuals, and the improvement of society depends on the improvement of people's behavior first, and then the improvement of people's behavior is transformed into the improvement of social system and material environment. Moreover, personal life is not static, so there is no fixed goal to achieve in society.
Reformism criticized Dewey's point of view, thinking that Dewey's point of view is light on purpose and heavy on process. Reformism holds that schools can transform culture and create a new social order. Therefore, the school must devote itself to this goal from now on and play its role in cultural transformation.
1, schools are tools for social transformation.
Reformism holds that without the wisdom of cooperation and the cooperation among members of society, it is impossible to transform the existing culture, and it is also impossible to talk about a perfect culture. In order to achieve the goal of cultural transformation, the task of the school is to emphasize the cultivation of human social characteristics and develop students' cooperative spirit.
As a tool of social transformation, schools should make students realize the practical difficulties of social transformation, encourage them to be loyal to the ideal of social transformation and fight for it, and at the same time let students realize that his personal choice is not completely free.
2. Schools should implement democratic management.
The reason why schools should implement democratic management is to ensure the democratic process of cultivating students on the one hand, and to make schools an institution that encourages criticism and opposition on the other hand, excluding the control of business owners and government officials.
School management should not be a top-down business management model, and school management organizations should not be composed of members who dominate society. On the contrary, people should elect members of state and local education committees, and experts involved in the education process should implement education policies in detail. At the same time, all committees in the school must practice the principle of "social consistency", and education policies, school plans, student behavior norms and the improvement of teaching quality must follow the principle of "social consistency"
(5) Teachers' responsibilities
Reformism requires teachers to play an exemplary role in transforming society. Teachers should not only convince students to establish the belief of transforming society and create conditions for students to go out of school and study in society, but also become role models and demonstrations for students and play a democratic role.
Teachers should be liberated from the traditional concept of teachers' role, dare to participate in political activities and play their role in social change. Teachers should be at the forefront of the struggle to ensure that they and students really participate in democratic politics.