Postmodernism represents a way of thinking. At present, postmodernism is a very complicated ideological trend. Under the banner of postmodernism, there are many schools, such as new hermeneutics, deconstruction, western Marxism, feminism and analytical philosophy. Some scholars also divide postmodern philosophy into more than ten schools. These schools of thought are different, but they have one thing in common-pursuing a new "post-modern way of thinking". This way of thinking represents the unique perspective of many postmodern schools to understand the world. Its most prominent features are three aspects: reflection on modernity, pluralistic thinking and negative thinking.
1. Reflection on modernity
As far as ideological content is concerned, the reflection and criticism of western modernity is the common motivation and pursuit of many post-modernism thoughts. Generally speaking, from a philosophical point of view, modernity mainly refers to the rational principle and scientific spirit established since the Western Enlightenment. It originated from the Enlightenment in the late18th century, and was based on the human reason against divinity established in the Renaissance and the scientific and empirical spirit developed in17th and18th centuries. It emphasizes rationality, authority, identity, integrity, certainty and ultimate value. Postmodernists regard "postmodernity" as a tool to reflect on modernity. I, Hassan, completely summarized the characteristics of post-modernity in the post-modern turn-uncertainty, fragmentation, anti-unity, non-ego and immanence. Nicky Featherstone, on the other hand, thinks that post-modernity is related to the changes brought by post-cultural concepts, post-industrial society and information technology. It opposes the eternal and transcendental basis of thought and knowledge. Its significance lies in "uncertainty" and "decentralization"
The so-called post-modernity of post-modernism has two characteristics. One is anti-rationality. Postmodernism not only opposes scientific rationality; It also violates the ultimate value rationality. They criticize the authority of scientific rationality and the philosophy of pursuing the ultimate truth; Starting from the idea that people's life and experience are always individual, messy and uncoordinated, we advocate a non-uniform and individual understanding of value. The second is anti-centrality, anti-identity and anti-wholeness. This is the requirement put forward by deconstruction. The goal of deconstruction is to dismantle the integrity and identity of the structure with the central reference, and to judge the value of everything with the principles of difference and marginal. Derrida put forward the concept of "deconstruction", Lyotard questioned "meta-discourse" and put forward "fallacious reasoning", and Foucault chose madness to study human history, all of which embodied the principles of difference and marginality. The third is anti-certainty. Oppose the traditional philosophical epistemology to pursue the only truth conclusion, attach importance to the subjectivity and initiative of the knower and interpreter, and emphasize the multidimensional and dynamic nature of human cognitive achievements.
2. Diversified thinking
In the way of thinking, postmodernism affirms the diversity and richness of the world and the differences in people's understanding of everything. Lyotard put forward the concept of "dispute philosophy" while criticizing the western philosophical epistemology characterized by overall unity. And "the philosophy of dispute is to discuss the differences of rules, and dispute is a kind of silence to express differences." "The philosophy of disputes is to express differences and let the words of a few people speak; It preserves differences, not suppresses them; It pursues the pluralism of reason rather than a single reason. Postmodernism emphasizes pluralism, diversity, difference and difference. " Mero? Ponty also pointed out that no one can see six sides of a cube at the same time. In other words, with the change of time and space and the change of cognition, the result of human cognition is different. In the view of postmodernism, people's understanding of the real world can only be diverse and vague, and people should know and understand the world from multiple angles.
3. Negative thinking
As far as the nature of thinking is concerned, postmodernism focuses on criticizing and denying modernity, reflecting the tendency of denying thinking. Like me? Hassan called postmodernism a "debunking" movement, which vividly expressed this negative tendency of postmodernism. The negativity of postmodern thinking is not the same as nihilism. In fact, postmodernists pay too much attention to criticism and reflection to establish it. After postmodernism was introduced into the United States, it was divided and formed a destructive dimension of postmodernism and a constructive dimension of postmodernism. Among them, the school with constructive dimension emphasizes the inheritance of modernity.
Second, the relationship between people in the post-modern education picture
Among the most important representatives of postmodernism, except Lyotard, others, such as Lacan, Foucault and Derrida, have never specifically discussed education. However, Lacan's exposition of unconsciousness and university discourse, Foucault's pedigree analysis of "knowledge power" and Derrida's concept of "deconstruction" all have important implications for education. Lyotard pulled modern scientific knowledge down from the altar of authoritative truth by analyzing the post-modern knowledge, and described the picture of post-modern education and the relationship between teachers and students. Other figures, such as Jill and W. Dole, applied postmodern philosophical thinking to the study of educational problems and put forward specific educational viewpoints. Their thoughts reflect a unique tendency of educational thoughts. Lyotard believes that with the advent of postmodernism, there has been a revolution in the field of knowledge and the mission of intellectuals has changed. They have changed from an enlightener of knowledge to an expert in controlling information, and the essence of education has also changed: students are no longer "free elites" who care about society, but become listeners who acquire new knowledge before the terminal and become active information acquirers; The position of teachers will be replaced by computer information base. They are no longer spiritual instructors for students to preach and teach, but become experts in information control. Their main task is to teach students how to use terminals and new language rules. The central place of the school is no longer the classroom and library, but the database. "The database has become an encyclopedia of tomorrow, and all its information exceeds the capacity and acceptance of any learner. Database has become the nature of post-modern people. "
It can be seen that the essence of post-modern education called by Lyotard is very different from the meaning of general education. Education is more understood as the process of learners' active acquisition of information and self-education. In this process, learners' autonomy and diversified choices in the face of terminals become the key factors for their development. The role of teachers has changed a lot. On the one hand, in the process of acquiring knowledge, learners retreat behind the scenes and give guidance on methods and languages. On the other hand, because they are experts in information control, teachers' responsibility in developing and enriching the nature of the rich is more important in the era of "database becomes human nature", and because learners' independence and diversified choices are the basic factors of post-modern education, the technical requirements for teachers to assume their responsibilities are more complicated and superb than ever.
Third, the post-modern educational thought about difference and equality.
Postmodern thought embodies a new understanding of equality. Generally speaking, there are two levels of equality. First, it refers to the equality of homogeneity, that is, using the same standard to demand and evaluate diverse objects. The concept of equality under the domination of modernity is "homogeneous equality". "Modern enlightenment thought broke the hierarchical thought and replaced it with the idea of equality. Its core is the indifferent view of atomic society. " The second is the equality of heterogeneity, that is, different standards are used to require and evaluate different objects. Postmodernism advocates heterogeneous equality. "Postmodernism emphasizes the differences between people and advocates' de-authoritarianism',' de-centralization' and' demolition of structures'. Its core idea seems to be summarized as: recognizing the heterogeneous concept of equality. " British scholar j? Basri put forward "On Logical Parity", believing that anything that exists, great or ordinary, is true. Nothing is more real and real than other things. "Ontological equality" requires abandoning all discrimination and "accepting and accepting all differences". Lyotard put forward the concept of "fallacious reasoning", arguing that the purpose of human discourse communication is not to pursue consensus and unified standards, but to find paradoxes and errors through loose argumentation and pursue a heterogeneous standard. Therefore, in epistemology, it also embodies the characteristics of postmodernism replacing the philosophy of seeking truth and seeking common ground with the philosophy of difference.
Modernity-led education often overemphasizes unity, such as letting different learners learn the same content at the same time, in the same space and at the same speed, and examining and evaluating them with the same standards. In fact, the concept of "homogeneous equality" is used to treat learners with rich diversity, while the concept of difference equality recognizes and protects learners' rich diversity, which can better reflect the meaning of "fairness" and is therefore more efficient in educational activities. Advocating difference and equality will inevitably attach importance to the complexity of education. Under the control of the homogeneous concept of equality, the relationship in educational activities is simplified, the goals are the same, the evaluation standards are the same, the process is strictly standardized and scientific, and the results of the development of the educated are single; Even in some forms of education, the process of people's perfect development is simplified as the process of mastering knowledge and developing intelligence, while the development of those aspects that can best express people's diversity, such as emotion, will, motivation and interest, is largely ignored or consciously restricted; However, under the control of the concept of difference and equality, the relationship in educational activities is extremely complicated, and the development of the educated has many possibilities, multidirectional and selective. Because, strictly speaking, how many learners an educator faces, how many different relationships should be established, how many different influences should be exerted, and how many different evaluations should be accepted.
Fourthly, the post-modern educational thought doubts that "pedagogy is a science"
Starting from the thinking tendency of denying modernity, postmodernism denies the methodological tendency of using scientific methods to study educational problems since the 20th century, and opposes the study of pedagogy as science or scientific knowledge. People think that education is influenced by different cultural backgrounds, not by the principle of universal reason. Education does not pursue the identity and authority advocated by science, but emphasizes the difference and marginal research with cultural differences as the background. Jill is an important representative of post-modern education scholars. He put forward the ideas of "marginal pedagogy" and "critical pedagogy". It is emphasized that pedagogy should "respect cultural differences and use cultural criticism to create a new form that crosses the edge-cultural differences in educational research."
Here, postmodernism puts forward an important issue that must be considered, that is, the relationship between the scientific nature of pedagogy and the cultural character of pedagogy. In order to adapt to the culture and living environment of different nationalities, pedagogy must pursue differences, and absolute differences deviate from the scientific process of pedagogy pursued by modern education. Who is more important and who is more basic? What kind of relationship and tension should they maintain? Post-modern pedagogy, which advocates cultural differences and cultural criticism, provides us with a new perspective to think about these issues.
Fifth, the deconstruction of "giving" by post-modern educational thought.
On the relationship between thinking and existence, postmodernism has a unique understanding of the relationship between people and the world and between people. Through the criticism of reason, the transcendental and self-evident absolute truth in western philosophy and the bondage of various "endowments" to people are completely denied. Postmodern philosophy "replaces the traditional established world concept with an unknown, uncertain, complex and pluralistic world concept." In fact, in a "given" world, the space for people to choose and create is greatly reduced, while in this unknown and uncertain world, people's development and destiny are no longer guided and regulated by the self-evident given truth, but depend on people's own choice and creation.
Lacan put forward and analyzed four basic knowledge discourses, namely, university discourses, master discourses, hysterical discourses and psychoanalytic discourses. Among them, university discourse represents a modern educational environment, in which learners are the recipients of some dominant or all-round system or knowledge system. Some people clearly compare this system to a "purely impersonal system", pointing out that this system cannot take care of individual subjective consciousness and desires. Individuals can only act and think by playing, copying or expanding the system. In other words, individual activities are difficult to be creative, which is a given educational environment. Lacan pointed out that this kind of "university discourse" can only be resisted and subverted through "analyst discourse". In other words, it should be replaced by an education system that attaches importance to individual unconscious state and takes desire as the driving force of behavior. Some scholars have pointed out that there are too many "given" things in education under the control of modernity, and the value of postmodernism lies in making it more possible to disintegrate this "given" and making education critical, skeptical and appropriately uncertain.
6. The constructiveness, metaphor and self-organization of post-modern educational thought.
First of all, postmodern curriculum is constructive in nature. In fact, this idea is associated with the disintegration of "giving". Postmodernism requires the disintegration of "given" world and its replacement with "generated" world, and "generation" is construction. The so-called constructiveness of post-modern curriculum means that the curriculum is not preset, but is composed of the behavior and interaction of curriculum participants. The course is not closed and fixed, but open and adjustable, and changes with the activity situation. Considering that Doyle is deeply influenced by Dewey's pragmatism, we can feel the shadow of Dewey's "experience interaction principle" and "activity curriculum" from his curriculum view.
Secondly, in the way of curriculum implementation, postmodern curriculum attaches importance to metaphor and emphasizes self-organization. Bruner once thought that curriculum expression has two ways of thinking: logical, analytical and scientific, and metaphorical, descriptive and existential. Between the two, postmodernism pays attention to metaphor. Metaphor is explanatory, productive, open and enlightening. It enables learners to participate in the dialogue with teachers and texts and gain a new and deeper understanding. Dole believes that metaphor can stimulate the dialogue among teachers, texts and learners more than logic in curriculum learning.
Post-modern pedagogy takes the concept of self-organization as its core. Self-organization, also known as "autocatalysis", originally originated from the dissipative structure theory formed in the process of natural science research. Dissipative structure theory holds that a stable and orderly structure can exist in an open system far from equilibrium. Under certain conditions, if there is a nonlinear mechanism in the system, the unbalanced system can realize its own development in a new order and balance direction by exchanging material and energy with the outside world and relying on its own structural adjustment or the movement of elements. Deeply influenced by natural science theories such as uncertainty principle, nonlinear viewpoint and dissipative structure theory, Dole applied the concept of self-organization to his curriculum method. In Dole's curriculum method, the key factor of self-organization is "disturbance", that is, under the influence of "disturbance", when the system (such as the internal state of learners) has problems and is in a chaotic and uncertain state, it will organize itself; This uncertain state (disturbance) often provides power for the further development of the system. Here, Dole's so-called "uncertain state" is very similar in nature to Piaget's description of the conflict or imbalance in the development of children's cognitive structure. In the process of self-organization, "interference" may become a positive factor or a negative factor. The following conditions must be met for "interference" to become a positive factor: (1) relaxed learning atmosphere; (2) Learners are not under the pressure of "quick success and instant benefit"; (3) Sufficient time; (4) Discuss with learners from their perspective.
Seven, the enlightenment of post-modern educational thought.
Since modern times, the process of China's education pursuing modernization is actually a process of learning from the West and pursuing modernity. Some scholars have clearly pointed out: "In the past hundred years, one modernization movement after another in China is nothing more than establishing a modern civilized order in China, or establishing a modernity in China." In particular, the requirement of "scientific democracy" put forward during the May 4th Movement became the symbol of China's pursuit of modernity. And "science and democracy" is the most important symbolic value of the European Enlightenment, that is, the most important connotation of "Enlightenment Plan" or "Modernity Plan".
However, the development of modernity in China is not sufficient. Compared with the Renaissance in Europe, the May 4th Enlightenment was not thorough. The spirit of science, rationality and democracy is far from universal in China. Therefore, we should keep a clear understanding of postmodernism, which takes subversion and disintegration of modernity as its own responsibility. On the one hand, China's traditional culture and education emphasize authority, unity and center, while modern thinking emphasizes differences and pluralism, which is valuable in overcoming this drawback. It is in this sense that many scholars affirm postmodern thinking. But what needs to be considered is that the authority and center emphasized in traditional culture and education are different in nature from the authority and center of modernity reflected by western postmodern thinking. The former is the authority associated with feudal autocracy, "great unity", "paternalism" and "dignity of teaching", while the latter refers to the authority of science and reason, representing different stages and levels of human thought and cultural development respectively; For the former, it has become the shackles of the development of social culture and education in China for thousands of years, and it must be criticized and denied; For the latter, it is our weapon to criticize the former for more than a hundred years and even in the future. It is necessary to realize the modernization of the country and society, and it should not be blindly denied. On the other hand, in the process of modernization, contemporary China, as an exogenous country, is going through a dual process: industrialization and building an information society (or a post-industrial society). Daniel? Bell's post-industrial society theory shows that industrial society is a paradise of modernity and post-industrial society is a paradise of post-modernity. The dual process experienced by contemporary China gives us the opportunity to think about modernity and post-modernity at the same time, which requires us to face and complete dual tasks: first, to develop modernity, enlighten and change traditions, and realize the modernization of science, technology and education; The second is to reflect on modernity, overcome the one-sidedness in the development of western modernity, and pursue completely localized modernity.
At present, even in the western countries where it originated, post-modernism is far from becoming the mainstream thought, and there is still fierce confrontation between modernity and post-modernity. In the social and cultural structure, the influence of postmodernism on society, culture and education is limited to the ideological and cultural level, and has not yet constituted a major impact on the institutional level. Of course, at present, there is no possibility of affecting the reform at the institutional level in China. However, we can't deny the theoretical significance of postmodern thinking as a unique way of thinking because it is very different from our traditional way of thinking. Especially, contemporary China is in the period of social transformation, and the development of society, culture and education needs more selectivity, diversity and creativity. Postmodern thinking can give us rich enlightenment.
Generally speaking, China's educational modernization should transcend postmodern thinking. In a sense, postmodernism is a transcendence of modernity, and this transcendence is often extreme. However, its diversity, richness, difference, complexity and uncertainty are indispensable to contemporary education in China. Post-modern educational thought provides us with a new perspective to criticize and reflect on modern education based on modernity. On the basis of analyzing and criticizing the extreme one-sidedness of post-modernism thought, if we consider and integrate the substantive and reasonable content of post-modernism education thought in the process of educational modernization, it may provide a huge activity space for individuals (including educators and educatees) to express their unique personality and exert their creativity, which will have far-reaching significance for educational reform. In this respect, the thoughts of German philosopher jurgen habermas are very enlightening to us.