Education and Pedagogy in Cultural Change
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Education and Pedagogy in Cultural Change In a period of rapid cultural shifts, changing populations and new ideologies take hold and reshape political agendas and norms in the West. It is against this backdrop that Wolfgang Brezinka presents his controversial take on the impact these changes have had on the public education landscape. Offering his views on the historical context behind these cultural shifts, Brezinka argues for the development of moral and values education in the West and discusses the conflicting roles migration, divergent ideologies, and other fac- tors have had to play. Focusing on pedagogy and policy, Brezinka puts forth a provocative perspective on the relationship between pluralism, tradition, and the future of education. Wolfgang Brezinka is Professor Emeritus of Educational Science at the Uni- versity of Konstanz, Germany. He is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and holds honorary doctorates from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and the Catholic University of Milan, Italy. Routledge Research in Education For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com 188 Citizenship Education in America A Historical Perspective Iftikhar Ahmad 189 Transformative Learning and Teaching in Physical Education Edited by Malcolm Thorburn 190 Teaching Young Learners in a Superdiverse World Multimodal Approaches and Perspectives Edited by Heather Lotherington & Cheryl Paige 191 History, Theory and Practice of Philosophy for Children International Perspectives Edited by Saeed Naji and Rosnani Hashim 192 Teacher Professional Knowledge and Development for Reflective and Inclusive Practices Edited by Ismail Hussein Amzat and Nena P. Valdez 193 Contemplative and Artful Openings Researching Women and Teaching Susan Casey Walsh 194 Education and Pedagogy in Cultural Change Wolfgang Brezinka Selected Books by Wolfgang Brezinka Philosophy of Educational Knowledge Basic Concepts of Educational Science Belief, Morals, and Education Socialization and Education Educational Aims, Educational Means, Educational Success Education in a Society Uncertain of Its Values Education and Pedagogy in Cultural Change Wolfgang Brezinka Translated by James Stuart Brice First published in English 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Wolfgang Brezinka to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Translated by James Stuart Brice Published in German by Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich, 2003 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-08714-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-11065-3 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents Foreword to the English Edition ix 1 Education and Tradition 1 Man as a Traditional Being 1 Cultural Abundance, Cultural Mixing, Cultural Struggle 2 Care for Normative Orientation Goods 3 2 “Values Education” in a Society Uncertain of Its Values 9 Cultural Crisis—Valuation Crisis 10 “Values Education”: A New Name for Old and Enduring Educational Tasks 13 “Basic Values Education” as a Task of Public Schools 15 Religious-Worldview and Moral Education as the Task of Parents 17 Methods of “Values Education” 19 3 Force, State and Education 23 Force Concepts and “Force” as a Slogan 24 Strategic Use of the Theme of “Force” for Political Purposes 26 Causes of Community-Harmful Behavior 29 Means of Helping in the Domain of “Values” 31 4 Not the “End of Education” but “Courage for Good Education”! 39 Critique of the Slogan “End of Education” 39 Good and Bad Education 40 Good Education: Difficult but Necessary 41 What Does “Courage for Education” Mean? 42 vi Contents 5 Educational Aims: Constancy, Change, Future Prospects 45 Relationships Among Society, Culture and Educational Aims 45 Constancy of Educational Aims 46 Change of Educational Aims 48 On the Future of Educational Aims 50 6 Educational Aims in a Society Uncertain of Its Values 53 Crisis of Normative Culture 54 Dispute Over Educational Aims 54 Ways out of the Crisis: Enlightenment, Critique, Communities of Conviction 57 7 Moral Education in a Pluralistic Society: Cultural Conditions for Success and Limitations 61 Education in pre-modern and modern societies 62 Universal Conditions for the Creation of Virtues 63 Over-Valuing Specifically Reason-Oriented Education as a Determinant of Morality 64 Lack of Religious Preconditions and External Support by Like-Minded Persons 65 Division of Labor Between State and Non-State Providers of Education 67 8 “General Education” (Allgemeinbildung): Meaning and Limits of an Ideal 71 History and Meanings of the Slogan “General Education” (Allgemeinbildung) 71 General Education (or General Personal Culture) as a Shared Basic Ideal 74 Constant and Variable Elements of Basic Ideals 74 Basic Knowledge, Basic Ability, Basic Virtues 75 Values Change and Contemporary Revisions of Basic Ideals 76 Cultural-Technical Basic Competence and Practical Orientation Knowledge for Life 77 Moral Competence 79 Group-Specific Special Ideals as Supplements 80 Contents vii 9 Liberal Arts and Education: Clarifying Their Relationships in an Individualistic Society 83 Meanings of the Word “Education” (Bildung) 83 On the Meaning of Teaching Materials for Cultural-Knowledge in the School System 86 Scientification of Liberal Arts Subjects in Secondary Schools 86 Limited Usefulness of the Liberal Arts for “Education” 88 Possible Disadvantages of Cultural Studies for “Education” 91 Crisis of Ideals, School Crisis and the Responsibility of Cultural Scholars 94 10 Rise and Crisis of Scientific Pedagogy 99 Rise: From Long Neglect to Limitless Expansion 101 Crisis: Disproportion Between Expectations and Performance 105 Expansion Instead of Consolidation of Pedagogy 106 Orientation Dispute and Identity Crisis 107 Proliferation of the Subject and Over-Specialization 109 Vulnerability to Worldview and Political Partisanship 111 Negative Consequences for Developing Young Scientific Talents 112 11 Expectations of Educators and the Imperfection of Pedagogy 117 Introduction of Pedagogy as a Useful Educational Theory for Educational Practitioners 117 Disappointed Expectations and Doubts About the Practical Usefulness of Pedagogy 118 Practical Pedagogy and Scientific Pedagogy 120 Consequences of the Scientification of Pedagogy for Training Educators 123 Rehabilitation of Practical Pedagogy 125 12 Turnaround: “From Pedagogy to Educational Science”— Experiences with an Ambiguous Program 129 On the Slogan’s Historical Development 129 On the Starting Position and My Motivation 130 On “Desired” and “Undesired Results” 132 viii Contents 13 Crisis and Future of Pedagogy as a University Subject 135 From Minor Subject to Major Subject 135 Illusions About Scientific Pedagogy 137 Crisis, Chaos, Self-Critique 138 What Sort of Pedagogy Do We Need? 144 Bibliography 151 Previous Publication Information 169 Person Index 173 Foreword to the English Edition In the last century, most peoples’ life conditions changed greatly and at a steadily increasing rate. In this situation, they experienced progress, improvements and facilitation, but also losses and impediments. On the one side, almost everyone has more liberties, more possibilities for experience, learning and action than in the past. On the other side, it has become much more difficult to find one’s way in a now vastly expanded life space. Abun- dance and the rapid flood of ever changing impressions impede orientation and the choice of the essential. Extensive liberation from dependence on traditions and bearers of authority and the social controls of community- linked life styles also cause uprooting, isolation and insecurity. It seems inevitable that customs and life forms will continue to change, and people will be forced to abandon almost everything traditional, accus- tomed, familiar, in order—it is fashionably said—to stay “future compat- ible”. Nothing seems at all certain, permanent and trustworthy. Under the pressure of the incessant rapid change that impinges on us, most of what previously appeared worth holding to and passing on is being devalued and forgotten. Since a person’s inner security depends on relatively stable supports in his life space, it is threatened by all too rapid cultural change. This holds especially when changes occur in norm-giving cultural goods such as reli- gion, worldviews, understandings of history, morality, law, customs and art. In these domains, a high rate of change—combined with cultural diversity and competition to supersede, devaluate and reevaluate the past—leaves us uncertain and vulnerable. This burdens adults and greatly complicates the education of children and youth. Rapid cultural change, cultural mixing, cultural abundance and cultural conflicts will presumably continue to afflict us in the future.