Education In The "meat" And "spirit"

For many years, body has been thought in educational research as following: It is a material base of life, offering possibilities for individual development, and as brain in psychology. Just because of the understanding, body has been not a "problem" for educational study, not become the point of growth of the theory, its significance and effect not rethought on education and individual self-construction. However, is body only a material carrier of our lives?Since the 1980s, body has been becoming research focuses in many fields: Body's original meaning to person is explored in body phenomenology; body as sign and its importance in social life and organization is probed into in body sociology ; the relation among body, power and discourse is unveiled in body politics ; body literature regards instinct and desire as narration resources. What has been studied tells us: body is not "flesh", body itself has spirit nature, and it is an actor and a kind of practical mode.What has been explored on body offers an angle of view for the research. There is a close association between "controlling person" and "controlling body", "becoming" a person and "cultivating" body. It is showed in educational field through three aspects: body among educational discourse, body bearing educational influence, and body as a kind of practical mode.Body is recessive in educational research. The understanding on body is affected by tradition—complimenting soul and depreciating body, meanwhile, persons' activity and spirituality is emphasized. Body is materialized and its original meaning for person not being valued, while human being's alienation is designed from the "root". During educational practice, power "surveils" body by designing, managing and educating, enslaving body to meet the needs of power. Discourse empties body and power surviels it , under these circumstances, the activity space of "body -subject" is limited mainly to listening, speaking, looking, reading and writing. Because of influence of traditional culture and view of utilitarian value, what body-subject does is not in favor of educatees' spirit-construction. Such a case is showed through these aspects which reading and writing is done just for some kind of utilitarian aim according to certain pattern, body-subject has been doing something in the repressive atmosphere while its experience is not as educational recourse. That education is not emphases the original meaning to individual is not equal to which body has not such function. During individual growth, appearance, interior feeling and experience plays an important role in self-construction.Facing the problems coming from educational research and practice, the dissertation is to reconsider body, and to probe into the necessity and possibility to study education in the view of body in order to understand educants' spirit-construction better.