A Criticism Of The Essentialist And Anti-essentialist Teaching Theory: A New Alternative

Neither essentialism nor anti-essentialism can save Chinese teaching-theory studiesfrom their dilemma. The relevance, complexity, and diversity of the universe in generaland of the educational world in particular urge the appearance of a special assuring andcomprehensive insight; a new thinking mode which is able to integrate variousfragments of knowledge into a general, inherently consistent unity; a particularepistemology which seeks for the balance between soul and body, facts and value,consistency and change. Whitehead’s organic mode of understanding can meet the need.This thesis argues for the possibility of the organic teaching theory as an ideal choice forthe development of teaching studies. This choice may relieve present Chineseeducational theories studies from an embarrassing situation and bring in fresh air.The thesis falls into six parts. The first part consists of Chapter One and Two,illustrating the original motivation of this research, its aim and significance, definitionof the major concepts, an overview of the relative studies, and my own approaches,research thought, and the content.The second part is composed of Chapter Three and Four. Having examined thebecoming route of the conceptions of substance in the history of western philosophy,this part states the major content and methodological features of the philosophiesstudying substances in17thcentury as the basis for the development of the essentialistepistemology; and it also points out the limits of the philosophies of this kind: they holdthe assumptions of “simple location” and “substance-quality” and accordingly commit,in Whitehead’s words,“the fallacy of misplaced concreteness”. Actually there is nosubstance which exists in isolation and unchanged. The substance-quality dualism isdisastrous for the development of philosophy; based on sensationalism, its epistemologyhas its own narrowness, its methodology has its own limits. The philosophy exertsunfavorable influence on the development of human society.Chapter Five and Six belong to part three. Chapter Five focuses on the influencesof essentialist notion since its introduction to China (1840) upon teaching theories andpractice. The influences have been extending in six periods: its being introduced to China, the period when natural sciences were accepted as compulsory courses at school(1840—1910); in the second period, scientism had gained its dominant position withexperimental and positivist methods widely admired and practiced (1911—1948);scientism dominated the third period with close attention drawn to fundamental laws inteaching theory studies (1949—1965); the fourth period was the dark age for Chineseeducational theories and practice when positivist teaching approaches were submergedin the revolutionary torrent (1966—1976); as essentialism was again passionatelyadvocated, the fifth period had the positivist approaches regain their dominant position(1977—1994); from1995up to now we have the sixth period in which, as theanti-essentialism arises, the traditional essentialist methods are facing their crises. Basedon the above-mentioned knowledge, the sixth chapter is devoted to studies ofessentialist conception of knowledge and, briefly, the development of its epistemology,analyzing its pursuit and positions in teaching theories: namely, seeking for establishinga theoretical teaching system; aiming at “definite knowledge”, such as essence and laws;as value-orientation is concerned, tending to advocate scientism; as to research methods,the positivist ones, experimental and observational, are mainly adopted. It is alsopointed out that the essentialist studies of teaching theory faces three greatdilemmas-irrelevance of the objects of some theoretical studies to what the teachingtheory basically seeks for; ill-balance of the one-sided research with the colorfully vivideducational world; pedantry of purely logical reasoning without concreteexemplification.The fourth part is the seventh chapter of this thesis, illustrating howanti-essentialism criticizes the essentialist conception of knowledge and itsepistemology; introducing the main points of anti-essentialism in regard to itsconception of knowledge and its epistemology: opposing grand narrative andadvocating micro-research in constructing a theory; in understanding concrete things,giving up essence-and-law seeking, sticking to the idea of “democratic truth”; invalue-orientation, pursuing the significance of life, rather than exalting scientism; as toresearch method, rejecting essentialist approaches, advocating the ones attachingimportance both to narrative and essence-research.This part also discusses how people criticize anti-essentialism in eight dimensions:essence can not be ruled out; extreme anti-essentialism may lead to agnosticism and nihilism; anti-essentialism is more negative than constructive, short of methodologicalguidance; over-stressed anti-essentialism may put an end to ethics and morality; it isself-contradictory of anti-essentialism to stress the description of things, as descriptionitself contains examination of essence; exclusive emphasis of qualitative research ineducational narrative studies may fall into relativism; certainty does exist in educationalworld; anti-essentialist urge to rule out presupposed teaching aims is not practical.Part five contains Chapter Eight and Nine. It introduces organic mode ofunderstanding, which is different from essentialist and anti-essentialist ones and towhich adequate attention has not been paid. This mode of understanding aiming atintegrating the other two and it may relieve the present teaching studies in China fromthe dilemma and lead to their rebirth. After explaining organic philosophy regarding itscategoreal system, basic notions, basic principles, its temporal-spatial conception, itscosmology and its ideas about laws, this part mainly analyzes its theory of knowledgeand its epistemology: knowledge is organic and integrative and what philosophy seeksis generality;“grand narrative” provides only an approximate description of theuniverse, a system should be open and adequate; both “what it is” and “where it is”must be known, diversity and identity should both be taken into consideration;“knowledge” consists three factors: subject, data, and subjective form; the three steps ofknowledge are: causal efficacy, presentational immediacy, and symbolic reference;This part also discusses process philosophy’s methodology: taking things asintegrative, stressing the importance of relatedness, process, and harmony, rejectinggoing to extremes and parochial prejudices. This methodology holds that theorypresupposes method, special methods apply to special theories; philosophy must clarifyits own theoretical pursuit; speculative philosophy embodies the method of “properassumption”; organic philosophy attempts to make certain the evidence to whichphilosophies appeal to; the major method to handle evidence is descriptivegeneralization.“To live, to live well and to live better”, that is what organic philosophyadvocates!Part Six is the last chapter of this thesis. It strongly believes that Chinese teachingtheory studies should follow an “organic” route. Efforts should be made in the followingsix dimensions: adopt an open “grand narrative” method in the construction of teachingtheories, stressing integrative understanding; in the process of absorbing new teaching theories, stick to five pursuits, constantly polishing them in accordance with facts; inunderstanding things, study both “what it is” and “where it is”, digging out theirinherent significance; in value-orientation, try to achieve the unity of facts andmeanings, paying close attention to comprehensive experiences; both qualitative andquantitative researches should be stressed and respect should be paid to the richness ofthe world; during the future development, be brave enough to widen one’s own scopeand to go through “adventures of ideas”.Modern Chinese teaching-theory studies are now, after their one hundred or so ofexperiences, facing, together with mankind in general, the challenge for its existenceand its development. Neither essentialism nor anti-essentialism can save them fromtheir dilemma. The relevance, complexity, and diversity of the universe in general andof the educational world in particular urge the appearance of a special assuring andcomprehensive insight; a new thinking mode which is able to integrate variousfragments of knowledge into a general, inherently consistent unity. Whitehead’s organicmode of understanding can meet the need. It is strongly believed that the integration ofWhiteheadean epistemology, which seeks for the balance between soul and body, factsand value, consistency and change, with Chinese culture will generate a new kind ofthinking mode for the development of teaching-theory studies in present China.“Speculative boldness must be balanced by complete humility before logic, and beforefact”, with this spirit the present teaching-theory studies are sure to develop favorably.