Study On Maxine Green’s Practical Education Philosophy

Maxine Greene is one of the representatives of critical pedagogy in the United States,being referred to by the media as ‘the outstanding educational philosopher in the United States today’ and ‘one of the most important writers and lecturers in the field of education’.Her worldview is based on the intersection of Marxism,Dewey and European Existentialism.Greene concerned about labor issues in her student days,and actively engaged in the transformation of social practice,on the Left critical perspective.As an educational reformer,philosopher and social activist,Greene has insisted on examining cultural and social changes in a specific historical context with critical thinking,and exploring education with the willing of social improvement.This paper is focused on systematic study of Greene’s practical education philosophy,including the following five aspects.Firstly,the origin of Maxine Greene’s practical education philosophy.The American turbulent text and Greene’s tough self-growth have laid the basis of Greene’s Leftist position,and we can say that Greene’s absorption of Marxism practical philosophy and reference to western social critical thinking have established his practical background and critical thinking,so that Practice has become his basic position and thinking mode on social and educational issues.In this process,the inheritance of Greene’s practical education philosophy to the tradition of critical education philosophy and American Marxist education philosophy has been reflected.Secondly,the basic point of Maxine Greene’s practical educational philosophy.The first basis of Greene’s practical education philosophy is the issue of human freedom and its realization.Greene believes that human have their own freedom,which is gained from the practice.However,the manifestation of multiple capitalist social problems has weakened or even eliminated people’s freedom in practice,which has led to the individual’s dilemma.This is the second basis of Greene’s practical education philosophy.For the liberation of human,Greene has focused on education,trying to reveal and criticize the problems in capitalist society and education,and to awaken people’s consciousness,so as to cultivate fully awakened individuals with fully awakened teachers.Therefore,the third basic point of Greene’s practical education philosophy came intobeing.The fourth basic point is the construction of a democratic society based on self-realization,and this is also the ultimate demand of Greene’s practical educational philosophy.Thirdly,the core contents of Maxine Greene’s practical education philosophy.It includes three aspects related intrinsically,respectively called the exploration of critical pedagogy,the conception and interpretation of imaginary education,and the construction of the view of practical education philosophy.In terms of the exploration of critical pedagogy,based on Marxist critical theory,Freire’s critical educational philosophy and the‘Dark Age’ described by Arendt,Greene takes efforts to realize freedom and pursue diversity through critical education.In Greene’s view,critical education helps unleash teachers’ imagination and make teachers understand repeated calls for justice and equality.Teachers with critical educational ideas enable the young to form their own comprehension of their life world.At the same time,Greene explains the imagination education and analyzes literature and art as the content of imagination education,and then explores the dialogue teaching as the implementation method of imagination education.On this basis,Greene has constructed his view on practical education philosophy,that is,to go towards free practice,to realize the insights into human nature and a beautiful social ideal,to carry the educational mission of double enlightenment,to pursue the true meaning of knowledge and the democratic teaching method of exploring truth.Fourthly,the characteristics of Maxine Greene’s practical education philosophy,includes historical,practical,dialectical and holistic.The historical characteristic means that Greene’s practical education philosophy comes from the study of the history of philosophy,of literature and art and of criticism of capitalist society.The practical characteristic is that Greene exposes and criticizes the problems in the capitalist society and its education,with the practical thinking for analyzing real problems.The dialectical characteristic is not only the methodology of Greene’s practical education philosophy,but also its consistent way of thinking.In her practical education philosophy,Greene grasps the objects as a whole,realizes the unity of subject and object,the integration of history,reality and ideal,and then the characteristic of integrity is manifested.Fifthly,the inspiration of Maxine Greene’s practical education philosophy.Based on the research and analysis of the origin,basic point and core contents of Greene’s practicaleducation philosophy,the inspiration is sought from the following four aspects.First,the multidimensional comprehension of the relationships between education and practice.Greene comprehends the overall education with the practical thinking and regards the practice as the educational ontology,the educational purpose,the educational subject,the educational content and the educational method.Second,the inner link from education to human and society.Through practice,Greene has given education the mission of constructing an ideal society and cultivating ideal new generations and has linked education,human and society together.Thirdly,the evaluating dimension of teachers’ reflection.Greene’s practical education philosophy regards teachers’ reflection as an kind of evaluation,in order to train teachers with the ability of critical reflection.The noumenon of teachers’ reflection is evaluation,including the evaluation of educators,the evaluation in educational process and the evaluation based on the formation of educational quality.The realization of this function requires professionalism,conscientization and regularization of teachers’ reflection.Fourth,comprehension and interpretation of practical education philosophy.Greene has combined practical philosophy with educational philosophy,in which historical,practical,dialectical and holistic characteristics are embodied,and the practical background of his educational philosophy is manifested.