Criticism On The Image-Dominated Education In The "Image-Reading Era"

Images in the "image-reading era" with its exponential growth rate,entertainment-oriented values,all-pervasive coverage interpret the ultimate meaning of diversity,redundancy and vulgarity nowadays.The "gazing" behaviors of human beings have been stimulated,induced and strengthened unprecedentedly,and the leading position and predominant role of human vision in feeling external things have been promoted and enhanced unparalleled.Image with its external perception,the intuition of cognitive style,the integrity of presenting styles and the illogicality of internal expressing manners makes the image world showing the characteristics of locality,fragmentation,fragmentation and de-profundity.This makes the humans more likely to be stimulated and attracted by the visual impacts and attraction of the imaging materials in the perception when human brains reflect the external things in a general way.It is easy to reason and judge partially according to the visual appearances and external forms of things and to form the intuitive,visual and holistic impression and apprehension of the objective world because of the excessive preference for visual senses.At the same time,irrational elements,such as will and desire,are strongly activated and extremely publicized in the image world,leading to a steep increase in people’s desire for convenience into infinite greed,and human desire is constantly magnified and strengthened in the pursuit of infinite satisfaction.Man is not a pure rational being also gives legitimacy and rationality to the free growth of will impulse and sensory desire.And the sensory desire,wrapped in this legal encasement,makes perceptual intuition the primary choice and core element of the thinking processing materials.In the real situation of visual culture,human thinking forms the image-oriented thinking mode based on the existing image-reading and cognitive experience and on the basis of the holistic existence of the image world acting on the human brains.In essence,this thinking mode is still a kind of intuitive thinking,but it is merely derived from the primitively intuitive thinking mode into a kind of virtually intuitive one,and then forms a shallow perception and plain understanding for the objective world.Under the general logical criterion of "behavior has demand for thinking" and "thinking can guide behavior",image-oriented thinking can guide people’s behavior under the experience of reading pictures gained in the image world.As one of the universal human behaviors,education also need to be guided under certain thinking mode.The reciprocal relationship between image-oriented thinking and educational behaviors provides a theoretical possibility for the overall admission of image-oriented thinking in the educational field.The breeding and spread of image-oriented thinking mode in the field of education have led to the gradual participation of image-oriented thinking in the construction of educational theory and the development of educational practice,and have become the dominant mode of thinking in educational behaviors,which leads to the development of image-dominated education.The educational image-domination is a prescriptive term used in this study for the overall development of education under the influence and control of image-oriented thinking in the era of image-reading.It is a prescriptive definition for the realistic state of the development of educational practice in China in the special cultural context and the background of the times.As far as the overall characteristics of educational practice in China are concerned,it presents a kind of superficialization,formalization,utilitarianization,catering for the vulgarity,neglecting of inheritance,unidimensionality,and the lack of criticization.The creative expression of "educational image-domination" in this study is used to refer to the developmental trend of superficialization,formalization,utilitarianism,non-succession and unidimensionality in the current educational practices.And the existing scholastic definitions can not include and refer to all the features of the educational image-domination as stated above,which seem to be separated and isolated from each other.But the internal motivation of practical behaviors can be explored in the analytic process of thinking modes which guide and influence the practical behaviors.The change of material environment(the excessive overspreading of images)——the development of image-oriented thinking——the penetration of image-oriented thinking in the field of education——the development of the education based on image-domination,constitutes the internally logical path for the educational image-domination in which thinking mode has been always in the intermediate circle and transitional chain in the dynamic interactive process.Educational image-domination does not only refers to the educational phenomenon in which images have been emphasized and depended partially by educators and even images have been regarded as the basic educational means and teaching media.It refers more to the educational practice by behavers whose thinking mode has been gravely influenced by the guidance and control of image-oriented thinking in the image world.It takes the "five vacancies" as the overall characteristics,that is,no depth(superficialization),no significance(formalization),no value(utilitarianization),no inheritance(non-succession)and no criticism(unidimensionality).In the theory and practice of education,the development of educational image-domination is manifested in the superficialization of the connotation of knowledge and the educational significance,the indistinction of educational aims,the fragmentation of teaching knowledge,the formalization of teacher-student communication,and the utilitarianism of educational value orientation,which leads to the wandering around the surface,emphasizing forms,giving up the depth,catering for the vulgarity and one-way acceptance,and ultimately leads the educational practice of cultivating human wisdom to the entertainment and carnival of the whole people.How image-oriented thinking leads to the development of educational image-domination depends on the theoretical exploration of the following two questions: how it is possible for image-oriented thinking to enter the educational field,and if possible how it enters the educational theory and affects the educational practice.For the first question,the loss of certainty and authority of rational views on men provides a theoretical opportunity for the infiltration and spread of image-oriented thinking in the field of education.On the one hand,the vacillation and even collapse of traditional rational views on men make people at a loss on the nature of human beings,and the starting and ending points of human beings from the perspective of pedagogy become obscure.The fundamental questions of "what is a man" and "what can he become by education" have become a contentious issue in educational theory.On the other hand,the new views on men that can be generally accepted by people has not yet appeared,and the various views on human beings that guide the theory and practice of pedagogy are in a state of discussion and confrontation.This open and contending theoretical development also gives a place to the trend of educational theory under the guidance of irrational views on humans."What is a man" in the field of education has a profound impact on "what kind of persons to cultivate",and the complexity of human beings makes the old philosophical views on men constantly collapse while the new theory on men is still in the state of construction and perfection.The new and old exchange of philosophical views on men leads to a different views on human studies in pedagogy,which objectively retains the theoretical gap for the irrational development of educational image-domination under the control of image-oriented thinking.The second question needs the further subdivisions of the educational theory first.Based on the sources of educational theory,it can be divided into two categories: one is philosophical speculation and logical deduction of educational concepts and propositions themselves;the other is empirical and systematic summary of educational phenomena and practices.In metapedagogy,the former is the theoretical pedagogy(or scientifically educational theory),which is the explanatory statement on the educational phenomena through the rigorously logical deduction of those educational concepts and categories based on the multi-disciplines of philosophy,logic and ethics.And it is the systematic statement formed by metaphysical speculation and logical deduction under the control of highly rational thinking.Obviously,it is impossible for the image-oriented thinking mode to enter and dominate the generative behavior of this pure theory.The latter is the practical pedagogy,which is an empirical theory that pays real attention to the educational practice and concerns ultimately the solution and guidance of the realistic problems in educational practice.In this study,it is the practically educational theory whose theoretical validity has been deeply affected by the entrance of the image-oriented thinking.The entrance of image-oriented thinking and negatively great influence on the construction of practical education theory and further on the educational practice are just under the conditions as the theoretical gaps of "man is not of pure reason" and "non-pure rationality of practical pedagogy".The developmental trend of the educational image-domination has brought great damages to educational theory and practice.Firstly,it negates the complexity of human beings and the sophistication of education fundamentally,which makes the educatees lost in the visual feast and leads to the extreme publicity of irrational elements.Secondly,it deviates from the educational mode of intensive cultivation,desalinates and even ignores the particularity of individual life and developmental potentiality.Finally,educational image-domination has caused serious negative influences on the educational elements,leading to the alienation of human developmental states and human categorical nature,and finally the existence of human heterogeneity and the alien state of education,which makes education alienate rationality and evolve towards irrationality,entertainment,carnival and evacuation.Under the abstract generalization of the realistic representation of the development of educational image-domination and the deep revelation of its harmfulness,the education in China must resort to the rationality under the inspiration and guidance of rationalism philosophy: using reason to command the will and to calm and regulate the desires so as not to be shallow and superficial because of the inherent "greed for convenience",and no longer to give up the pursuit and search for profoundity of meanings because of the fear of "soul pain".The real world of education is a tridimensional,complex and profound world of meanings,far from a superficial,sensory,and utilitarian educational world of images.The self-redemption of education should defend the original meanings of education itself: education is the activity of cultivating the highest rationality of human beings,realizing the "fusion of horizons" through equal dialogues and benign communication between teachers and students,so as to cultivate the independent personality,free will,skepticism and criticism of the educatees for the transcendence of education and the infinite possibility of human development.