Something ‘Paralogical’ Under the Sun: Lyotard's Postmodern Condition and science education

Zembylas, Michalinos

doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2000.tb00442.x

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Many of the recent proposals regarding the philosophy of contemporary science education suggest that a new paradigm of science education is required; namely, one that takes into account the postpositivist tendencies of the philosophy of science, which emphasize the contingent, linguistic, and historical nature of scientific knowledge and pay attention to science's underlying interests, power struggles and interconnections with the lifeworld. (Leiviskä, 2013, p. 516) Some of these proposals are somewhat radical-for example, those that are explicitly critical (Santos, 2009) or postmodern (Zembylas, 2000)-but even in the mainstream of science education there is "a fair amount of consensus . .…”

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confidence: 99%

Reconsidering philosophy of science pedagogy in psychology: An evaluation of methods texts.

Clegg

2016

Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

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Some have suggested that philosophy of science pedagogy in psychology is largely positivist and anachronistic. The present work assesses that pedagogy via a detailed analysis of all philosophy of science assertions made in 9 commonly used research methods texts. The resulting analysis describes a generally consistent philosophy of science narrative across all of the texts analyzed. That narrative is defined by the ontological assumptions of an independent and determinate reality; the related assumptions of empiricism, fallibilism, objectivism, and universalism; and the epistemological practices built on these assumptions-namely, operationalism, quantification, reliability and validity, and falsificationism. This analysis does, indeed, suggest a generally positivist philosophy of science pedagogy and so accords substantially with existing critiques, though some treatments, including those of realism and of multiple methods, showed more contemporary readings of philosophy of science. Following this analysis is a brief discussion of the possible relevance to psychology of reforms, undertaken in general science education, whose intent has been to make science teaching more current with respect to philosophy of science. These reforms suggest that concepts and scholarship from the history and philosophy of science could be used to frame research methods, such that these can be presented, not as abstract and independent truth procedures, but as contested and complex histories of socially and politically embedded practices.

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confidence: 99%

Reconsidering philosophy of science pedagogy in psychology: An evaluation of methods texts.

Clegg

2016

Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

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“…Over the years, The Postmodern Condition has attracted a good deal of attention from educationists (see, for example, Gietzen, 2010;Irwin, 2018;Koller, 2003;Lange, 2015;Locke, 2015;Marshall, 1999;Nuyen, 1992;Peters, 1989Peters, , 1995Peters, , 1997Peters, , 2006Roberts, 1998;Usher, 2006;Zembylas, 2000), and key questions addressed in the book remain as relevant in our present age as they were in Lyotard's time. Two decades ago, in reflecting on Lyotard's work, it was possible to claim: "In one sense, the full impact of computerisation has yet to be felt in the tertiary sector: academics have not yet been replaced (at least not in large numbers) by machines.…”

Section: Higher Education In the Age Of Big Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Performativity, Big Data and Higher Education: The Death of the Professor?

Roberts

2019

Beijing International Review of Education

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In his classic work, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Jean-Françios Lyotard prophesised the death of the age of the Professor. Writing at the end of the 1970s, Lyotard could see that in contexts where knowledge was regarded as a commodity, and where the question of truth was becoming subservient to the question of what sells, the importance of university teachers would increasingly be questioned. In the decades that followed the publication of The Postmodern Condition, many of the trends observed by Lyotard have become cemented in policy and practice. This paper argues that while the age of the Professor is not yet dead, it is dying – slowly but steadily, in a manner that is more evident in some fields than others. Given the dominance of economic goals in shaping educational agendas, the triumph of the performativity principle, and the obsession with measuring and marketing almost everything, support for scholars in the humanities in particular has been progressively eroded. This process of dying is, however, by no means complete, and a rebirth of the age of the Professor, perhaps in a slightly different form, remains a possibility that should not be ruled out.

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“…The rationale behind performativity of knowledge is the optimisation of the system's performance ef ciency. A classic example of the tendency for increased perfomativity in educational institutions is the emphasis on standardised testing as a measure of one's knowledge (Zembylas, 2000). The ef ciency of knowledge is demonstrated by one's ability to recall 'basic' information in the least amount of time.…”

Section: Serres' Philosophy For Education: An Urgent Call For Inventimentioning

confidence: 99%

Michel Serres: a troubadour for science, philosophy and education

Zembylas

2002

Educational Philosophy and Theory

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When all the people of the world nally speak the same language and commune in the same message or the same norm of reason, we will descend, idiot imbeciles, lower than rats, more stupidly than lizards. The same maniacal language and science, the same repetitions of the same in all latitudes-an earth covered with screeching parrots. (Serres, 1997, p. 124) The goal of instruction is the end of instruction, that is to say invention. Invention is the only true intellectual act, the only act of intelligence. The rest? Copying, cheating, reproduction, laziness, convention, battle, sleep. Only discovery awakens. Only invention proves that one truly thinks what one thinks, whatever that may be. (Serres, 1997, pp. 92-93) Once more, the gure of the Troubadour appears in front of me, classically elegant, passionate, a stunning portrait of craftsmanship in story-telling. He is a poet-musician who travels through medieval Provence and sings about love. 1 The love of learning and knowing, the love of nding and invention. I wonder about the marvellous places he has been and the majestic expeditions in which he took part. His telling of his adventures is masterful and fascinating, often improbable, painted with elegant language and clarity. Story after story and song after song are energised by the Troubadour's poetic imagination that animates his stories with vivid images, long forgotten by the rest of us. Intricate in their interweaving of past and present events, the Troubadour's stories come across with a full measure of the complex vision of the world of knowledge.The above scene is very real except that it does not take place in medieval France any more. All the rest describe the gure of one contemporary French 'Troubadour of knowledge' who travels across traditional boundaries of space and time and teaches us about the love of wisdom (philo-sophy) and invention. He is Michel Serres, a provocative and unorthodox thinker, very little known in the Englishspeaking world, although he is one of the best-known contemporary French philosophers. Serres' interdisciplinary writing constructs themes that can be traced across literature, philosophy, science, mythology and painting, borrowing ideas and approaches from them and transforming those into original and synthetic voices in the world of knowledge. By grounding the sciences into everyday life, Serres wants to eliminate the distance that is perceived to exist between the two. His writing style is beautiful, poetic, evocative yet demanding and dif cult. This dif culty is partly

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Something ‘Paralogical’ Under the Sun: Lyotard's Postmodern Condition and science education

Cited by 15 publications

References 26 publications

Reconsidering philosophy of science pedagogy in psychology: An evaluation of methods texts.

Reconsidering philosophy of science pedagogy in psychology: An evaluation of methods texts.

Performativity, Big Data and Higher Education: The Death of the Professor?

Michel Serres: a troubadour for science, philosophy and education

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