Education in the 21st century: Cognitive Adaptation versus Epistemological Pluralism

Author(s):

Vanessa Andreotti

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 08 A, Intercultural Education: Diversity in the Class

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-30

08:30-10:00

Room:

HG, HS 31

Chair:

Yvonne Leeman

Contribution

Theoretical arguments related to societal changes in the ‘knowledge society’ and postmodernity and their implications for educational agendas emphasise the need for a re-conceptualisation of knowledge and learning in educational policies and practices in contemporary ‘21st century’ societies (Richard and Usher 1994; Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Gee, 2003; Gilbert, 2005; Hargreaves, 2003; Lankshear & Knobel, 2003; OECD, 2000; UNESCO, 2005; Andreotti & Souza, 2008). In this paper I offer a situated comparison of two different perspectives that agree on the need for shifting conceptualisations of knowledge and learning in education: one prioritising an agenda focusing on change and cognition and another focusing on ethics and alterity. Although each of these agendas is inherently heterogeneous and complex, they produce different recommendation and action packages that, in this paper, I classify into two pedagogical projects: a project of cognitive adaptation and a project of epistemological pluralism.Both projects align in their conceptualisation of knowledge, learning, reality and identities as socially constructed, fluid, open to negotiation and always provisional and in the call for epistemological shifts away from universalism. However, they are motivated by different conceptualisations of social problems and envisaged solutions. The first part of this paper compares and contrasts these two projects with an emphasis on social justice, dialogue and difference. The second part of this paper presents a discussion of some of the tensions created in working towards ‘epistemological shifts’ in education and an example of a model of thinking about a pedagogical process based on the idea of epistemological pluralism is described.

Method

Critical analysis of literature related to education in the 21st century using a framework based on poststructuralism and postcolonial theory, with a focus on the work of Gayatri Spivak (1999, 2004).

Expected Outcomes

The focus of this paper isnot to provide an unproblematic solution, but to show that every epistemological choice carries with it an ‘action package’ that leads to different results and creates new problems. The new problems created by the different epistemological choices we have at this historical moment in education, which include but are exclusive to, what I have framed as ‘cognitive adaptation’ and ‘epistemological pluralism’ need more engagement with, debate and critique. This could support educators to understand the gifts and limitations of these and other perspectives, so that their epistemological choices are better informed. Equipping educators to do this is, perhaps, the greatest challenge we face in education today.

References

Andreotti, V. & Souza, L. (2008). Global Education: four tools for discussion. Journal of Development Education Research and Global Education, 31, 7-12. Benhabib, S. (2002). The claims of culture: equality and diversity in the global era. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press. Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge. Britzman, D. (2006). Novel Education: Psychoanalytic Studies of Learning And Not Learning. New York: Peter Lang. Claxton, G. (2008). What's the Point of School?: Rediscovering the Heart of Education. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. Derrida, J. (1976). Of Grammatology. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Derrida, J. (2001). On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness. London: Routledge. Falzon, C. (1998). Foucault and Social Dialogue. London: Routledge. Gee, P. (2003). What Video Games have to Teach us about Learning and Literacy? New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Gilbert, J. (2005). Catching the Knowledge Wave?:The Knowledge Society and the future of education. Wellington: NZCER. Levinas, E. (1998). Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. Nandy, A. (2000). Recovery of Indigenous nowledge and Dissenting Futures of the University. In S.Inayatullah & J. Gidley (Eds.), The University in transformation: global perspectives and the future of the university (pp. 115-123). Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Richard, E. & Usher, R. (1994). Postmodernity and Education. London: Routlegde. Said, E. (1993). Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage Books. Santos, B. (2007). Cognitive Justice in a Global World: Prudent Knowledges for Decent Lives. Lanhan, MD: Lexicon Books. Spivak, G. (1994). Bonding in difference. In A.Arteaga (Ed.), An other tongue: nation and ethnicity in the linguistic borderlands (pp. 273-285). Durham: Duke UP. Spivak, G. (1999). A critique of postcolonial reason: toward a critique of the vanishing present. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Spivak, G. (2004). Righting wrongs. The South Atlantic Quarterly, 103, 523-581. Ziarek, E. (2001). An Ethics of Dissensus: Postmodernity, Feminism, and the Politics of Radical Democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Author Information

Vanessa Andreotti

University of Canterbury

School of Maori, Social and Cultural Studies

Christchurch

162

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