Educational guidelines in the process of implementation of rational principles and the value preconditions of the open society
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31874/2309-1606-2020-26-1-5Keywords:
open society, critical thinking, rationality, education system, methodology of social reforms, philosophy of educationAbstract
The theoretical model of the open society was and remains a fruitful way of reflecting the essential links within a democratic society. Analyzing this concept from its rationality, the author tries to highlight its fundamental principles and determine their impact on the form and content of the functioning of education.
The article offers a view of K. Popper’s “open society” as a way to implement the principles of criticism (critical methodology), of (potential) fallibility, egalitarianism (pluralism) as principles of social rationality. The connection between these principles, moral obligations, and the humanistic theory of justice is emphasized. Their socio-philosophical and epistemological realization in the context of educational issues is covered. The paper considers problems of state intervention in educational processes, the definition of educational goals, the methodology of social reforms (including educational reforms).
The article also outlines the problem of defining the boundaries of regulation of the educational process in the value system of open society. This discussion is interpreted in terms of the theory of rationality as an attempt to avoid the extremes of absolutism (dogmatism) and relativism. Emphasis is placed on the prospects of using the critical-rationalist methodology, in the context of education and development of skills necessary for participation in democratic processes.
Particular attention is paid to the problematic aspects of the implementation of the rational principles and values of the open society in the educational environment and in the process of reforming the education system in the absence of a constant critical and rationalist tradition. The paper emphasizes the importance of critical thinking in the prospect of implementing these transformations.
The importance of scientific, logical and methodological, psychological and pedagogical aspects of critical thinking is emphasized; the author tries to comprehend the problematic aspects of the implementation of these principles in the process of implementing reforms in the field of education.
References
Abdula, А. (2016). Reason, rationality, subject. In Actual Problems of Mind, 17, 193-210. [in Russian]
Agassi, J. (1999). Dissertation Without Tears. In G. Zecha (Ed), Critical Rationalism and Educational Discourse. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 59-83.
Albert, H. (2016). Treatise on Critical Reason. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bailey, R. (2018). Education in the Open Society – Karl Popper and Schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.
Bartley, W. (1993). Theories of rationality. In G. Radnitzky et al. (Eds.), Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge. Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 205-213.
Chitpin, S. (2016). Leading school improvement: using Popper’s theory of learning, Open Review of Educational Research, 3 (1), 190-203 https://doi.org/10.1080/23265507.2016.1217742
Eidlin, F. (1999). Matching Popperian theory to practice. In I. Jarvie et al. (Eds.), Popper’s Open Society after fifty years: the continuing relevance of Karl Popper (pp. 201-205). London and New York: Routledge.
Jarvie, I.; Pralong, S. (1999). Popper’s Open Society after fifty years: the continuing relevance of Karl Popper. London and New York: Routledge.
Kozachenko, N. (2017). Critical thinking: the limiting approaches and optimal ways. In Actual Problems of Mind, 18, 165-178. [in Ukrainian]
Lam, C.M. (2013). Childhood, Philosophy and Open Society: Implications for Education in Confucian Heritage Cultures. Singapore: Springer.
Lipman, M. (2003). Thinking in Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Popper, K. (1962). Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. New York and London: Basic Books.
Popper, K. (2013). The Open Society and Its Enemies. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Salamun, K. (1999). Critical Rationalism and Political Education: Karl Popper s Advice How to Neutralise Anti-Democratic Thought-Patterns. In G. Zecha (Ed), Critical Rationalism and Educational Discourse. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 83-93.
Segre, M. (2009). Applying Popperian Didactics. In Robert S. Cohen et al. (Eds.), Rethinking Popper: Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 389-397.
Swann, J. (2009). Popperian Selectionism and Its Implications for Education, or ‘What To Do About the Myth of Learning by Instruction from Without?’. In Robert S. Cohen et al. (Eds.), Rethinking Popper: Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 379-389.
Swartz, R. (1999). Education for Freedom from Socrates to Einstein and Beyond. In G. Zecha (Ed), Critical Rationalism and Educational Discourse. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 36-59.
Winchester, I. (2017). Joseph Agassi’s Educational Thoughts in Interchange (1970–1987). In N. Bar-Am et al. (Eds.), Encouraging Openness. Essays for Joseph Agassi on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday. Springer International Publishing AG, 287-291.
Downloads
-
PDF
Downloads: 291
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication;
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
