397
An Oxymoron?
John Wesley
Taylor V
These are the
fundamental questions: Is a religious educational philosophy relevant or even
viable in the postmodern world? Or is a postmodern religious educational
philosophy an oxymoron? An incongruous contradiction of terms?
Our postmodern
era is characterized by globalization in business and politics, in
fashion and entertainment, and in economics. The abrupt devaluation of the Thai
baht, for example, hurled the Indonesian rupiah into freefall and precipitated
the end of the Suharto era. On another front, the collapse of the Russian ruble
plunged the Brazilian real into a nosedive and prompted the Federal Reserve to
abruptly adjust
Information
dominance also
characterizes the postmodern world. Driven by an exploding technology, the
information age has arrived in force—media networks, satellite communications,
electronic data banks, online journals, virtual chat rooms, search engines,
fiber optic e-mail traveling at the speed of light, ubiquitous URLs, and the
vast World Wide Web.
A third
postmodern trait is decentralization. This tendency is seen in the balkanization
of nations, the formation of states within states, and the creation of
autonomous regions. It is also evidenced in a proliferation of grassroots
movements, local initiatives, and bottom-up change. Top-heavy, centralized
institutions are dying and are being replaced by lean, mean business machines
that have spun off their own subsidiaries, thereby gaining energy, focus, and
efficiency.
The postmodern
era is also typified by a renewed concern for ethics and values formation.
From business leaders, educational strategists, and heads of state, there has
been an increasingly urgent call for the transmission of values and the
formation of ethical behavioral patterns. Tragic events, such as the shootings
at the
In our
postmodern world, there is an awakening to metaphysical, transcendental dimensions.
Walk into a bookstore, peruse the TV guide, stand at the checkout counter in
any supermarket, and it becomes obvious that the postmodern era is reaching out
toward the mystical, the psychic, the supernatural. The New Age movement, with
its pantheistic worldview, has subliminally shaped self-help programs, children’s
literature, music, and the arts.
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Historically,
religion has served as a guiding force for education. This was the case in the
early Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations, and later in the Persian and Jewish
cultures, where the priests also served as scholars and instructors. In the
Middle Ages, learning was archived and transmitted from century to century
through the monastic system, while philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas sought
to harmonize faith and reason, profoundly influencing educational systems. With
the advent of the Protestant reformation, individuals such as Comenius,
Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Horace Mann set the foundations for modern education
based on educational philosophies tightly rooted in religious convictions.
As we now find
ourselves deeply immersed in the postmodern era, the question becomes
particularly pertinent: Can religion effectively guide educational philosophy
in our postmodern world?
Right up front,
I will answer the question affirmatively and maintain that a religious educational
philosophy is not only viable but also relevant and necessary for our contemporary
society. In good postmodern fashion, I will seek to establish this position
illustratively by presenting hallmarks of contemporary education with which a
religious foundation is either congruent or in which it serves as a stimulus
for quality and a catalyst for action.
As a case in
point, I will utilize the Adventist philosophy of education. Seventh-day Adventist
educational philosophy is derived largely from the Holy Scriptures and from the
writings of Ellen White, an early Adventist leader who wrote prolifically on
the subject of Christian education. Her writings include numerous articles and
half a dozen books that address the field of education, of which the book Education
(1903 [ref. Ed]) is probably the best known.
The hallmarks of
postmodern education that we will examine are:
1.
High-level
thinking,
2.
Research
involvement,
3.
Cooperative
learning,
4.
Service
experiences,
5.
Differentiation
of instruction, and
6.
Character
education.
While
there are surely other defining characteristics of postmodern education, I have
chosen these hallmarks because they are dominant themes in current educational
literature and exemplify significant trends in postmodern educational practice.
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399 |
According to the
Biblical account, God created Adam, the first human being, and then presented
him with his first cognitive learning activity—the task to name each of the
animals (Gen. 2:19, 20). It would, perhaps, seem more efficient for God to
simply inform Adam of the divine name for each species—“Adam, this is a
hippopotamus. And this is a giraffe. Now, Adam, don’t forget!” But God
apparently values creative thinking over rote memorization. And so Adam provides
original, descriptive names for all members of the animal kingdom as they pass,
two by two.
Adam, however,
begins to do some analytical thinking. He puts two and two together, and he
says, “God, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but something seems to be missing
here. Where is the other one of me?” And God smiles and says, “Well done, Adam!
You’ve passed your comprehensives. Now you can get married!”
The importance
of creative and critical thinking is inherent in Scripture. To note just two
passages: “Every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom
of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new
treasures as well as old” (Matt. 13:52, NIV). Note that that “new treasures”
imply creative, synthetic thinking. Critical thinking processes are also
emphasized: “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord” (Isa.
Based on these
Scriptural foundations, Adventist educational philosophy highlights the importance
of high-level cognition and maintains that it is the work of true education “to
train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men's thought”
(Ed 17).
This Christian
theme of high-level thinking, particularly the role of critical and creative
thought processes, has emerged as a hallmark of postmodern education. Impelled
by brain research (Levy, 1983; Sylwester, 1995), leading theorists have proposed
the concept of teaching for intelligence. Bloom’s (1956, 1995) Taxonomy of the
Cognitive Domain, Feuerstein’s (1985) Instrumental Enrichment, and Sternberg’s
(1990) Triarchic Theory of Intelligence are prominent examples of these
perspectives.
Other educators
(e.g., Caine & Caine, 1994; Jensen, 1998; Udall & Daniels, 1991) have
taken these theories and developed thinking skills programs. These include popular
approaches such as Talents Unlimited (Schlichter, Hobbs, & Crump, 1986), De
Bono’s (1991) CoRT program, and Sidney Parnes’ (1987) Creative Problem Solving
model. In the Parnes model, for example, students become engaged in a six-step
process—mess finding, data finding, problem finding, idea finding, solution
finding, and acceptance finding—thereby sharpening their creative and analytical
skills.
As we look
closely at the area of high-level thinking, it seems that not only is a Christian
educational philosophy congruent with the postmodern view of cognition, but
that a religious philosophical base could, in fact, serve as a catalyst for instructional
programs which focus on creative and critical thinking.
Another
significant trend in postmodern education is the involvement of students in
research activities. The fundamental concept is that learners at any level must
be producers and not mere parasites of knowledge. While this has commonly been
seen as an inherent trait of graduate education, only in the postmodern era has
it become a top priority of collegiate, secondary, and even primary education.
400
The conduit for
embedding research activities in the educational program has been constructed
effectively by a number of educators, whose programs have been widely adopted.
These include the Group Investigation model developed in Israel by the Sharans
(1992); Bruner’s (1985) Basic Structure of a Discipline approach, in which
students walk through the thought systems and methodology of a particular
subject area in much the same way as would a professional; and Inquiry
Training, pioneered by Schwab (1982) and Suchman (1981), in which students are
presented with sets of puzzling problems that they attempt to solve by building
and testing hypotheses, and by collecting and verifying data. In each of these
programs, there is a tight integration of research and learning activities that
involves students directly in the discovery of knowledge.
Is this research
development compatible with a religious educational philosophy? While
recognizing the inherent limitations of empirical research, a Christian educational
philosophy views research as a divine mandate to explore and examine God’s
truth, wherever it may be found. Scripture enjoins, “Test everything. Hold on
to that which is good” (1 Thess.
Predicated upon
Scriptural passages such as these, Adventist educational philosophy accepts
research as a vital activity for all learners, an essential component of the
learning experience. “Instead of confining their study to that which men have
said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast
fields opened for research in nature and revelation” (Ed 17).
Cooperation is
another key premise in an Adventist educational philosophy. “Cooperation should
be the spirit of the schoolroom, the law of its life” (Ed 285). This is in
harmony with the writings of the Apostle Paul, who admonishes, “We then that
are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak” (
The Bible, in
fact, provides multiple examples of cooperative learning activities. To mention
just two such situations: When Christ desired his disciples to put into practice
what they had been taught, he sent them out in dyads—two by two—with the intent
that they might experience the synergy that occurs when students work
cooperatively together (Mark 6:7-13).
Another prime
example of cooperative learning is found in the book of Daniel. Here we encounter
a cluster of four scholars attending the Royal University of Babylon. Not only
do these young men study together, but they also discuss issues together, pray
together, and stand together. In fact, they conduct jointly a group investigation
(
Positive
results, although not perhaps of this magnitude, have also been documented in
contemporary educational practice (Johnson & Johnson, 1994; Slavin, 1999).
In fact, cooperative learning is probably one of the best-researched current
educational practices (Ellis & Fouts, 1997), and it has also become one of
the most popular trends in postmodern education.
401
While the modern
era was aptly designated the technological age, the postmodern era is coalescing
into the service age. And if modern man was characterized by narcissistic
hedonism, the post-modern personage seems to be more service-oriented.
A 1996
Independent Sector/Gallup poll, for example, found that while 49% of the adult
population had voluntarily engaged in service activities, 59.3% of teenagers
(ages 12-17) had volunteered for service programs over the same time period.
Participation in community service projects, in fact, seems to be on the rise.
Volunteering of high school seniors, for example, is up 12 percent over the
last 10 years, from 62% in 1989 to 74.2% in 1998 (UCLA/Higher Education
Research Institute Annual Freshmen Survey, 1999). In fact, teenagers in the
Has education
become involved? Most certainly. Many nations and educational institutions are
recognizing the value of meaningful service as an essential curricular
component. In
Quite a number
of colleges are now incorporating service-focused courses in the required
curriculum, while others are dedicating up to an entire day each week for community
service activities.
The
Is this
postmodern service-oriented educational development well aligned with a
Christian philosophical foundation? Clearly. Christ Himself told his disciples,
“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts
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402 |
A core
ingredient of a Christian philosophy of education is the concept that while all
students should have equal opportunity to learn, they may need to undertake
that learning in different ways. Adventist education, for example, maintains
that teachers should discern and take into account a student’s background,
interests, needs, and dreams. “By coming personally in touch with their homes
and lives, he [the teacher] may strengthen the ties that bind him to his pupils
and may learn how to deal more successfully with their different dispositions
and temperaments” (Ed 284).
This concept is
founded upon the example of Christ, the Master Teacher. “In all true teaching
the personal element is essential.
Christ in His teaching dealt with men individually” (Ed 231). In the
Bible, this may be noted in the case of Simon vs. Simon, that is Simon the Pharisee
(Luke
Such differentiation
is, of course, a principle evident throughout Scripture. The Apostle Paul
writes, “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews…. To the weak I
became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by
all possible means I might save some” (1 Cor.
In contemporary
education, differentiation of instruction—recognizing the uniqueness of each
student—has become a significant trend. Based upon Guilford’s (1967) Structure
of the Intellect and Howard Gardner’s (1983, 1993) theory of Multiple Intelligences,
many educators have come to recognize that intelligence is not a monolithic
structure, that talents may manifest themselves in many forms, and that
students should be encouraged to develop in accordance with their own personal
profiles of strengths and needs (Armstrong, 1994; Tomlinson, 1999).
McCarthy’s 4MAT
system (1987), Gregorc’s (1982) and the Dunn’s (1995) delineation of learning
styles, and Calvin Taylor’s (1990) Multiple Talent Approach are examples of
effective, differentiated programs. Increasingly, teachers recognize the
fallacy of the “one size fits all” supposition, and, in harmony with a growing
research base, are opting for a more flexible, personalized approach to the
teaching/ learning experience.
Transmission of
values and character formation are core ingredients of a Christian educational
philosophy. In the Old Testament, values constitute an important part of the
religious experience: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good. And what does
the Lord require of thee? But to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8). In the New Testament, God-centered values lie
at the heart of the cognitive process: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true,
whatever is honest, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever
is of good report… think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). In essence, Christian
values such as these become the bedrock of character formation, of receiving
the “mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5).
Adventist
educational philosophy takes these Scriptural injunctions seriously.
+ The greatest want of the world is the
want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls
are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men
whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will
stand for the right though the heavens fall (Ed 57).
+ 403
We have already
noted that a salient characteristic of the postmodern era is a renewed concern
for ethics and values formation. In the educational context, beginning with
Krathwohl’s (1964) Affective Taxonomy and Lawrence Kohlberg’s (1966, 1999)
Cognitive-developmental Approach to moral education, this concern has been
translated into an array of initiatives that focus on moral, spiritual, and
civic education.
At the beginning
of this year, for example, Educational Leadership, one of the most
widely circulated educational journals, devoted an entire issue to the area of
spirituality and character education. A profusion of books have also been published
recently in this area—The Case for Character Education (Brooks, 1997), The
Moral Intelligence of Children (Cole, 1997), and Taking Religion
Seriously Across the Curriculum (Nord & Haynes, 1998), to note just a
few.
This trend has
taken on international dimensions. In
And so we have
come full circle. In response to the question “Is a religious educational philosophy
viable and relevant in the postmodern world?”, we would affirm that a Christian
educational philosophy is not only congruent but crucial for education in our
postmodern era.
In this
discussion, we have illustrated the premise through six prominent characteristics
of postmodern education. But we could just as well have chosen other postmodern
developments. These might include, among others:
+
A
holistic approach
+
Constructivist
classrooms
+
Site-based
management
+
Transfer
of learning
+
Teacher
modeling
+
Total
quality in education
+
Mastery
learning
+
Multicultural
literacy
+
Futures
education
In
each case, the salient characteristics of the postmodern educational trend seem
to be in harmony with an educational philosophy derived from a Christian
worldview.
In synthesis,
the dissonance and divergence between religious educational philosophy and
educational practice evident throughout much of the modern era seem to be
fading. In their place, a cooperative, complementary approach is emerging in
which religion and education can interrelate and jointly provide our postmodern
world with a brighter hope for the future.
About
the author: John Wesley Taylor V serves
as professor of education and psychology at Southern
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