Evolutionary Waves in 20th to 21st Century Education

Discussion

Towards Post-Formal Pedagogies

Jennifer Gidley:

"In terms of historical perspectives on school education, I have identified three broad phases in my research:

1) "informal education" via family/tribal enculturation, elite tutoring, and private religious schooling, prior to the beginnings of mass public education approximately two hundred years ago;

2) "formal school education," from late 18th to 20th centuries in Europe, USA and increasingly in other parts of the world last century; and

3) what I am referring to as "a diversity of postformal pedagogies," beginning in the late20th century and—one would hope—flourishing throughout the 21st century and beyond. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which embedded modernist ideas into the socio-cultural fabric of Western society, education for children was not such a formal process, even in the Western world. Children were enculturated by their extended families and cultures and only the children of the wealthy—who could afford private tutors—or who wished to become clerics, had any 'formal' education (Holborn, 1964). Earlier integrally-inspired educational reform had been initiated in the 17th century by Moravian educational theorist Johann Ámos Komenský (more frequently called by his Latin name Comenius) who wrote the influential Didactica Magna, which proposed a three tier universal schooling system for all children (Dahlin, 2006). Subsequently in Germany, the notion of the evolution of consciousness, which was a major contribution of German idealists and romantics such as Goethe, Hegel, Schelling and Novalis, contributed to the initial impulse for mass public school education, which began in Germany in the late 18thcentury. This was carried forward particularly through Schiller's aesthetic educational principles (Schiller, 1954/1977), Herbart's integrative pedagogical system (Klein, 2006)and Humboldt's implementation of public education (Holborn, 1964). However, after the deaths of these leading German philosophers, by the middle of the 19th century the idealist-romantic educational project was largely hijacked in Western Europe by the gradual influence of the British Industrial Revolution, so that schools increasingly became training grounds to provide fodder for the factories. This factory model of school education was picked up in the USA around one hundred and fifty years ago (Dator,2000)."

Phases Since the Industrial Revolution

Jennifer Gidley:

"I propose that there have been three waves of educational impulses since the beginning of the 20th century that have contributed to the evolution of education.

First Wave: Weak Signals from the Early 20th Century

Although much of European and Anglo education did lose its initial idealist/romantic impulse during the 19th century, and succumbed to the weight of industrialism, secularism, and materialism, new threads began to emerge in various parts of the world in the early 20th century. There were Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner in continental Europe, Alfred North Whitehead in the UK, John Dewey in the USA and Sri Aurobindo in India all pioneeering more integral, organic educational approaches that provided a counter-weight to the dominant factory model. They emphasised imagination, aesthetics, organic thinking, practical engagement, creativity, spirituality, and other features that reflect the emergent integral consciousness. These educational pioneers were also futures-oriented in that they all subscribed in some way to evolutionary notions of consciousness, culture and even cosmos. However, these approaches have mostly remained marginalised, or in the case of Dewey's initiative, been appropriated in a reduced form by the mainstream system as so called "progressive education."

Second Wave: “Alternative” Education as a Trend by the 1970s

What I call the second wave was sparked by the dramatic consciousness changes that erupted in 1968 with the student protests in Paris, followed rapidly by the 1969 Woodstock Peace Festival in the USA, which laid foundations for a youth peace movement against the Vietnam War. These events also paralleled the arrival of futures studies on the academic scene with the journal Futures being founded in 1968 along with significant global meetings such as Mankind 2000 that led to the forming of the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF). These events coincided with the beginning of various "new age" movements, including participatory politics, new forms of music, east-west spiritual-philosophical dialogues, new gender relations, post-nuclear family lifestyles and recreational use of “designer” drugs. These movements were taken up quite strongly in the Anglo countries, particularly in pockets of the USA and, at least indirectly, began to shift ideas about formal education. The 1970s to 1990s saw a broadening of alternative educational modes, including home-schooling [108], holistic education [109-111], critical pedagogy [3, 4], futures education [112-116], and a raft of educational reforms within mainstream settings. All were critical of the formal, modernist 'factory-model' of mass education. Most sought to broaden education beyond the simple information-processing model based on a mechanistic view of the human being to a more holistic, creative, multifaceted, embodied and participatory approach. Yet not all honour the spiritual needs or the multi-layered nature of the developing child, as part of a consciously evolving human species. Furthermore, these approaches are still minor threads and unfortunately most approaches are also isolationist in relation to each other.

Third Wave: Rich Imaginaries of Educational Futures for the 21st Century

What I would call third wave approaches to evolving education are reflected in the plethora of new postformal—or evolutionary—pedagogies, which have emerged, particularly over the last decade. I have identified over a dozen emerging pedagogical approaches that in some way, either directly or indirectly, facilitate the evolution of postformal-integral-planetary consciousness. I have begun the process of hermeneutic dialogue among them, but of course much more research needs to be done.

...

I think we are experiencing what I would call a third wave of educational impulses to evolve education since the beginning of the 20th century. Although much of European and Anglo education did lose its initial idealist/romantic impulse during the 19th century, and succumbed to the weight of industrialism and secularism, new threads began to emerge in various parts of the world in the early 20th century. We had Montessori and Steiner in Europe, Whitehead in the UK, Dewey in the USA and Sri Aurobindo in India all pioneering more integral, organic educational approaches that provided a counter-weight to the factory model. They emphasised imagination, aesthetics, organic thinking, practical engagement, creativity, spirituality, and other features that reflect the emergent integral consciousness. However, as you say these approaches have mostly remained marginalised, or in the case of Dewey's initiative, been appropriated in a reduced form by the mainstream system as so called "progressive education. "What I call the second wave was sparked by the dramatic consciousness changes that began in 1968 with the student protests in Paris, followed rapidly by the 1969 Woodstock Peace Festival in the USA, which laid foundations for a youth peace movement against the Vietnam War. These events arguably marked the beginning of various "new age" movements, including participatory politics, new forms of music, east-west spiritual- philosophical dialogues, new gender relations, post-nuclear family lifestyles and recreational use of drugs. These movements were taken up quite strongly in the Anglo countries, particularly in pockets of the US and, at least indirectly, began to shift ideas about formal education. The 1970s to 1990s saw a broadening of alternative educational modes, including home-schooling (Holt, 1970), holistic education (J. Miller, 1990; R. Miller, 1999, 2000), critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970; Illich, 1975), futures education (Fien, 1998; Gough, 1989; Hicks, 1998; Rogers, 1998; Slaughter, 1989), and a raft of educational reforms within mainstream settings. All were critical of the formal, modernist 'factory-model' of mass education. Most sought to broaden education beyond the simple information-processing model based on a mechanistic view of the human being to a more holistic, creative, multifaceted, embodied and participatory approach. Yet not all honour the spiritual needs or the multi-layered nature of the developing child, as part of a consciously evolving human species. Furthermore, these approaches are still minor threads and unfortunately most approaches are also isolationist in relation to each other.

This brings us to what I would call the third wave approaches to evolving education reflected in the plethora of new " post formal pedagogies" which have emerged, particularly over the last decade. Some of these aim to—or at least claim to—integrate all previous approaches"

(https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/15623015.pdf)

More information

From the same author: Jennifer Gidley on Comparing Macro-Integral, Meso-Integral, Micro-Integral, Participatory-Integral, and Transversal-lntegral