Education as developing self: The importance of feeling and intuition.

摘要

This theoretical study focuses on the need for an educational aim that opens up a new and comprehensive perspective on the problems and fragmented reforms of educational practice--an aim that bridges differences of culture, race, ethnicity, socio-economic class, age, and gender. In that each of us has an undeniable investment in the development of our self, the encompassing aim of education as developing self is one that arches over all other aims and circumnavigates differences. With this in mind philosophical, psychological, and social theories of self are investigated, including attention to Jung, Dewey, and Buber.; Drawing upon Jung, Langer, Bergson, and Noddings, the feeling and intuiting components as educationally neglected aspects of self are investigated within the formulation of a self that is at once universalistic in nature but also admits of a variety of cultural and individual elements. Although an essential and continuing need for thinking and sensori-motor development is not denied, the thrust of this work is that feeling and intuition must be elucidated and emphasized in educational settings in the interest of developing a fuller, more balanced self. Practical examples of such pedagogy are interwoven throughout the work as illustrations of the interconnectedness of theory and practice.; In an effort to offer the social dimension as a contrast to the personality-oriented dimension and to demonstrate the connectedness of the psychological and social-cultural aspects of human beings, a brief comparison with another culture, that of the Japanese, is presented with a particular focus on the feeling amae. Notice is taken of the work of Doi and DeVos.; Furthermore, if the fundamental aim of education as self-development is accepted, then teacher education needs reconceptualization with particular recognition being given to feeling and intuition. Thus, attention is paid to the implications of holding such an aim and the practical means of incorporating it into programs of teacher preparation.; In conclusion, as a way of balancing and rounding off the conception of self, the role of narrative in the creation of self is considered.