[Review]Routledge Library Editions: Philosophy of Education (3)

 Avoiding some of the Consequences of Streaming


The advantage of mixed ability grouping is that it provides direct instruction to every individual student. The problem with standardized education is that students may not be able to keep up with classes, and in the worst case, they may unintentionally fall into a lower group.(ibid., 15)


The world horizon of teachers, students, and education


“Percevoir, c'est se rendre présent quelque chose à l'aide du corps, la chose ayant toujours sa place dans un horizon de monde, et le déchiffrement consistant à remplacer chaque détail dans les horizons perceptifs qui lui conviennent. Mais de telles formules sont autant d'énigmes, à moins qu'on ne les rapproche des développements concrets qu'elles résument.”(M. Merleau-ponty, PP, 104)

The horizon of the world is revealed through perception. The horizon is the place where experience and knowledge meet and phenomena are formed. 

Phenomenological horizon of body-subject

Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological horizon is based on the perception of the body-subject. The horizon of the world called education is experienced by being perceived and perceived by intersubjects. In the ‘world’ called ‘education’, there is a teacher-subject. Mixed ability grouping is a series of experiences given to teachers. In other words, the teacher's education is perceived through his gestures and at the same time interacts with the student-subject. This gesture is the “motor intentionality” of the body toward the world. It is also called “representational intentionality” because it actively and voluntarily establishes relationships with the world.(K. Young, 2011, 61) The encounter between teacher-subject and student-subject, which is body awareness toward the world of education, is active. In this theory, students in the advanced education attempt of mixed ability grouping are not ‘objects’ but ‘student-subjects’, becoming open beings who can unfold their possibilities toward the classroom-world. The possibility of the student-subject's gestures representing his active subjectivity beyond psychological and metaphorical activities1) lies in interaction.

[Footnote]

1) The meaning of 'psychological' does not mean being a Being that operates through mental properties (2011, 78), and the meaning of 'metaphorical' does not mean being a Being that appears as an aspect of an involuntary gesture. ( ibid., 57) In other words, this means that the gestures of the student-subject that existentially meet the teacher-subject are not passive.

[Reference]

  • Routledge Library Editions: Philosophy of Education, 2017.
  • Maurice. Merleau-ponty., Le primat de la perception(abb. PP), Éditions Verdier, 1996.
  • Katharine Young, “Gestures, Intercorporeity, and the Fate of Phenomenology in Folklore”,
    Journal of American Folklore 124(492), 2011.

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