THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE CONTEXT OF MODERN EDUCATION: A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW

The article focuses on the little-studied interrelationship between the human way of being and education. The goal of the study is twofold. First, it is to reconstruct the image of the individual that lies at the basis of the scholars’ worldview. Secondly, it is to develop a model of philosophy that would correspond to this image and correlate with the problems and challenges of modern education. Drawing attention to the widespread use of information and electronic technologies in education, the author argues that the model of human being as embodied presence (embodiment) is very important for pedagogical activities. The significance of this model is that it enables to distinguish the meaning-making dimension of human consciousness so needed by contemporary education. The author demonstrates that an individual sees and cognizes the world not so much with the organs that are available and ready, but rather with those that are constituted in the acts of reflexing. Meaning, therefore, is the reflexive functional organ that reproduces the substance of the personality of a human being as a student. The author also notes that the perception and comprehension of the world is carried out from the perspectives of both the “pure” and the embodied mind. Thus, one of the main tasks of education is to engage and reveal the mind-body system as a source of the subject’s meaning-making activity. So, orienting education towards the individual as a being who does not possess meanings but searches for them will succeed only if the human being is viewed as an integral whole rather than as separate parts. The author concludes that both philosophy and pedagogy need to develop educational anthropology, an interdisciplinary area that would explore the subject of education in the integrity of their three dimensions – mind, body and language, taken as sources of creating meanings.

The “educated teacher”: Joint (self-)reflection on translatability between anthropology and teacher education

Building on the core epistemological features and aims of Educational Anthropology, in this paper we explore the perception of anthropological educational knowledge among teachers and their related reflections on the educational standards of their profession, as well as their own role in society. Following an overview of (the emerging) intersections between teacher education and Educational Anthropology in Austria, the paper focuses on conversations with teachers in Austria on the outputs of an educational anthropological project (TRANSCA) and their applicability. Two of the project outputs – a Concept Book and a Whiteboard Animation (on “Worldmaking”) – serve as the ground for focusing on three aspects emerging from the conversations with teachers: firstly, the concept of the “educated teacher”; secondly, conceptualization as a form of translation of anthropological knowledge via both text and animation; and thirdly, the differentiation between teaching in terms of schooling versus pedagogy. The latter is explored as a crucial dimension of the discussions among and with teachers and lies at the heart of potential future synergies between anthropology and education.

Exploring the Frontier of Chinese Ethnic Minority Education: An Interview With Prof. Xing Teng

Xing Teng has spearheaded ethnic minority education and educational anthropology in China. As a member of the Han majority and an ally to ethnic minority groups, he has endeavored to open space for ethnic minority education in China. I sat down with Professor Teng in the summer of 2018. After transcribing the original interview into Chinese and in consultation with Professor Teng, four segments from the interview are translated for this Special Issue, with added footnotes. Statements are also included in the text for clarity. The final version has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

KAJIAN NARATIF ANTROPOLOGI DAN PENDIDIKAN

Anthropology of science education that was born in the mid-20th century. The question that arose at that time was the extent to which education could change society, the frame of mind at that time how to develop development in developing countries and indeed at that time developed countries like Europe were thinking of doing it. changes in society develop through its programs, so that educational anthropology tries to find patterns of community learning culture that can create a change.

Educational Anthropology and Engaged Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Since the field’s early years, anthropology has been concerned with processes of teaching and learning. While early anthropological works were comparative in nature—examining schooling systems around the world in relation to those in US society—scholars gradually began to focus more on educational issues in the US. Efforts to bring together the works of scholars of pedagogy and anthropologists slowly morphed into what we now call “educational anthropology” or “anthropology and education.” In tracing the history of the relationship of anthropology and education, scholars have examined how different historical moments have shaped anthropology’s development as a profession, discipline, and specialization. Different publications have focused on exploring anthropology’s transformation following World War II. Funding from organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation contributed to the growth of anthropology as a discipline and profession and helped bolster its role as an academic specialization. The growth of social mobilization in the 1960s, which highlighted issues of inequality, racial discrimination, and political crises, also contributed to a growth in students majoring in anthropology to study these issues. The rise in undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology further helped to increase the establishment of anthropology departments across the United States and the allocation of public funding to improve pedagogical approaches. In the same vein, educational anthropology contributed to the examination of teaching/learning processes but also looking at education in relationship to broader social issues (e.g., inequality, culture, gender, identity). Since the 1980s, the development of educational anthropology has occurred in parallel with other academic efforts to improve instructional approaches. The scholarship of teaching and learning for instance, has focused on exploring different pedagogical approaches in higher education with the purpose of improving teaching methodologies to enhance student learning. Some of these approaches include active learning, engaged learning, and service learning. In the realm of innovative educational approaches, community service learning has focused on establishing long-term partnerships between universities and communities. Such collaborative settings exhibit an overlap with undergraduate anthropological approaches to education, helping to introduce students to the intricacies of social issues as they are experienced in actual communities.

Miejsca kultury w antropologii i etnografii edukacyjnej

The focus of this article is on culture as a central concept of educational anthropology – a subdiscipline of anthropology that focuses on the fields of education and learning as key aspects of social life. It begins with an introduction into how culture has been criticially conceptualized in anthropology and ethnography and then illustrates how educational anthropologists have used the concepts of culture and cultural critique to analyze educational processes in diverse sociocultural settings. The author points out three primary areas in which anthropology of education enriches our understanding of education and learning: 1) investigations of diversity of educational practices in different sociocultural contexts; 2) critical examination of cultural practices and structures of inequality and exclusion vis-à-vis minority subjects in the educational process; 3) positioning of participatory research approaches and engagement as legitimate methodological and scholary standpoints. The article builts primarily on examples of texts that have been recently published in the Polish language in order to help situate the perspective of educational anthropology in Polish scholarly discourse and tradition.

Homo educandus through the prism of educational anthropology

An important area which has not received adequate attention within philosophy and educational theory is a close relationship of the human way of being and education. In the light of this the purpose of the article is Janus-faced, looking both inward at reconstructing a mental image of a man that is central for scholars’ worldview and outward at designing a philosophical model that would be keeping with the current challenges of education. Drawing attention at the widespread of electronic technologies in our life it is argued that the idea of a man as embodiment has significant educational consequences. The most important one is the possibility to reveal the meaning-making dimension of consciousness which the modern education urgently needs today. The claim that perception and cognition of the world does not take place from the standpoint of “pure” mind detached from the body, but rather on the basis of embodiment is considered to be a convincing one. In this regard, one of the primary missions of education is to reveal and activate the consciousness-body system as a source of man’s meaning-making activity. Furthermore the issue states that the pedagogical vision of the human being as someone who doesn’t have but search for meaning would succeed only if the human being is viewed as an integral whole rather than as separate parts. In conclusion it is stated that both philosophy and theory of education need to develop a multidisciplinary study of education – anthropology of education. The research field related to inquiry on the subject of education in the integrity of his three dimensions – mind, body and language.