Chapter 5 Flashcards
Postmodernism was a reaction to what?
Modernism
Name a key thinker of modernism
Friedrick Nietzsche
Describe the beliefs of Friedrich Nietzsche
- there is no foundation on which to rest belief
- truth is dead and people have no option but to create their own world
What reference contradicts the beliefs of Friedrich Nietzsche
John 17:17
What philosophic movements influenced postmodernism?
Pragmatism, Existentialism, Marxism
What did Pragmatism contribute to postmodernism?
Rejection of the metaphysical and that knowledge is provisional
What did Existentialism contribute to post-modernism
Emphasis on relativism
What did Marxism contribute to Post-modernism
Class struggle and economic fairness
Name some key contributors to Postmodernism
Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault
Describe Richard Rorty’s contribution to Postmodernism
one can have opinions but not truth (there is no access to reality)
Describe Jacques Derrida’s contribution to Postmodernism
Deconstruct the text of books to find hidden meanings and presuppositions of the authors (books tell us what to think before we think and we cannot express what we think)
Describe Michael Foucault’s contribution to Postmodernism
- Power implications in language (reality is created by whoever had the power to shape language)
- Through language, we can create reality
List the key concepts of postmodernism and education
- impossible to determine objective truth
- language does not put us in contact with reality
- language and meaning are socially constructed
- meta narratives (the big theme) are developed by dominant groups to legitimize their position and privilege
- knowledge is power
- education in the future cannot rely on the curriculums and methods of the past
In postmodernism, what is the teacher’s role?
Social activists who are out to change the status quo
What are some positive contributions to postmodernism
- recognition that language is closely related to power
- overemphasis on human reason and the scientific method
