Non-word (buyan) and non-self (wuji): Resistance to duality, standardisation and comparison in regime of school accountability. Issue 7 (6th June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lan, Yuting
• Is Part Of: Educational philosophy and theory. Volume 52:Issue 7(2020)
• Page Start: 791
• Page End: 803
• Publication Date: 2020-06-06
• Subjects: Taoism -- duality -- accountability -- ontology -- teaching; Education -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Teaching -- Periodicals; Éducation; Philosophie de l'éducation; Théorie de l'éducation; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 370.1
• DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2019.1707660
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-1857

Abstract

Abstract: This article problematizes the way of thinking schooling in discourse of sign system, which involves opposition, and double gesture of inclusion/exclusion. Drawing on two fundamental texts of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu, this article puts forward the seemingly passive Non-Word and Non-Self to resist the hierarchy ordering of conceptions and man, and to undo duality of binary opposition. It links the history of assessment and PISA to the rethinking of evidence and sign in contemporary movements. The second section proposes teaching as wandering (you, 游), the transcendence into Non-Self with response to men's natural inquiry, but not artificially manipulating and shaping man by privileging certain knowledge, value, and thoughts over other. Instead of making categories of race, gender, and normal/abnormal, Taoist provides a way of reconsider the self operating on assessing, standardizing, normalizing, correcting and predicting others in school accountability. It is built on the ontology of considering individual as belonging to an ultimate sameness, the oneness. The article concludes with underlying assumption that students are subjected to change, and their difference must be eliminated through standard test. It further questions tactics of reason that educational reform face in the current regime of school accountability.