Education Seen through the Postmodernity „Grid”

Abstract

The postmodern culture is a concept imposed by theoreticians to express and delimit the contemporary cultural universe from that of the modern age. The postmodern culture would be the cultural equivalent of post-industrial societies, information societies, a knowledge-based economy, societies dominated by the new electronic information and communication tools. We see a coexistence of different values and ways of thinking, cultural and educational practices (a situation sometimes defined as multiculturalism), an articulation of ideas and styles. From the perspectives of postmodernists, the constructivism is the most important theory of learning. Knowledge, ideas and language are created by people, not because they are true, but especially because they are useful. As far as value reporting is concerned, the modernist paradigm promotes educators as legitimate authorities and mandates by the state to bring students into spiritual values universally. The most important values are rationality and progress. From a postmodern perspective, education must help students constructing different values and use them in the context of their own cultures. Among the important values that desirably should be cultivated through education, we mention diversity, tolerance, care, freedom, creativity, emotions, or intuition. In this study I will try to identify the main features of postmodernism and its applications in education.