Beyond a Pragmatic Account of the Aesthetic in Science Education
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Beyond a Pragmatic Account of the Aesthetic in Science Education Maurizio Toscano 1
& John Quay
1
Accepted: 4 September 2020/ # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
This paper argues that pragmatist philosophies and theories of science, education and art have dominated our understanding of aesthetics in science education in ways that overshadow other important and pertinent aspects of aesthetic experience. For all its strengths, a pragmatist account of science education and aesthetics remains vulnerable to a kind of instrumentalism that reduces the objects, practices and persons in science education to mere beings: the source and subject of a reductive objectification of experience. This paper proposes a counter-balancing perspective that both respects and also adds to that offered by pragmatism. It does so with reference to Heidegger’s ontological difference: the one side of which is concerned with pragmatic, scientific, reflective thinking and the other with a meditative and phenomenological way of thinking that draws out our unmediated experiences of the world. Moreover, it argues that the latter is accessible in science classrooms by approaching objects and practices as works of art. Keywords Science education . Ontological difference . Heidegger . Aesthetics . Pragmatism
1 Introduction In this paper, we demonstrate how pragmatist accounts of education have influenced research and practice into the aesthetics of science education in ways that, although valuable and effective, overshadow other equally important aspects of science classroom experiences. The aim is to show that a pragmatic account of aesthetic experience—especially in the tradition of John Dewey—has limitations and shortcomings that may be overcome by the counter-balance offered by a phenomenological perspective. That is, a perspective that emphasises experience, * Maurizio Toscano [email protected] John Quay [email protected]
1
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, 100 Leicester Street, Carlton, Victoria 3010, Australia
M. Toscano, J. Quay
but simultaneously eschews any implicit or explicit commitment to the kind of instrumentalism that pragmatic accounts are susceptible to. To this end, we draw upon Heidegger’s distinction between phenomenological and pragmatic renderings of experience (Quay, 2013), as well as his novel understanding of the role of works of art, to make the case for a conjoining of phenomenology and pragmatism in science education. The paper outlines the benefits of (Deweyan) pragmatism, explores its limitations, presents an account of its phenomenological counterpart, and proposes works of art as a vehicle for a more expansive and holistic account of aesthetics in science education. We begin with John Dewey’s lasting influence on education in general, and science education in particular. His pragmatic philosophies and theories of education, focussed on experience in education, inaugurated a renewed concern for aspects of education that were insufficiently captured by either rati
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