Scientism and Education Empirical Research as Neo-Liberal Ideology
This volume offers a critical examination of the growing pressure to apply scientific principles as a means to improve education. The authors trace the ideology of scientism to the early faith Auguste Comte placed in science and the scientific method as a
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Emery J. Hyslop-Margison • M. Ayaz Naseem Authors
Scientism and Education Empirical Research as Neo-Liberal Ideology
Emery J. Hyslop-Margison University of New Brunswick Fredericton Canada
M. Ayaz Naseem Concordia University Montreal Canada
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007935891
ISBN-13: 978-1-4020-6677-1
e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4020-6678-8
Printed on acid-free paper. © 2007 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Dedication
Dr. Kieran Egan, an exceptional mentor and scholar, whose academic work has been a tremendous inspiration
Foreword
We presently live in an era dominated by scientism, an ideology that believes that science (and its rationalist foundation in modern epistemology) has an undeniable primacy over all other ways of seeing and understanding life and the world, including more humanistic, mythical, spiritual, and artistic interpretations. In being critical of scientism as I am, I am not against science per se: modern science and its ways of understanding and knowing the world are valuable, and we should be grateful for them. But it is the hegemony of the habits of mind that manifest pervasively in education that privilege science education, career, and research over other modes and branches of learning and knowing that I have problems with. I have too often witnessed parents overtly or subtly discouraging their children from following artistic or humanistic aspirations and pushing them for training and careers in Science, Math, Business, and Technology. In this society we say in a thousand and one ways that money, security, power, and ultimately fulfillment reside in these disciplines and not in the Arts, Humanities, and Philosophy. We valorize scientists, and even when they speak on subjects outside their domain of expertise, we take their opinions and pronouncements as definitively authoritative. When Science speaks, people listen. This hegemonic attitude towards Science and other subjects that require the exercise of our rational and intellectual faculty is reflected in educational research as well. In the pantheon of educational research, empirical research deals with the tangible and observable, and hence can count, measure, and predict sitting at the throne and command the largest funding and unequivocal respect, whereas research in Arts and Humanities, which propose to, or actually do, inspire, edify, and in general call for transformation of moral or social consciousness and appeal to conscience, is often ignored, neglected, and perhaps even worse, trivialized and dismissed. This devaluing and dismissive view of educational research that is not characterized by data collecting,
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