HKIER

Abstract

That education requires epistemology is beyond doubt. The problem lies instead in what epistemology is required by education, and how and why, and in what contexts (e.g., in the Asian contexts). Exploring three epistemologies of education from the axiological perspective, this paper discusses three forms of desirability of knowledge as exemplified in three types of knowledge in educational contexts, taking university education and teacher education as two illustrative examples. Firstly, it explores liberal education on theoretical knowledge and its intrinsic desirability, showing its being overshadowed by the "Intellectualist epistemology" of the Greek legacy. Secondly, it explores vocational education on technical knowledge and its instrumental desirability, showing its being over-shadowed by the "Instrumentalist epistemology" of the industrialization legacy. It then argues that, although both trends and their underlying educational epistemologies may have their own contexts, both have undermined the very importance of intellectual qualities, which serve as the constitutive base by which both are made valid. As a conclusion, the paper calls for the restructuring of education to be based more on practical knowledge and its constitutive desirability, and, in effect, for the restructuring of knowledge-based education into "quality-based education" in which intellectual qualities — basic qualities of which to be embodied in the following highly contextualized and practical sorts of knowledge: (1) knowledge of the good (values and ends), (2) self-knowledge and (3) problem-solving knowledge — should be given more emphasis.

摘要

N.A.