Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

Knowledge in a Reconceptualized Educational Environment 505
and class management strategies that synergetically promote one ideological, economic, political,
and cultural position about the nature of education and, subsequently, society. Consequently, this
promotion of one worldview facilitates the attempted domination of society by this worldview.
A reconceptualized view of education challenges this attempt to gain power through the
manipulation of the educational process. The most fundamental aspect of this challenge is to
engage the issues of what constitutes valid knowledge, how knowledge is produced and acquired,
and the consequences of the possible answers to these issues. Reconceptualists recognize the
fundamental truth that knowledge, like all aspects of education, is political. This chapter will
explore how a reconceptualized view of teaching and learning would influence these issues about
knowledge in the educational environment. The result of a reconceptualized view of knowledge
would not be the silencing of stakeholder voices, but instead would be a rich and inclusive
conversation that would further result in a view of knowledge that would promote an educational
system devoted to the promotion of social justice, an ethic of caring, and participatory democracy.
WHAT CONSTITUTES VALID KNOWLEDGE?
Unlike an empirically based technical rational educational system that promotes only selected
empirically generated knowledge, which supports the promotion of a conservative dominant culture,
a reconceptualized view of knowledge is diverse, egalitarian, and critical in its intent. A
reconceptualized perspective values all forms of knowledge. This inclusiveness is essential if
the complexity of education is to be fully engaged. A reconceptual view maintains that no one
form of knowledge can provide a full and accurate understanding of a natural or social phenomenon.
Knowledge produced by individuals who represent different philosophies, ideologies,
methodologies, and sociocultural contexts contributes to a broader and deeper understanding of
a complex phenomenon.
Besides the formal knowledge empirically generated by the scientific method, knowledge that
is indigenous to individuals who are not part of the culture of Western science is also valued by
a reconceptualized view of education. Often, these indigenous cultures have been subjugated by
positivist-oriented cultures that consequently determined the indigenous knowledge to be inferior
to their formal empirical knowledge. In this case, the domination of one worldview and one
knowledge production process sharply limits the potential to engage complexity.
In relation to knowledge and its representation in school curriculum, this process of domination
and subjugation can be seen in current educational policy and practice. Any standards and
accountability system that is driven by standardized testing and imposed on individual schools by
a political body is an example of the determination by that controlling group of what constitutes
correct and valid curricular knowledge. In situations like this, phenomenological complexity
cannot be fully engaged because teachers and students are now restricted to specific information
and inquiry processes. For instance, if there is a specific answer as to whether Woodrow Wilson
was a conservative or liberal President of the United States, students’ investigation into this
complex historical situation will be simplistically restricted to only the information that can lead
to the predetermined correct answer. Lost in this potentially rich and critical inquiry into history
will be all of the information that contradicts such a simplistic answer. In this case, the potentially
diverse student answers that represent a high and critical level of engagement of the historical
evidence will be subjugated to the predetermined view of those in control of the curriculum.
Besides the formal knowledge presented through textbooks, video presentations, and teacher
lectures, all learners bring personal knowledge to the learning situation. This personal knowledge,
whether accurate or inaccurate, mediates and informs the learning process. Because of this, a
reconceptualized view of education allows personal knowledge to become part of the conversation
and critiquing process that occurs in a classroom that seeks authentic, relevant, and complex