Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

896 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
According to the Enactivists, perception and cognition also operate in contradiction to Cartesianism,
as they construct a reality as opposed to reflecting an external one already in existence.
The interactive or circular organization of the nervous system described by Mataurana is similar
to the hermeneutic circle as it employs a conversation between diverse parts of a system to construct
meaning. Autopoiesis as the process of self-production is the way living things operate.
Self-construction emerges out of a set of relationships between simple parts. In the hermeneutic
circle the relationships between parts “self-construct” previously unimagined meanings. Thus,
in an ontological context meaning emerges not from the thing-in-itself but from its relationships
to an infinite number of other things. In this complexity we understand from another angle that
there is no final meaning of anything; meanings are always evolving in light of new relationships,
new horizons. Thus, in a critical ontology our power as meaning makers and producers of new
selfhoods is enhanced. Cognition is the process in which living systems organize the world around
them into meaning. With this in mind critical ontology creates a new era of immanence—“what
could be” has never implied so much.
Specifically, Mataurana and Varela argue that our identities do not come with us into the
world in some neatly packaged unitary self. Since they “rise and subside” in a series of shifting
relationships and patterns, the self can be described using the Buddhist notion that the self is
empty of self-nature. Understanding this, Francisco Varela maintains, self-understanding and
self-change become more possible than ever before. The self, therefore, is not a material entity
but takes on more a virtual quality. Human beings have the experience of self, but no self—no
central controlling mechanism—is to be found. Much is to be gained by an understanding of
the virtual nature of the self. Such knowledge is an important dimension of a critical ontology.
According to the Enactivists this knowledge helps us develop intelligent awareness—a profound
understanding of the construction and the functioning of selfhood. Intelligent awareness is filled
with wisdom but devoid of the egocentrism that undermines various notions of critical knowing.
In such a context intelligent awareness cannot be separated from ethical insight. Without this
ontological understanding many of pedagogies designed to empower will fan the flames of the
egocentrism they attempt to overcome. If nothing else, a critical ontology cultivates humility
without which wisdom is not possible.
ENACTIVISM AND THE POSTFORMAL SELF—RELATIONAL SELFHOOD
From Maturana and Varela’s perspective learning takes place when a self-maintaining system
develops a more effective relationship with the external features of the system. In this context
Enactivism is highlighting the profound importance of relationship writ large as well as the
centrality of the nature and quality of the relationships an organism makes with its environment. In
a cognitive context, this is an extension of Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development
(ZPD) to the ontological realm—it is our assertion here that indigeneity should become a part
of Westerners’ ZPD. In the development of a critical ontology, we learn from these ideas that
political empowerment vis-à-vis the cultivation of the intellect demand an understanding of the
system of relationships that construct our selfhood. In the case of a critical form of pedagogy,
these relationships always involve students’ connections to cultural systems, language, economic
concerns, religious belief, social status, and the power dynamics that constitute them. With the
benefit of understanding the self-in-relationship teachers gain a new insight into what is happening
in any learning situation. Living on the borderline between self and external system and self and
other, learning never takes place outside of these relationships. Such an appreciation of the
postformal self changes our orientation toward pedagogy.
Teachers who view classroom practice in the ontological framework of the postmodern self
understand their role as creators of situations where students’ experiences could intersect with