East-West Cooperation and Collaboration
in Educational Studies
The seminar will address the opportunities and challenges of East-West cooperation in humanities and educational studies, explore methods and techniques for cooperative and collaborative studies, and identify key areas and topics for cooperative and collaborative studies.
Thursday June 20. 2019
Session One: Welcome and Keynote Session, 7:30-10pm
Meeting Place：Room 109, Hangzhou International Center of Urban Studies
Welcome (7:30-8:00pm)
Wen Zhengbao, Dean of School of Education, HZNU
Keynote Session(8:00-10pm)
Seminar Introduction
Leonard J. Waks (Hangzhou Normal University)
Keynote: Roger Ames (Peking University)
Title: Confucian Education for a Changing World Cultural Order
A perfect storm is brewing: climate change, food and water shortages, environmental degradation, pandemics, energy shortage, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, gross income inequities, and so on. An effective response to this human exacerbated predicament requires a radical change in human values, intentions, and practices. At the same time, the rise of China has precipitated a sea change in the economic and political order of the world. But what about the prevailing cultural order long dominated by a powerful liberalism? Confucian philosophy is a philosophy of education that begins from personal cultivation within family and community relations. What makes it both “contemporary” and “classical” at the same time is that it has been perpetuated across the centuries through the dynamics of intergenerational transmission. Question: What impact will Confucianism as a philosophy that begins from the primacy of family-centered education and ends with “family-ing the world” (jiatianxia 家天下) have on a changing world cultural order over the ensuing decades?
Keynote: Zhang Hua (Hangzhou Normal University)
Title: The Hope of East-West Conversation in Educational Studies
At least from early in the 20th century, and especially in today’s global and digital world, democratization and internationalization are historical tendencies. They are, moreover, closely related to one another. Democracy is not limited to specific areas or countries. If it is not applied globally, as both means and end, it is not true to itself. So internationalization is the touchstone to test democratization. As consciousness and life style, inter-nationality means peacefully, interactively, and concernedly living with, learning from, and taking responsibility for the people in other countries or cultural circles. Internationalization is not the universalization of any given culturally situated value orientations, behavior norms, or social systems, but rather, the complicated, ever-expanding conversation among those from distinct, unique cultural situations. Democratic life attitude is the core of internationalization, while Internationalization is international cultural democratization. “Cultural democratization” is the hope of East-West conversations in education studies. It encourages and supports us in going beyond nationally distinctive education studies, to deepen our professional understanding and effectiveness as education scholars.
Friday, June 21, 2019
Session Two: The Conditions for East-West Dialogue 9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Speaker: Liz Jackson (University of Hong Kong)(9:00-9:40am)
Title: Voicing Communitarianism to Individualists: The Challenges and Need for Chinese Models of Philosophical Dialogue
This session explores some of the challenges involved with East-West philosophical dialogue. One challenge involves different communicative tendencies within communities shaped by political liberal versus communitarian dispositions. This can simply be described as being 'argumentative' versus being 'harmonious' or 'agreeable'. In my experience (not just in Hong Kong and USA but also in South Africa, the UK, and the UAE), some cultures recognise as virtues self-deprecation, humility, and other-centeredness; whilst others emphasise more of individuality, personal authenticity, and self-assuredness. These are of course vast generalisations but this observation leads me to one other point. Given historical power differentials and the historical separation of some cultures, and values of patriotism and cultural superiority and hierarchy, some people do not recognize differences as anything more than deficiencies of the other. Failing to notice these differences as something other than deficiencies paves the way for misunderstanding. In this context I explore some of the challenges of East-West dialogues by giving some more detailed examples.
Speaker: On-Cho Ng (Penn State University)(9:45-10:25am)
Title: Chinese Thought and Global Humanities: Epistemological Conditions of the Production of Knowledge
Via interrogations of some recent important studies and theories of Chinese thought, Ng’s presentation extracted information on the analytic apparatuses employed and interpretive paradigms constructed. While the various expository confections demonstrate astute acumen in eliding cultural bias such as Orientalism and reveal keen awareness of the presentist trap of anachronism, their Sinocentric sensibility and sensitivity are tempered, and indeed subverted, by inevitable subscription to some western hermeneutic construal of one sort of another, an epistemological mode of knowledge production that may be called “Eurotropism,” as opposed to “Eurocentricism.” Far from lamentation, I argue that this apparent tyranny of western inference is an inexorable feature of "glocality," so to say, wherein the heretofore local, Chinese thought in our case, may find fruitful expression as a globally significant variant of intellectual engagement.
Speaker: Zhang Huajun (Beijing Normal University)(10:45-11:25am)
Title: The possibility of intercultural Dialogue: Humanities beyond the East-West Dichotomy
Zhang grew up in China, studied in the West, and then came back to China as an educator and culture scholar. Her study of John Dewey and Chinese Confucianist Liang Shuming on individuality has been my journey to become a person with a cosmopolitan mind but also keeping the cultural identity as a Chinese. There have been great persons as spiritual models of “living to be a good person for a better world” in history and in daily life: Confucius, Socrates, Jesus, Sakyamuni even some models still alive. In the contemporary world, intercultural dialogue becomes more difficult but also more urgent. When we put aside the different cultures as “abstract concepts” (Albert Camus), but start to live in the cultures which might not be familiar, to talk with people in the cultures, makes friends with them, we find that they share many common values (which may take different names). The stories of the great persons with shining spiritual personalities offer a living bridge to connect the heartsand minds of people across the world. Education thus needs to take the responsibility for this task: How to make the great personalities truly alive among the younger generations?
Speaker: You Zhuran (Shaoxing University)(11:30-12:10pm)
Title: Can Chinese Scholars Contribute Conceptually to the Global Research Conversation with Studies in the Philosophy of Education?
The current international conversation on the philosophy of education is mostly based on the Western discourses and standards, which have inevitably marginalized Chinese voices (and many others' as well). To alter the status quo, we need to incorporate more Chinese concepts into international research discussions and literature. This effort can help enrich and diversify the global philosophical conversations about education with Eastern perspectives. That said, can Chinese scholars' studies on the philosophy of education introduce new dynamics to the international research conversations with Chinese conceptual frameworks? Can these Chinese concepts preserve their original meanings when the research is published in English? How would these Chinese concepts and the Western counterparts interact with/interpenetrate each other? Can the research serve as a springboard for Chinese scholars to engage in global research conversations, and provide a window through which international academics can get to know more about Chinese conceptual contributions to global philosophy, promoting more cross-cultural discussions? This also brings me to thinking about the barriers Chinese scholars have faced participating in global conversation on humanities studies in education. The program of enhancing Chinese contributions to the global conversation on the philosophy of education presents both opportunities and challenges to Chinese researchers. To do so, they need to overcome a sea of barriers including the language barrier, the cultural differences between East and West, the different ways of thinking, and the different academic standards, etc. Chinese researchers need to learn to write/discuss in English on the latest issues or the classical topics in the philosophy of education, which requires not only language proficiency and relevant research skills, but also cross-cultural understandings on both Chinese philosophies and Western philosophies. They need to actively collaborate with international scholars, who help overcome the barriers and bring new perspectives. Moreover, administrative support is imperative to help facilitate the program. The Chinese higher education leaders need to recruit more capable scholars, both international scholars and Chinese scholars with international educational experiences and research expertise/cross-cultural competencies, and enact school policies in favor of this academic endeavor.
Session Three: East-West Dialogue on Childhood, Education and Teaching （2:30 -6:15 pm）
Speaker: Jessica Chingsze Wang (National Chiayi University, Taiwan) (2:30-3:10pm)
Title: The Need for an Intercultural Dialogue on the Teaching of Thinking for Global Citizens and Global Problems
The teaching of thinking is acknowledged as an important goal of education and underlying this view are the conceptions of what thinking is and why it is important. Contemporary educational discourse and programs on teaching thinking is very much based on western philosophy, especially epistemology. They operate under the assumption that we have sufficient knowledge of what good thinking is (thinking about thinking), how thinking is to be categorized (critical, creative, caring thinking and collaborative), and what curriculum and pedagogy is suited for teaching thinking. However, is the current knowledge really sufficient? Or does it represent a Eurocentric point of view? Is it somehow limited by a bounded philosophy? Does this view of disembodied cognition render thinking too verbal and conceptual? How might other intellectual traditions conceptualize thinking? Or the idea of a thinking person? In different thinking contexts? Can an exploration into Confucian conceptions of thinking contribute to a wider acceptance of the contribution of philosophy in education? How can our development in thinking also help us become better persons? How can we construct a culturally infused discourse on thinking that can contribute to the education of global citizens for global problems?
Speaker: Gao Zhenyu (Hangzhou Normal University)(3:15-3:45pm)
Title: Necessities and Possibilities of the East-west Dialogues on the Philosophy of Childhood
The field of childhood studies first emerged in late 19th century and has been revived since the 1960s. The field aims to study children and childhood a from the angles of, and informed by, various disciplines. These include psychology, education, brain science, sociology, history , economics, media studies and politics. The philosophy of childhood, first proposed by Matthew Lipman in the1970s, has been further developed by Gareth Matthews in the 1990s. This area of study endeavors to critically reflect upon past and current theories on childhood, constantly to reconsider fundamental questions concerning childhood. “what does childhood mean” “what are the social and intrinsic values of childhood”“what ideally should the relationship between children and adults be”? The philosophy of childhood thereby seeks to build a new philosophical system incorporating children’s voices, agencies and contributions. This new field can make significant contributions not only to the general childhood studies, but also to education and philosophy. But questions remain and need further and deeper investigation: why should we have such a new field? What can we say about the relationship between children and philosophy? Are children born philosophers? Do philosophers retain some peculiar features of childhood? What did ancient and modern philosophers (from the East and the West) say about children or childhood? How did the theories on childhood evolve? Can constructing metaphysics, epistemology, moral and social philosophy, aesthetics with children’s particular standpoints really be possible?
Speaker: James Yang (Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University UIC)
Title: Reflection on Chinese Philosophy Teaching in the Context of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in a Liberal Arts College(4:00-4:40pm)
This presentation focused on the two significant issues. The first one was to help participants better understand the implication of liberal arts education in the circumstance of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in higher education. The second one was to spotlight philosophy education in BNU-HKBU United International College based on my teaching-learning experience. In connection with a contextual analysis and the discussion of teaching strategy, this presentation uncovered how to balance Chinese culture with Western knowledge , as well as liberal mind and the Chinese governmental thinking in Chinese philosophy course.
Speaker: Sabine Yang (Zhejiang Normal University)(4:45-5:25pm)
Title: The Tao of Teaching at the Crossroads of Life
The character of Tao in seal character（in Zhou Dynasty) offers some wisdom about the meaning of thinking. As Martin Heidegger said in his famous essay "What is Called Thinking?" we are not living in a world with thinking，but a world that provokes thinking. He also says that teaching is "letting learn." Standing at the crossroad of my teaching career, Sabine tried to be hesitant as Tao shows her the way. If we are not in a rush, we can ask ourselves "why do we, or should we, teach?" It's not a easy question, but one that calls for deep consideration and reflection.
Virtual Presentation
Speaker: Thom Brooks (University of Durham, England)(5:30-6:15pm)
Title: Making Humanities Scholarship Unbound: A New Philosophical Approach
Brooks’presentation discussed why philosophical traditions are constrained and why there is a need for them to become “unbound” by engaging with other traditions for insights that can bring to bear in solving problems. We can enrich and enliven our own approach by more meaningful engagement with other traditions and more global orientation. Not only can this help us make progress in our work, but also help address the realities of a more globalized, diverse student body.
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Session Four: Topics for East-West Dialogue and Next Steps, 9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Speakers: Xiaobo Ruan (Hangzhou Normal University) and Duncan Driver (University of Canberra)(9:00-9:40am)
Title: The Role of International Exchange Programs in Broadening East-West Communication, Cooperation, and Collaboration
Speaker: Dengting Boyanton(9:45-10:25am)
Title: International Community, Global Village: Concrete Steps Forward - AERA and S-AERA
In this talk, Dr. Dengting shared the opportunities and challenges of building an international intellectual community together based on my experiences working for both AERA (American Educational Research Association) and S-AERA (Sino-American Educational Research Association).
