ABSTRACT
Instrumentalist expectations also tend to snap to an aesthetic and ethical grid that is invariably related to political-economic determinations, psychological stages of development, and sociological and epistemological typologies. In educational theory this is evidenced by developmental and progressive theories of individual and social learning whose projections assume that through measure, accountability and strategic planning, the arts and education are bound to yield desired results. The issue remains wide open, in that there is not one assumption that is inherently right and by implication, another assumption that is somehow wrong by default. The positivists are just as over-idealistic in their judgment of social practice as they are over-realistic in their contempt of theory. The arts are already burdened by legions of theorists, practitioners and “praxialists” who have a habit of naming an assortment of maladies and cures which, more often than not, they end up reinforcing, whether intentionally or by accident.
