ABSTRACT

Recognizing Formalism If John von Neumann and Alan Turing had used a modem day public school classroom as a base, their study of complex systems theory, the prototype for digital technology, might not have evolved so rapidly or at all. Immersed in a formalist culture, education is not the best site for the study of complexity or the development of the theory of chaos. Modem education is entrenched in simplicity and order, a product of Eurocentric philosophy, scientific method, positivism, objectivity, and the "logos" of rationalism. Curricula, administrative and pedagogical structures, relationships of teaching and learning, and the entire range of content and organization are directed by these reductionist theories. In tum, certain discourse and elements determine the theories and practices of a vast educational realm which fall under the rubric of formalism. The "grand narratives" of formalism offer structures and methodologies that are problematic in the context of a post-formalist world. In this chapter, I challenge the status of formalism in education and explore the potential of post-formalist pedagogy, not as an agent of change, shift, or additional information but as a means of destabilizing the present dominance of formalism in education. To do so, I borrow from the discourse and principles of several major contemporary theories to assist in the discussion, theories that both question the stability, structures, and methodologies of formalism and provide discourse to rethink educational theories and practices.