ABSTRACT
Deep-rooted revelatory epistemologies about the nature of truths provide the philosophical foundations for formalistic educational paradigms centrally concerned with the inter-generational transmission of knowledge in ‘developing’ country classrooms. The progressive paradigm has been a theoretical and policy cage that has not generated paradigm shift. The effect is that formalism is likely to remain embedded in school systems for the foreseeable future as a highly compatible part of a symbiotic whole. Strong theoretical and practical reasons exist for evolutionary modification of formalism within cultures where it is appropriate. Formalism can replace progressivism as the primary frame of reference for classroom change rather than be seen as a problematic obstruction to modernisation. Many lessons about formalism indicate that it is not necessarily as narrow as often presupposed. It is capable of adaptation and of performing important educational functions now and in the foreseeable future, including producing high academic outcomes. The productive approach is to develop further culturally intuitive formalistic teaching styles rather than trying unproductively to have teachers adopt counter-intuitive progressive methods.
