ABSTRACT
Is the progressive paradigm still appropriate as the primary frame of reference for classroom change in ‘developing’ countries? The shift to the paradigm that occurred in the academic and official policy literature after the mid-20th century was not followed by paradigm shift inside the prevalent formalistic classrooms. Yet progressive theory has not aligned with classroom reality. Widespread failure to generate paradigm shift has rarely led to Gestalt-switch or paradigm reversal. Progressivism is the ‘normal science’ paradigm that is now under challenge, with adherents exhibiting classic symptoms of values-based resistance to change. Resistance manifests as retention of an axiomatic faith in progressivism as a universal panacea and as cognitive dissonance when theoretical and methodological anomalies incorrectly are ignored, downplayed or mistreated as acceptable error. Even culturally aware reactions display cognitive dissonance in claims for progressivism that are migrated, nuanced, or redefined confusingly. Iteration of progressive delusions in the literature can be understood as a cosmology of cumulative hallucination because the outcome is a self-reinforcing cycle in evaluations and reviews where continued repetition camouflages the irrationality of the classroom reform goal they purport to progress. The progressive paradigm has become an intellectually caged, distorted and history-free educational ideology.
