在“过好自己的生活”之后--深化小学德育课程与教材改革的新思路

Beyond Living a Good Life: Reforming Moral Education Textbooks in Primary Schools

本研究的目的是总结当下小学品德课教材在品德课程改革中实现的历史性突破,检视其目前存在的伦理隐忧,在进一步深化品德课程改革的思路上,提出小学品德课教材设计的改进理路。本文采用话语分析的方法,通过对现行小学品德课教材中相关内容及以此内容为依据的教学设计思路的深入分析,认为现行教材以儿童现实的生活事件为主要素材,以"过好自己的生活"为核心目标,取得了品德课程改革的长足进步。但是,当下教材中存在着伦理立场的唯"我"无"他"、生活思路的技术化以及道德逻辑的功利化等伦理隐忧。结合新编教材的相关主题,借鉴解释学与存在主义的理论,论文解释了新教材编写中新的努力与超越:引入中国传统天人合一、与世界相依存的伦理立场,引导儿童深入理解个体与生活的文化意义与历史内涵,超越狭隘的功利主义思维,成为与世界和他者共在、有文化历史感的人。

The year 2002 marked a radical reform in both the theory and practice of China's moral education over the past few decades. Rather than a state mechanism for ideological indoctrination,the new moral education is expected to return to children 's real life world. And the moral education textbooks compiled since then have witnessed a progressive outlook. The content selection is based upon children's real life events and moral dilemmas therewith,and a new agenda is in place to help children learn how to live a good and ethical life both at present and in the future.Helping children live a good and ethical life is a noble goal of moral education in China. However,a closer review of the textbooks used in the past 12 years shows that such a lofty goal indeed registers some ethical concerns as possibly expressed in the textbook design of certain topics and in some real classroom teaching and learning. Such ethical concerns can be discerned at three layers. First is an ethical positioning that tends to play up the I-ness of children themselves,meanwhile depreciating others,whether it be other human beings,material things,or the natural world. Second is an instrumental and technological view of what a good life is.Moral education becomes the training of life skills and a good life is attainable through obtaining those skills.Third is a lopsided understanding of ethos as vulgarized utilitarianism,relating to both the environmental world and inter-personal relationships. With that,the I-ness of children is to take advantage of others and the natural world for its own benefit. What is neglected is a healthy ecology wherein human beings co-dwell harmoniously among themselves and with the natural world.Based on the analysis of the above ethical concerns,this paper attempts to explore four new efforts beyond living a good life. First is a rethinking of the true meaning of moral education. It argues that the key tone and contour of living a good life does not lie in a simple juxtaposition of subject knowledge,life skills,and the ideas of good life. Rather,it rests with a practical wisdom that integrates perception,knowledge,feelings,and life strategies. Second is a reconceptualization of a human subjects not as an independent subject in its modern sense but as a co-being in the traditional Chinese Daoist sense. According to the classical Chinese philosophy of Unity of Man and Nature( Tianrenheyi),human beings are just one element / being within the entire natural world that is composed of myriads of beings,including plants and animals. With such philosophy,human beings are supposed to co-dwell with and co-respond to the natural world harmoniously,instead of availing of the latter as a resource. The third lies in an ethical attitude that aims to replace the near-sighted,albeit dominant utilitarian and technological viewpoint in the current world. With such an ethical view,moral education is to guide children into reliving some historical and cultural contexts for a deeper understanding of the meaning as an individual. Last is for children to re-cultivate a sense of culture,history,and co-being in their daily life activities.It should be noted that all the above new efforts are to complement and supplement,not to negate China's progressive moral education reform in the past 12 years,in order to develop our children into real ethical citizens in the future.