一项批判性辩护:重思《资本主义美国的学校教育》

A Critical Defense:Reconsiderations on Schooling in Capitalist America

《资本主义美国的学校教育》(简称《学校教育》)作为教育领域的经典著作受到广泛误解。《学校教育》的某些陈述具有功能主义色彩,但它根本上并非功能主义;作者没有忽视上层建筑的重要性,只是他们的相关论点未得到充分发展;《学校教育》主要聚焦教育与经济的结构性关系,无意提供一个综合性的教育理论,不宜简单地批评它忽视阶级外的其他因素;作者接受对教育变革策略的主要批评,这些弱点实质上是《学校教育》内在逻辑的必然结果。《学校教育》发展了教育的政治经济学分析,秉持明确社会主义立场,这两点对国内外马克思主义教育理论的发展均不无参考意义。

Schooling in Capitalist America as a classical book in the field of education has become more influential in the latest 20 years than in the first several years after its original publication, however there are some widespread misconceptions of it. Some statements in Schooling indeed remind us of functionalism, though it essentially is not functionalist;Bowles and Gintis don’t ignore the significance of superstructure, though their relevant arguments are inadequately developed in detail;Schooling mainly focuses on the structural relations between education and economy, without the intention to produce a comprehensive theory of education, which allows them to considerate other factors to the extent to what are necessary;Bowles and Gintis admit the criticism of the last part, though the weaknesses are just the corollary of the previous three parts. Schooling has provided an excellent analysis of education from the perspective of the political economy and sticked to socialism,both of which are helpful to promote Marxist educational theory.