| Tao Xingzhi(1891-1946)was an outstanding Chinese educator in the Republican China period.Studying in America in 1914-1917,Tao became a student of John Dewey(1859-1952)---a pragmatic philosopher and educator at Teacher’s College,Columbia University,and was profoundly influenced by the latter.During his thirty-year educational career,Tao Xingzhi participated in and initiated a series of educational movements,developed a systematic "Life Education" Theory,and Labor Science Union(LSU)idea and movement(1932-1935)was a branch of it.Each period of Tao Xingzhi’s educational career has been studied academically,but the LSU period was studied the least.The theoretical connections between LSU idea and Deweyan theory have not been fully investigated,and Tao Xingzhi’s effort to transform Chinese people from"spectators" to "participants" through LSU education remains untouched by scholarly efforts.This study adopts the thematic perspective of "spectator" v."participant,"synthesizes Dewey’s pragmatism,philosophy of education,and ethics to analyze Tao Xingzhi’s Labor Science Union experiment,and exhibits theoretically that by assimilating Dewey’s ideas and applying them flexibly,Tao’s LSU education accommodated well the needs of national salvation and promotion of people’s long-term wellbeing.Through textual analysis and comparative analysis,this study answers two research questions:namely,how Tao Xingzhi,acting as a responsible participant himself,devised the LSU experiment,and how he transformed masses from spectators to participants through LSU education.As an educator and a social participant,Tao drew hints and inspiration from John Dewey’s pragmatic interpretation of evolutionary theory and scientific method,identified with Dewey’s ethical concerns in the industrial context,which assisted his location of the masses as students,his development of LSU thought as curriculum and the "Little Teacher System" as a mechanism to supply teachers for affordable education for most people.To cultivate "participants," Tao adopted Dewey’s ideas on science education,trained his students to use their brain and hands scientifically and apply science for the common good.Tao also tried to break the "dualism" of the leisure class(the intellectuals)and the laboring class(the peasants)by constructing"associated living," where "voluntary activity" was promoted,and the indispensable traits for responsible social participants---"judgment" and "social interest" of the educated are cultivated.The academic contributions of this study are twofold:thematical and methodological.Thematically,it excavates the theoretical connections of Dewey and Tao in the LSU period,and adopts the thematical perspective of "spectators" v."participants" to do the theoretical assessment.Methodologically,it develops and summarizes a technique to approach Dewey and select his works to do Tao Xingzhi research.Moreover,it manages to synthesize multiple research perspectives,namely,the historical,the philosophical,the educational,and the ethical,to do comparative study of Dewey and Tao Xingzhi.All these efforts fill the research gaps and constitute the research significance of this study.The study of Tao Xingzhi’s cultivation of "participants" through LSU experiment also has rich practical implications.If we reflect upon the current widespread educational anxiety and some tragedies caused by problematic education,we may find that it is more or less because the education failed to cultivate respectable human beings and responsible social participants.Today’s students will be tomorrow’s social members;if our education grows incompetent to cultivate social participants,more social problems will be generated.Modern education could constantly draw inspiration from Dewey’s theories and Tao Xingzhi’s theories and practices on how to fulfill its educational mission. |
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