Normativity, power, and context : a case study of a Baháʼí-inspired school in Macao

Abstract

Amid pressing global challenges and opportunities, it has been widely recognized that educational approaches must continue to evolve to equip students with the capacities needed to contribute to individual and collective well-being. Discussions of a vision of social progress and its educational implications, however, give rise to issues that are deeply normative in nature and corresponding questions about the nature of normative phenomena. When considering the relationship between education and social progress, questions also arise about the conceptualization of power that is conducive to empowering people to work together to respond to opportunities and challenges in a highly interdependent world.

This thesis explores efforts at the level of thought and action to formulate new understandings of and approaches to normative phenomena and power in the field of education. In particular, drawing insights from Western, Chinese, and Baháʼí intellectual discourses, it focuses on (1) an emerging approach to normative phenomena based on a foundational ontology and non-foundational epistemology, and (2) an expanded conception of power that draws on mutualistic powers reflecting the nobility of the human spirit, both of which have received less attention to date in academic literature.

Employing a phronetic approach to social science in which value rational questions are central to the research process, this project explores how these concepts have found expression in an educational setting and the dynamics they generate among participants. It does so through a case study of the approach to “moral empowerment” taken at the Primary 6 through Form 4 levels of a Baháʼí-inspired school in Macao. Research methods include document analysis, secondary analysis of existing data, and semi-structured interviews of students, teachers, and administrators.

The results reveal that aspects of the school’s approach appear to help students develop their capacity to engage in an evolving, collective exploration of normative phenomena that are seen as having an ontological foundation and, through processes of study, dialogue, action, and reflection, to consider how insights they glean about such phenomena apply to their own growth and development, in their interactions with others, and in a wider societal context. Findings also indicate that aspects of the school’s approach provide students with an opportunity to reflect on the choice that exists between modes of thought and behaviour that perpetuate patterns of competition, conflict, and domination, and those that are reflective of mutualistic powers of the human spirt, and to learn how to form relationships with others that are based on principles of unity, interdependence, and mutualism. Findings further suggest significant connections between the approach taken by the school in these two domains and its Chinese cultural context, as well as ways in which its approach offers new concepts relevant to contemporary challenges.

This thesis contributes to the literature on normativity and power in education and in particular, to the understanding of how underlying conceptualizations of normative phenomena and power influence both curriculum and pedagogy and the dynamics and capacities they generate among students. It also adds to the emerging body of phronetic social science research.