THIRD INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON
DIALOGICAL
PRACTICES
Being An Empty Cup:
The Philosophy of Educational Dialogue
in a Perspective of Taoism
Beili XIANG
College of Educational Administration, Faculty of Education
Center for Faculty Development
Beijing Normal University, China
Taos Institute Associate, U.S.A
[email protected]
Warm-up
• Gets to Know each other
• Create a safe & warm public space
Content
• Prologue
– Story-telling
– Literature-review
– Previous research questions
– Method
•
•
•
•
Preliminary Findings
Reframe the research questions
Discussion and Conclusion
Epilogue - Dialogue
1. Prologue - story telling
Empty You cup
One cup of wine, one poem
The 3rd story
Literature Review on Dialogue
Previous research questions
Graduate Course
Historical Foundation of Education
(2010-2012)
• What would be the nature of an educational
dialogue?
• What would be its purpose, elements and process?
• What kind of leadership would it need?
Method
• Text Analysis
• 2 pieces of dialogue
– Dialogue between teacher-student on blog
– Dialogue among students in a group
2. Preliminary Findings
• Cases Analysis
• Philosophy of educational dialogue in a perspective
of Taoism
Findings - Case Analysis 1
Interpretation-analysis 1
Findings - Case Analysis 2
Interpretation-analysis 2
3. Reframe the research questions
(Action research)
• Empty cup -philosophy of Taoism
as the main theoretical framework
• 1) In a perspective of Taoism, what would be the
nature, elements, process of an educational dialogue?
What kind of leadership would be?
• 2) In what relationship Taoism and western
philosophies meet in the interpretation of philosophy
of dialogue?
老子
Laotse
(Laozi)
道德經
Tao Te
Ching
Influence
•
Politics-Chinese literati and culture.
•
•
Left-libertarians
In his 1937 book Nationalism and Culture, the anarcho-syndicalist writer and activist Rudolf Rocker praised
Laozi's "gentle wisdom" and understanding of the opposition between political power and the cultural activities
of the people and community.[48]
•
In his 1910 article for the Encyclopedia Britannica, Peter Kropotkin also noted that Laozi was among the earliest
exponents of essentially anarchistconcepts.[49]
•
More recently, anarchists such as John P. Clark and Ursula K. Le Guin have written about the conjunction
between anarchism and Taoism in various ways, highlighting the teachings of Laozi in particular.[50]
•
In her rendition of the Tao Te Ching, Le Guin writes that Laozi "does not see political power as magic. He sees
rightful power as earned and wrongful power as usurped... He sees sacrifice of self or others as a corruption of
power, and power as available to anyone who follows the Way. No wonder anarchists and Taoists make good
friends."[51]
•
The right-libertarian economist Murray Rothbard suggested that Laozi was the first libertarian,[52] likening
Laozi's ideas on government to F.A. Hayek's theory of spontaneous order.[53]
•
James A. Dorn agreed, writing that Laozi, like many 18th century liberals, "argued that minimizing the role of
government and letting individuals develop spontaneously would best achieve social and economic
harmony."[54]
•
Similarly, the Cato Institute's David Boaz includes passages from the Daodejing in his 1997 book The Libertarian
Reader.[55] Philosopher Roderick Long, however, argues that libertarian themes in Taoist thought are actually
borrowed from earlier Confucian writers.[56]
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi , Sept. 4, 2015.
4. Discussion and Conclusion
4.1 Etymology of "Dialogue"
4.2 The Nature of dialogue
• To the previous courses, we skipped classes more or
less...However, I really don't want to skip this class when I
see the enthusiasm every classmate and teacher puts into...I
am willing to join the class to listen to everyone's point of view.
My learning attitude has been changed.
——Zhang (Female student, majored in higher education), record of
group discussion, 06-21-2012
The Nature of dialogue
4.2.1 The origin of educational dialogue:
dialogue comes from Being,
Being comes from non-being
4.2.2 Educational dialogue is a cup within
which being (existence ) and non-being
(emptiness) flows alternatively and
transforms from each other
• not just as an empty cup
(Krishnamurti; Bohm, 1996)
4.2.3 Dialogue is a flow of meaning within
which being and non-being inter-depend in
growth thus fusion of horizons
and new understanding emerges.
(Gadamer,1999; Bohm, 1996; Sato, 2004)
4.2.4 In dialogue the mystery of non-being
(emptiness), the point of view of being
(existence) and the beauty emerges
4.3 Elements and process of dialogue
Dialogue would be terminated if the cup of
dialogue is filled to its fullness and be occupied.
Every point of view would be viewed as
an assumption and be suspended.
(Bohm, 1996; Ellinor & Gerard, 1998; Sextus, 2004; Popper, 1986, 1992)
4.4 Leadership in educational dialogue
4.4.1 The Tao of Dialogue follows nature
• Dialogue is govern by doing nothing that goes
against nature.
• It is to be, not to have. (Fromm,1976)
4.4.2 The best facilitator is as if
non-exist
• Of the best facilitator (ruler), the participants
wouldn't know his/her existence. The next
best they love and praise. The next they fear.
And the next they revile.
-C 17 (C for Chapter )
4.4.3 Inclusive
• A good runner leaves no track. A good speech
leaves no flaws for attack. The Sage is good at
helping people, no one is excluded.
-C27
4.4.4 Improve every participant's
free and fullest development
• The best of human is like water, water benefits
all things, and doesn't compete with them.
-C8
4.4.5 fulfill the participants' needs
• The facilitator (Sage) has no decided opinions
and feelings, but regards the people's opinions
and feelings as his own.
-C49
4.4.6 Emotions & Attitude
Humility
( Freire, 1970)
• How did the treat rivers and seas become the
Lords of the Ravines? By doing good at
keeping low.
-C66
• Therefore he who values the world as his self,
may then be entrusted with the government
of the world.
-C13
Kindness
( Ikeda & Tu, 2007)
• The good ones I am kind to them. The bad
ones I am also kind to them, that is the
goodness of virtue.
-C49
Trust
( Freire, 1970)
• The honest ones I believe, The liars I also
believe, that is the faith of Virtue.
-C49
Equal
• The Tao (way) of Heaven, is it not like the bending
of a bow? The top comes down and the bottomend goes up, The extra (length) is shortened, the
insufficient (width) is expanded. It is the Way of
Heaven to take away from those that have too
much and give to those that have not enough. Not
so with man's way: He takes away from those that
have not and gives it as tribute to those that are
too much. Who can have enough and to spare to
give to the entire world?
-C77
5. Epilogue - Dialogue