In 1950s and 1960s, postmodernism rose in western developed countries, and western society was ruled by "modernism". For "modernity", people's general view is that "modernity represents such a social state, which is driven and maintained by enlightenment beliefs, and is convinced that rationality and scientific progress can conquer nature, and that applying science and technology to social transformation can control ... the human condition". The basic assumption of "modernization" is that there are some potential logical patterns and internal orders in the real world, and these potential logical patterns and internal orders can only be discovered by "scientific methods" (demonstration, experiment, quantification, etc.). People can control the development and changes of things through these discoveries, but they are dismissive of the knowledge obtained by any method other than "scientific method".
Postmodernism is "a way to question the mainstream rationality and cultural creed of our times". Its representatives are Foucault (France), Derrida (France) and Gadamer (Hans Georg) in Germany. They belong to the post-modernism school of deconstruction and advocate a thorough criticism and subversion of tradition. They "destroyed the center and subject, destroyed the essence and foundation, and denied the law." The other school focuses on construction and is called constructive or "reconstructed" postmodernism, represented by Rorty and Griffin. They advocate retaining the essence of modern concepts, reflecting on all kinds of mistakes in modernist world outlook with rationality, and trying to construct a whole organic world outlook.
Since the emergence of post-modernism, there has been a trend of thought in the west to study educational management from the perspective of post-modernism, and many valuable achievements have emerged, from which China's educational management can get some useful enlightenment.
First of all, education management should be creative.
Advocating creation is an important feature of post-modern education management. Griffin, a representative of constructive postmodernism, believes that "fundamentally speaking, we are creative beings, and everyone embodies creative energy", "but we are also creative beings, and we need to realize our potential and rely on ourselves to get something". In Griffin's view, creativity is the stipulation of human nature, which means that the continuous creation of educational management is the requirement of human nature.
Foucault believes that the formation of knowledge is based on local and situational conditions, which are the basis for people to correctly understand knowledge. Foucault used genealogy to analyze knowledge and discipline, thinking that knowledge is not only based on a certain ideology, but also discipline is a "manipulation system of production discourse", which makes "knowledge from a certain angle" constantly regenerate. In other words, knowledge is not universal, neutral and objective, but contextualized. It can be seen that knowledge and truth are not inevitable, but creations under special historical conditions, that is, "knowledge is always knowledge from a certain angle". In short, knowledge is situational, not universal. Since knowledge is situational, it means uncertainty. For education management, uncertainty requires that education management must be constantly innovated, because a stable and certain situation will not be creative.
Looking at the current situation of education management in China, it is not difficult to find that there are many places that are incompatible with creativity:
● In management thought, strict words are the first, and unity, obedience and planning are emphasized;
● In terms of management content, it is satisfied with the management of people, money and things, and ignores the management of time, information and knowledge;
● In terms of management strategy, it lacks integrity and long-term, and it is impossible to form a unique school-running concept.
● In terms of management methods, quantitative management is respected, all departments of the school are divided into blocks, management depends on the table, and teachers lack the spirit of ownership;
● In terms of management quality, it stays at a shallow level and is satisfied with the general management of existing educational resources, ignoring the full development and utilization of educational resources;
● In terms of talent quality, it only stays on the slogan of all-round development. Obviously, this management status quo focuses on "defense" and is light on "creation";
● Under the circumstances that the environment in which educational organizations are located has changed from relatively stable to complex and changeable, the educational management thought that emphasizes "defense" is far from meeting the requirements of today's social development.
Postmodernism enlightens us that education management should be constantly innovated in order to keep developing and keep vitality forever.
Second, pay attention to the characteristics and differences of educational organizations.
T.B. took the lead in applying modernism to the theory of educational management and carried out a "Greenfield Revolution" on the "theoretical movement" of educational management. In Greenfield's view, there are two fundamentally opposite organizational management viewpoints, namely, human invention theory and natural system theory. According to the theory of natural systems, organizational management is an observable entity with human attributes and an organism that can respond and adapt to its environmental requirements. According to the theory of human invention, organizational management is established in the process of human thinking and is an invented social reality. Greenfield called the theoretical system he built by listening to human inventions, that is, the theory that organizations are created by human beings:
Greenfield tried to establish a subjective or explanatory theory of educational management organization. He believes that "people don't live in organizations. On the contrary, organizations live among individuals and exist through individuals ",and" organizations are realized social reality, where people make decisions and take actions that they think are right and appropriate ". Obviously. In Greenfield's view, organization is not an ecological reality, but a social existence created by people. Because management organization is the existence of human creation, different people have different creations, so there is no unified and standardized organization theory.
Greenfield's postmodern theory tells us that different organizations have different organizational attributes and characteristics, and even the same type of organizations have their own differences in the specific circumstances of each organization. Looking back on the current situation of educational management organizations in China, it is not difficult to find that (1) in practice, we are used to covering all kinds of school organizations with unified educational management organization theory, without paying attention to the study of various specific types of school organizations, and using unified educational organization theory to guide colorful educational management practices from kindergartens, primary schools to middle schools and universities. This practice of limiting the educational management organization to a certain extent will only lead to its rigid demise. Moreover, for the reality of China's educational organizations and schools, most of them have transplanted Weber's bureaucratic system of enterprise management, and the five characteristics of Weber's bureaucratic system (hierarchical structure, division of labor, rules and regulations, impersonality and career orientation) are all reflected in the school organization. This is an organizational system that emphasizes hierarchy and order, stylization and organizational discipline, that is, it pays attention to the rational side of the organization and pays little or no attention to its irrational side: (2) Theoretically, the western enterprise management theory is simply applied to the field of education management, such as school management by objectives is the transplantation of P.F. Drucker's management by objectives. At the same time, it does not take into account the specific situation of our country and the cultural differences between the East and the West. Therefore, in the aspect of educational management organization in China, we should pay more attention to the characteristics and differences of educational organizations themselves, which is another enlightenment of postmodernism to school management in China.
Third, education management should pay equal attention to facts and values.
Hodgkinson, a professor at Victoria University, a visiting professor at Cambridge University and a famous contemporary philosopher. C is also a scholar who applies postmodernism to educational management theory. Hawkinson's contribution to the theory of educational management mainly focuses on the issue of value.
In Hagensen's view, science deals with factual statements that are completely different from value statements. He clearly declared that "at every stage of management, value is influencing and always intertwined with itself". He believes that in a management world where facts and values are always intertwined, the field of value is the first issue, while the elements of facts and logic are secondary. Hawkinson said: "For all human organizations, whether simple or complex, they exist to achieve a certain goal. These goals stem from human aspirations or values. " The central topic of management theory is not a scientific issue, but a philosophical issue related to value and morality. Management should not only involve the practical level, but also pay attention to the necessary level.
At this point, Greenfield also has the same view. Greenfield believes that management science is a science with values and values, and the organization is based on "ideas and values". Any decision contains value components, and any decision is a symbol of value complex. Policy-making cannot be irrelevant to value, and there is no "whiteboard" state. In fact, policy makers discuss it with their own views.
The post-modern values of fathers are of great practical significance to China's educational management. At present, the research methods of educational management in China are mainly logical argumentation. A prominent feature of logical argument is that it pays attention to facts, the research of management technology, and the use of clear data, concrete facts and observable behaviors to explain problems. It advocates that education management research should be a kind of worthless research, and those value and moral factors that affect education management should be deleted without interference. In this way, schools, like all objective realities, have objectivity and internal order. The purpose of management is to achieve objective school goals and maintain school order through rewards and punishments. As a result, managers become the voice of maintaining organizational order, and prevent school members from deviating from school goals by restraining any irrational behavior of school members.
In fact, purely objective principles and methods do not exist in the field of education management, such as the determination of school-running objectives, educational decision-making, educational development strategy, the distribution and utilization of educational resources, the relationship between schools and society, etc., all of which contain internal value factors; Excluding the value issue from the education management and only emphasizing the education management actually simplifies the complicated education management issues, which is doomed to failure. Therefore, in the research methods and practice of educational management in China, we should pay more attention to the facts, pay more attention to the value side, and pay equal attention to both facts and values, which is another important enlightenment of postmodernism to educational management in China.
Four, education management should pay attention to people-oriented.
Postmodernism advocates "ontological equality". The representative figures of postmodernism believe that everything that exists is true, whether a person is great or ordinary, or an idea is great or ordinary, it is true; Nothing is more real than other things, and one "truth" is not more real or unreal than another. This ontological equality requires abandoning all discrimination, accepting and accepting all differences, and "accepting and accepting all differences". The recognition of equality determines postmodernism's admiration for "dialogue". The essence of dialogue is not to use one view to oppose another, let alone to impose one view on another, but to change the views of both sides and finally reach a new horizon. It can be seen that real dialogue always contains a kind of partnership or cooperation. In order to make real dialogue possible, postmodernism advocates listening to the voices of all people, even the most humble little people.
The above viewpoints of postmodernism enlighten us that in education management, we should "strongly wither a people-oriented and hierarchical management style, rather than task-oriented and functional management", that is, management organizations should "decentralize" and respect the value and creativity of individual existence, that is, we should respect each other's thoughts and existence, recognize and respect others, and pay attention to equality and mutual understanding between people. In short, it is people-oriented
People-oriented education requires that China's education management must establish people-oriented education management ideas, put the interests of faculty and staff first, care about their work, life and other aspects, and meet their needs as much as possible; Attach importance to equal dialogue, exchange and communication with the teaching staff, establish close, friendly and harmonious relations with the teaching staff, and emphasize that the realization of the collective goals of the school and the individual goals of the teaching staff are the same process, so that the teaching staff can be satisfied in their work; Decentralization focuses on participation, education management is not imposed by leadership authority, and it is not bound by rigid dogma. We should pay full attention to and give full play to the role of management collectives and teaching staff as masters, let them participate in management, express their opinions, put forward decisions, highlight the value and importance of their existence, and maximize the goal of each teaching staff.
Postmodernism is profound and profound, and it is also one of the most influential ideological trends in the contemporary west. It is undoubtedly of great significance to China's current educational management practice-but it needs to be pointed out that on the one hand, the post-modernism theory itself is complex, and the post-modernism educational management concept is still very immature; On the other hand, China is far from entering the post-modern society, and our education management is still in the transition period from the experience stage to the scientific stage. Therefore, when learning from postmodernism, China's educational circles should pay attention to its specific national conditions.