重探伯恩斯坦的教育機制理論：以新加坡華文中學的國家改革考試為例   全文下載

Reevaluating Pedagogic Device: The Case of State Examination Reforms in Singapore, from the Late-1950s to the Early-1960s

伯恩斯坦（Basil Bernstein）的教育機制理論假設學校主要是透過教學溝通實踐打造意識型態，進而達到社會再生產的效果。但此理論之出發點忽略了教育體系的社會篩選作用，有礙學者們思考學校的生活機會分配功能對教育機制運作的可能影響。把學校教育簡單地視為溝通傳意機制，也導致伯恩斯坦假設評估規則只是協助教學機制落實教育論述的手段，忽視了在具體的學校與教育體制中，考評往往是社會篩選與淘汰的重要機制。這些侷限引致伯恩斯坦沒有考慮到評估規則可以透過控制有價值的教育機會與社會位置的分配來左右教育機制的運作。本文試圖突破伯恩斯坦的限制，指出當考評具備社會篩選功能時，評估規則較能幫助落實教育論述。為了審視評估的社會篩選功能，筆者進一步發展伯恩斯坦的理論，提出評估規則包含了時間、後果與區辨三大次規則，並強調掌權者可透過三個評估次規則調控社會篩選的過程與結果，進而落實意識與權力再生產。筆者並以新加坡華文中學考試改革的歷史案例說明此論點。

Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogic device assumes that schools perform a reproductive function through communicative practices that shape consciousness and identity. This assumption neglects that schools also help perpetuate power relations through functioning as an apparatus of social selection. Because of this skewed emphasis, Bernstein considers evaluative rules purely as a device to help realize pedagogic discourse and overlooks that in the concrete contexts of education systems, evaluations are most often instantiated as summative assessments that function as distributors of valuable life opportunities. This theoretical blind-spot of Bernstein has prevented scholars from discovering the implications of schools’ social selection functions for the operation of the pedagogic device. Using the historical example of state examination reforms on Chinese middle schools in the late-1950s to the early- 1960s, I seek to fill this gap. I contend that assessments can help actualize official pedagogic discourse more effectively when they also exert profound impacts on allocation of valued social positions and educational opportunities. My contention is illustrated by the case of postwar Singapore, where the ruling regime had more success in replacing the Sino-centric pedagogic discourse of Chinese institutions with a more Singaporean-centered one after state-run exams targeting students’ futures in education and employment were imposed.