A Critical Examination of Postmodernism Based on Religious and Moral Values Education

Abstract

Postmodernism, born under western secular conditions, has the following characteristics: it emphasizes pluralism and relativism and rejects any certain belief and absolute value; it conflicts with essentialism, and considers human identity to be a social construct; it rejects the idea that values are based on developmental realities and also rejects the essential influence of human actions on human destiny. Using a descriptive method, this research will provide a critical examination of postmodernism based on moral and religious values education. In educational goals, postmodernism emphasizes the institutionalization of pluralism, the strengthening of self-organized morality in learners and in educational principles, avoiding dogmatism, fighting against systematicity and emphasizing on individual freedoms. In educational methods, it emphasizes learner-centered discourse, serious attention to the marginalized people, and the denial of pattern-based ability. Postmodernism, despite enjoying a series of strong points, such as “fighting against globalization”, “fighting against scientism” and “emphasizing dynamism”, has many weaknesses too. The most important one of them is the intellectual failure and an overt contradiction with thought, ignorance of certain realities and knowledge, and the existence of intrinsic and constant values.