Continuity of Learning in Discontinuous Conditions: Children Experience of Transition in Irreversible Time.

Abstract

In this theoretical paper, I propose that in certain conditions children's subjective continuity (irreversible time) of experience could be sustained by objective discontinuity in reference to instruments like the clock that is used to sequentialize time in school. I suggest that it happens through intervals-as-transitions (c.f., breaks in school) that Min (2018; this special issue) undermines for epistemological reasons but insisted upon by Bergson. I use Bergson to epistemologically reframe Min's (2018) interesting suggestions -that I partially use- with respect to irreversible time. Yet, my epistemological and theoretical suggestion contrasts with both authors' perspective, for instance Bergson's critic of objective discontinuity as contaminating subjective experience while paradoxically tackling intervals that are constructed in discontinuous conditions. In this regard, I use Bergson's as well as He Min's conceptual contradictions with respect to subjective and objective time as zones for theoretical development enabling the extension of their approach. I mainly use ethnographic examples I made and secondarily from McLaren's (1999) analysis of the intersection of school, family and community rituals to illustrate my epistemological and theoretical propositions.