Dewey and Vygotsky

“Knowledge is socially constructed”—I was shocked by the phrase when I read it. But when I think about it, I admit that it is so true. We learn the things which are valued in the particular society. As we could see in the paper written by Strand et al, it is so easy to manipulate what students learn; Indian American students naturally think that people in their tribe are savage, uncivilized and unhappy so they should be changed into American so that they can be happy. “Power” can “create” the individual who would be suitable to the society. That’s what I realized in China too. Chinese people are taught to “dislike” Japanese through teaching what Japanese army did to Chinese people during the World War Two. (There are still so many people who like Japan though). Also, I had an opportunity to go to the museum where exhibit the cruel act Japanese army did to Chinese people. They secretly created a biological weapon although it was prohibited by international law at that time, and they did live human experiment on Chinese people. So many Chinese people died because of the experiment. It surely happened, but I did not know about it before I went to the museum because nobody taught me before. Japanese authority prohibited teaching about Nanjing Massacre too. They intentionally shape our knowledge. After I think about these things, now I don’t know what it right and what is wrong, because everything I think is right is also carefully socially constructed.