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.
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Notes
In this perspective, systems are often considered of as overlapped when they are thought of as spatially continuous (c.f., Epstein 1987).
She does not systematically refers to formality and informality, but this is present in how she opposes the institutional, school-centered and academic learning to home-like learning that is considered of as natural.
As far as I know, Bergson does not refer to the concept of full form, but to the idea (not “formalised”) of it when contrasting it with empty form. The latter is referred to in the two last sentences of this excerpt.
The emphasis (italic) is mine.
This is not a metaphysical claim about the world as atomic matter or extensive matter that is possible to cut, but an epistemic claim about people’s tendency to spatialize time. See Whitehead (1978/1929) –whose theory to some extent converges with Bergson— on the difference between the world as atomic and the world as being representing as an extensive continuum to be cut.
Bergson also refers to the internal overlapping of experience.
The emphasis (italic) is mine.
While Bergson does not explicitly refer to these two movements –from the inside to the outside and from the outside to the inside—, they underlie his argumentation.
The emphasis (italic) is mine.
Thereby paradoxically reinforcing herself the discontinuity of time and making the intervals more objectively structured (“be even more quick because you don’t anymore have time for break”) and limiting children’s freedom.
It in fact implies making time continuous or homogeneous, then making it discontinuous by constructing intervals then trying to make the discontinuous artificially continuous by reducing the length of the intervals. I will not deepen this analysis of the tension between objective continuity and discontinuity. I will rather tackle the later as a conditions for subjective continuity.
The emphasis (italic) is mine.
The person constructing difference and the others (educators) creating separation in the environment reflect Bergson’s recognition of the process of differentiation, particularly for what concern the evolutionist analysis of vital momentum and its differentiation.
I can also consider that the person makes the external time dynamic by articulating simultaneity (vertical alignment) –which indicates pure novelty— and succession (horizontal alignment). This articulation takes the form of a circle (making horizontal the vertical while keeping it vertical). In fact, the clock’s needle can move circularly thanks to the person’s “mediation”.
The emphasis (italic) is mine.
The break itself can be considered of as a zone of activities (left field in the Fig.6). The interval would then be the move from break to classroom. Generally, the break can also be considered of as an interval.
Here I introduced a conceptual move- that I don’t have space to justify but that I partly conceptualised elsewhere (Boulanger and Dionne 2018)—between subjective irreversible time and intersubjective irreversible time that happens between people amidst the objective and subjective time. For this concern, He Min’s conception of intersubjectivity (Fig. 1) needs to be conceptually extended.
It could be considered of as the center of a clock that enable the needle to move from the vertical to the horizontal axis. Interval-as-transition could thus make subjective time spreading into objective time (vertical) through the temporal move (B) from one field (A) to another (C) by means of intersubjectivity (intersubjective construction of time’s continuity).
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Boulanger, D. Continuity of Learning in Discontinuous Conditions: Children Experience of Transition in Irreversible Time. Integr. psych. behav. 52, 409–424 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-018-9430-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-018-9430-1