Do the humanities contribute to education?

ISSN 0281-9864

Do the Humanities Contribute
to Education ?

Inger Bierschenk

2000 No. 75

Cognitive Science Research

Lund University
University of Copenhagen

Editorial board

Bernhard Bierschenk (editor), Lund University
Inger Bierschenk (co-editor), University of Copenhagen
Ole Elstrup Rasmussen, University of Copenhagen
Helge Helmersson (adm. editor), Lund University
J0rgen Aage Jensen, Danish University of Education

Cognitive Science Research Adm. editor

Copenhagen Competence Helge Helmersson

Research Center Dep. of Business Adm.

University of Copenhagen Lund University

Njalsgade 88 P.O. Box 7080

DK-2300 Copenhagen S S-220 07 Lund

Denmark Sweden

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the question whether pure literature can
contribute to education. As a portion of modern literature study in Swedish upper
secondary level, novels about the future were examined, especially some, which take
a critical position toward modern civilisation. In an experiment using Perspective Text
Analysis, a master text has shown the theoretically rooted dimensionality of
'futurism' as a socially valid concept. 18 year-olds got the task to write about a novel
by using concepts taken from the master structure, of which 'public morality' was
selected for the analysis. The hypothesis tested was that a novel writer contributes to
the edification of a public only if he/she translates some structural dimension in an
ongoing civilisation process. To this translation belongs a sense of public morality.
The study concludes that when the students' responses were matched against the
master structure, only one novel meets the criterion of being educative with respect to
futurism. It is Huxley's "Brave New World", which contributes to education by
mediating an ideology behind a civilisation process with a sense of morality.

Science as Subject for Education

When Jean Jacques Rousseau was confronted with the question: "Has the
progress of arts and sciences contributed to the edification of our moral values?" he
answered it by an emphatic no. He argued for the refinement to which the pure nature
alone contributes and thus against the degeneration of the senses and morals, which
will be the inevitable consequence of civilisation. This kind of idealistic and Utopian
debater has always existed, but it seems to take up a great deal of space in times of
unrest. Such a period was the Age of Enlightenment. The upheaval was caused by the
technical and mercantile revolution in Europe, whose ideas Rousseau contrasted
against the human and democratic values. Today, more than two centuries later, the
technical development has reached a level, which the contemporaries of Rousseau
could not even imagine, and in some sense I think Rousseau was right: Mankind has
not been refined. Why should it?

From time to time, the humanities have been in great repute. A main argument
in favour of humanistic studies has been the import of reading the classic texts in
order to keep up with high ideals. However, there is no evidence that whether classic
nor scientific and technical education per se would foster maturity and humanism.
Many of us may testify that the conditions at the academic institutions are not more
human than at other work places. Maybe the grounding philosophy of today has
become directed solely toward training and instruction but not toward education.

The concept of education in the classical sense has shown up in the debate
again, in particular as a consequence of the crisis of the instruction of science in
school. To get young people interested in the edification of natural science and
technology, various measures has been taken. In the first place, efforts have been
made to increase the recruitment to industry and high technology research. Later on,
the focus has been broadened and now the discussion concerns natural science as
educating subject. In addition, ideas on democratic co-operation and the role of
science in everyday culture is put forward (e.g. in the steering documents for natural
science training at the Swedish upper secondary level). Behind this lies the idea that
people cannot be collaborating in the democratic processes without knowledge of
natural science in everyday life. To this view also belongs the opinion that natural
science is itself producing culture (Sj0berg, 1999).

The overall question of interest to the society is: Why are young people
developing negative attitudes toward science and technology and positive ones toward
more quasi- scientific alternatives like occultism and new age? There is further a focus
on the low proportion of girls within science studies, something that worries both
local school politicians and university governors (as seen from a Scandinavian front).

The reason for profiling classic education is the idea that the humanities will
enrich the science and technology subjects in school (and possibly also the idea that
these values would attract girls to a higher extent). Of course there is much to the fact
that natural science and technology alone do not suffice as a basis forjudging matters
of energy, environmental care and city planning, for instance. With a cultural and
democratic perspective put into the curriculum, the science subjects would get a new
status as educating subjects. So far the lower secondary school has been unsuccessful
in giving the students a reasonable all-round education in science and technology,
according to chemistry professor Sven Engstrom (1999).

The answer to the question about young peoples' choice may be found in the
scientific conduct toward the environment, which especially the natural sciences have

to maintain. The scholarly manner concerns among other things, autonomy,
objectivity, systematic observations and the demand for empirical evidence. To that
must be added a secularised attitude toward reality, free from myths. Against this
mode of thinking often a set of opposites are put forward, which will introduce a
holistic, humanistic view of reality, which may even be called unscientific for the
sake of the good name. Certain natural scientists with a gentle appearance are acting
as lures, as for example a female technologist at the Institute of Science and
Technology at Lund, Sweden, who is invited to TV programs to talk about physics for
girls. When Nobel price holder Ilya Prigogine talks about the important stimulation
between disciplines of science and humanities for the understanding of the world, he
will be cited (Katz, 1996). But nobody would ever think of these persons in terms of
unscientific behaviour vis-a-vis their academic subjects. The feminine outlook and
gentle appearance is attracting students, because it is supposed that the scientist and
the private person are identical. The ideal personality is not the cool and rational
observer at least in the eyes of female students, seems to be the policy. But if we
could get researchers appear amiable and like people in common, then natural science
will loose its unpleasant image. However, reality is more differentiated than that,
because when the young people have started their natural science program, they will
discover that strictness, objectivity and systematic observation are required of them.
And when they have stayed in the program for a while, they may be able to keep apart
the person from the subject, especially since they will meet a large number of female
teachers in science and technology.

Education as Matter of Democracy

The scientific conception of the world has changed man's world picture and
his own place in it. The history of science therefore is closely connected with the
material, philosophical and artistic development. The ideals of natural science are
close to the democratic, e.g. the respect of arguments and evidence. Autonomy,
objectivity and rationality are central to both science and democracy (Sj0berg, 1999 p
17). These concepts are often put in relation to the concept of education. To be able to
talk about education as a result of training in natural science subjects integrated with
the humanities, we have to be careful in selecting the humanistic aspects. The
classical texts are reflecting the educational - or ideational - development. In this
sense an educated person is one who can take part in the open discussion of a society
with reason and sentiment.

Since it is the pure literature that forms the basis of the humanities, it is this
literature that is the starting-point of the integration efforts. But we have to keep in
mind that the pure literature in many respects is an artistic expression and as such it
has no scientific pretensions. Even though the modernists claimed to transform the
new findings in literary form, the way e.g. the theories of Freud and Einstein has
taken form in Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet" (Hakansson, 1999), this
transformation can only be a personally held formation. It may be very skilful and
contribute to the perspectivation of humans and their world. But it may be myth
creating as well and in this case it contributes rather to the picture of single human
beings than of their world, which forms a reliability problem.

Over and above the personal features of the artistic design it is incontestably
so, at least in the Swedish pure literature of today, that the political residence of the
author is permeating the work. This fact will be a dilemma from a democratic point of
view, especially because this residence is being exploited so one-sidedly and is so
dominating in our textbooks. As opposed to the natural scientists the authors of pure

literature and fiction do not want to make any difference between their person and
their work but instead they seem to mean that they are deeply involved. It becomes
really problematic when young readers cannot see through the political propaganda.
The ideal of humanism is said to be the understanding of the single human beings'
dignity (Kj0rup, 1999). When thinking about humanism today being put forward in
public by "proletarius", who makes human dignity a matter of class, one has to accept
that "classicus" should not bother.

In order for humanistic subjects to contribute to education, the study of pure
literature should come closer to the scientific conduct. An educated individual should
be able to take part in the argumentation processes of democracy (Kalleberg, 1999). It
will require ethics in both science and communication by those who are forming our
educational history in literature and by those, who are transferring it over to younger
generations. Thus the scientific conduct is central to school too. It would for example
mean that we study the literary Gestalt formation in such a way that we understand
something basic in the text. Not the artistic expression and not the personal
standpoints, but what the text expresses when seen as part of our educational history.
By this the student gets concrete knowledge but also general insights into e.g. human
rights or the complexity in a civilisation process. In this way literature study will be a
democratic project. Of utmost importance then will be the selection of representative
texts. I will give some examples: The scientifically working authors of the so called
naturalistic era toward the late 19 th century wrote in both an objective an a subjective
manner. Against the background just sketched I would prefer reading "Therese
Raquin" than "Germinal" (by Zola) in my class, and sooner "Froken Julie" (Miss
Julie) than "Tjanstekvinnans son" (Son of a servant woman) (by Strindberg).

In the tradition from the Age of Enlightenment, society has built up
institutions, whose task it is to do research on nature, society, and culture. This task
has implied a specialisation, which in turn has called for democracy in the form of
"translation" to the public. In this process only educated people can take part. The
translation mission rests on the authors of pure literature. The development of
knowledge and ideas is steadily changing and the task of the author is to give form to
it in a comprehensible way to the public. The scientific way of approaching the task
makes the author a modern "classicus". Other approaches may serve other purposes
but not the purpose of democratic education, which the representatives of the science
subjects wish and intend by the new order. With this outlook, democracy will be
connected to education, and also to competence (I. Bierschenk, 1998b). A democratic
mind has always been a guarantor for the single person being met in a dignified
manner. I do not believe that Rousseau had argued against this thesis. But for sure he
would have had difficulties to find some equivalent to the Robinson character in
today's literary shipwreck.

Science of Materials in Theory and Practice

Depending on the way the institutions of a society and its citizens maintain the
dialogue about the ongoing progress, the social climate is created in which the public
life shall grow. One of the modernistic movements of the 20 th century is called the
"futurism", because it occurred in a time (the First World War) of scientific and
industrial progress. As an artistic concept, the futurism implies among other things the
cult of various forms of purity and hardness, the machinelike functioning within
humans and objects, movement, and a forward look. The artistic design may be read
from out of the surface of paintings, illustrations, decorations and similar products.

Also the futurism has produced some classic texts, most of them poems, which may
be incorporated into the European cultural heritage (e.g. by Majakovskij, Diktonius,
Lundkvist).

In order for this knowledge in our civilisation history to have an educating
effect, the concept of futurism must be understood in its social function. When the
leaders of a society will embrace the scientific and industrial optimism, these ideas
will permeate significant social functions and give rise to a climate or atmosphere.
Thus a vital and democratic civil dialogue is required to make both the representatives
and the public conscious of which structures are developed by the time and which
their consequences are.

In an earlier made study of a subject matter, whose structural relations
represent the theoretical concept behaviourism, I have discussed the consequences
that this knowledge of materials may have in guiding students into literary paths (I.
Bierschenk, 1999b). Having knowledge of behaviourism as scientific idea is,
however, not enough for recognising it when transformed into a narrative about
society, as for example in the dystopian novel "1984". With reference to the
discussion above it may be said that one needs to have a certain amount of education
to be able to apprehend the behaviourism in a structural sense.

In the article mentioned above, I put forward the idea that the materials have
to be governing, if our purpose is that teaching shall be raising the level of
competence. But, surely, this requires knowledge of which structure there is to
apprehend in a certain subject matter. In the present study I take my point of departure
in a text, which is suitable for the problem just sketched, that is a text representing the
futurism in a social sense. This time I would like to know the extent to which some
novels would best be characterised as being educating. How well do the writers
present this important subject, that is, "translate" it to the public? Can young readers
apprehend the basics of futurism as social idea or will it be hidden behind an author's
political message?

Context of the Study

One part of the study of language and literature in upper secondary school has
consisted in reading some 20 th century novels intended to criticise modern
civilisation. The work was accounted for in various ways. One of the ways of interest
here is the individual writing account. I was interested in the way in which the
students would explain "their" novel in case they quite unprepared would be given
some words/concepts to base their essay on. Three novels are included in this study,
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley (1932), "En levande sjal" (A Living Soul) by
P C Jersild (1980), and "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood (1985). The
premise is that these novels are critical fictions, located in a future in which the
technological growth has special consequences for the society that man builds.

In an earlier reported study of upper secondary students' literary
comprehension (I. Bierschenk, 1997) I have not found any differences between
natural science, social science and aesthetics classes. The classes therefore have no
significance this time. Two classes (18 year-olds) have participated, one from the
natural science program, and one from the business program. The theoretical
concepts, to which they were presented, were taken from the text described below.

Selection of Futuristic Text

The selection of test for this study is the result of a careful preparation in the
form of a study of sources as well as experiments. In connection with a course in

modern literature I prepared a test, which was aimed to measure the comprehension of
modern concepts and "isms" (I. Bierschenk, 1997). I refer to, for example, the cultural
and literary concepts of expressionism, futurism and surrealism. I went through the
textbooks in question and collected concepts and descriptions of ideas about
authorship and literary works. By means of a clustering technique (described in the
article referred to) the concepts and descriptions were refined in relation to similarity.
In this way I created an empirical definition of the ideational sphere of modern
literature. However, I went further to more scientific writings, such as handbooks in
psychology, to get definitions of concepts like behaviourism, functionalism and
magical realism. In this way the meaning of the concepts grew in clarity, as did also
their demarcations vis-a-vis each other. By an experiment I carried out as part of my
teaching, I could show the social science roots of the concepts and relation to
competence development.

The test contains fifteen texts, each one is a description of a modern concept in
function. Some of the texts are constructions, some are taken directly from a
handbook or the empirical reality, but with a certain modification. The text used here
to get at the social structure of futurism belongs to the last category. It may be seen as
an utterance, made by a person in a responsible position, which has been translated to
the public with the purpose to explain a position taken in a present scientific matter of
debate. The text is worded:

The minister of agriculture puts forward the import of genetic
modification in solving severe medical problems, but expresses a hesitation vis-a-
vis a non-regularised application within agriculture and breeding of domestic
animals. The task of politicians, the minister means, is to see, in close
collaboration with the scientific community, that rules and regulations are "in
pace with the development".

Presentation of the Text Analysis

To analyse the text I have used Perspective Text Analysis, a method for
measuring the dynamics in text production. The method is founded on the hypothesis
that there exists unity and continuity in a text, which has no direct relation to the way
in which the text has been composed on the surface. For the readers who are
interested in the main features of the method, such as the underlying theory, I refer to
"The Essence of Text" (I. Bierschenk, 1999a). In this article I have listed references to
theory, methodological development, and applications. In this connection it is not
very meaningful to describe the functioning of the method, whether linguistically or
topologically. However, a few words about the topographical presentation would not
be out of place (see e.g. Bierschenk & Bierschenk, 1993; Bierschenk, Bierschenk &
Helmersson, 1996; B. Bierschenk, 1997).

It may be easiest to imagine a spherical, biological organisation, e.g. a snake,
which by its rhythmical movements develops the structural coherence of the text. This
snake has two parts, the body and the head. To symbolise the smallest possible unity
that can be present in a natural text, the logotype of a snake biting itself in the tail is
most often used (Spencer-Brown, 1969). In this way a spherical form is generated,
which essentially is helical. In Figure 1, Ethics, transformed by Adjustment,
represents such a smallest unity. The result of the transformation leads to the first
topological invariant, Responsibility, which in the figure is depicted as the least
possible bodily development. Now, the development of the body and the path of the
snake coincide. But the head will move in various directions, which gives the specific

orientation to the path. By the vertical lines we may read out the extent to which the
changes of direction are reflecting the deformations of the text. They are termed
topological dimensions and are well suited as basis for conceptual comparisons.

In this connection I will not discuss the conceptual structure but instead the
dimensionality in the text. We have here four dimensions, which are depicted on the
vertical axis. The first dimension is formed by the concepts Systematising, Control,
Leadership and Responsibility. It seems to represent something that comprises
something long-term, which is designed with an overview and under special leading
responsibility. Thus I call it Social Planning. This conceptual structure is a matter of
a political structure in a broad sense, which is stressed by the second dimension,
namely Anchorage, denoting that the actual policy or politics should make Measures
of Acceptance.

Figure 1.

Futurism in a Social Structure

(3) Ethics

(4) Adjustment

Responsibility^
(1) Manipulation

(6) Processing
Industry

(7) Application

Systematisikg

(11) Adaptation
(12) Progress
Lobbyism

orpsratwn

(8) Processing Industry

AhcHora
(9) Steering

(10) Legitimation

(2) Conscience

Mov zment

(5) Generalisation

Note: (1)- (12) = Surface Concepts
In italics = Structural Concepts

The concepts Conviction, Organisation and Lobbyism form the dimension that
denotes the conditions and prerequisites of acceptance making and the way this is
channelled. The society can only be formed by the convicted people, who have a
central organisation to their disposal to smoothly form a lobby for various purposes.
This dimension thus expresses an aspect that concerns Influence. The three
dimensions point at the working of a political system. Public Morality, Movement and
Corporation together indicate a Social Climate or atmosphere. A corporate
organisation does not always work in public.

According to the way, in which I have discussed the problem, the fourth
dimension is the most important one to apprehend in order to say that the citizens
have an understanding of the society they live in. I encircled it by picking out the
concepts Public Morality and Union (alternative to Corporation). However - as we
know - for a synthesis to be formed we need a third point, and thus I selected
Responsibility, which is the first structural concept formed and therefore may be said
to be a connector between the social planners and the resulting spirit. The second and
third dimension denote that the citizen is involved as a political co-creator (the
structure at the base of the Figure). The question is whether the novel writer is using
this dimensionality. It is also evident from the surface concepts where the natural
scientists have their input in the process, namely as morality component within the
government dimension and as the societal component that may be called strategy of
ethical communication (upper entries of the Figure).

I conceive of the public morality, publicly declared or non-declared norms, as
the point of the structure, which concerns the single citizen the most. It follows that I
take my point of departure in the concept Public Morality for this study. By means of
the students' descriptive explanation of the novel it will be clear whether the author
has an educating effect or whether the emphasis of the novel is within the political
dimensions.

Marking Procedure

The marking of an essay task always has to be a matter of an "analysis by
synthesis". But compared to other situations, in which the teacher puts together
questions to the content or form of a subject, this task is founded on theory. The
marking is a matter of relating the responses to the conceptual relations expressed in
Figure 1.

The marking procedure was the following: I compared the students'
statements with what I judged that they explain of the structure in the Figure. I have
tried to treat the responses in an absolute way, that is, they either meet the criterion to
be registered under a heading, or they do not meet this criterion. There is an obvious
advantage to this procedure, for example when used for grading (I. Bierschenk,
1998a). In some cases I have been helped by the fact that the same concepts as the
surface concepts of the Figure has been chosen by the students. This gave a key to the
closest structural concept and dimension. But most often I have judged an expression
equal to the Figure concepts. In cases where I could not judge any similarity, nothing
has been registered.

In the following I give some examples of student responses together with the
marking. The first example concerns Huxley's "Brave New World":

"In the brave new world the family, as we know it today, does not exist any longer. Instead humans
have chosen to propagate themselves by the 'Dokanovsky method'. As to the upbringing, it means, in
the child's first years, nursery rhymes, with which the child is fed. /— -/"

10

From this text I have marked Processing Industry and Manipulation, and
because of the last one's placement as surface concept (1) in the structure, the first
one has to be considered equal to surface concept (6). Structurally, these sentences are
closest equivalent to Leadership, that is the first dimension Social Planning.

The next example comes from an explanation of Jersild's "A Living Soul":

"Is it right just because a union of peoples /— / think it's right? The book's answer to this question
according to me is a clear no: One can see clearly how the medical doctor P C Jersild is opposing the
modern research in biology and anatomy because of the nearly absence of ethics and responsibility
within today's research l—l"

From this text I have registered the deep concept of Corporation (union).
Therefore I have associated 'the modern research' with Processing Industry as entry
(8). In this case the fourth dimension Social Climate appears. But the student also
discusses Social Planning by directly mention ethics (3) and the structural concept
Responsibility, which was the third concept given.

The third example concerns Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale":

"By the shift of power one should transit to 'the old values. The actual morality did not permit different
attitudes or actions. Even if it was forced on certain persons it should be valid for all, and the rules it
implied must be followed. To 'ordinary' people it was in fact so. They were punished mercilessly if
they did something prohibited, but this was evidently only a public morality, which was available and
real to the public. I—I"

A concept clearly present under the surface is Control. Further, Steering (9)
and rules for the public are mentioned. Once again we have an explanation denoting
the dimension of Social Planning. But also the dimension I called Measures of
Acceptance. Because, as another student wrote, "many people are suffering in silence
because of this realisation - way of reaching the goal". What the students apprehend
is the methodical, functional in this society. The method of creating an Anchorage
needs not be accepted by the citizens, in this case the women.

Each text has been marked in this manner, provided that it has been clear that
the response concerned the concept of 'Public Morality' (most frequently denoted by
the title). The number of texts possible to mark has been for "Brave New World"
(=6), "A Living Soul" (=5) and "The Handmaid's Tale" (=5). The maximum number
of texts per book was 6.

Education in Futurism

In Figure 2, 1 present the dimensionality in the three novels, the way the
students have written down their opinions in departing from Public Morality. I
indicate the concepts in the structure to which the works have been related. The works
are represented by the author's initial (A=Atwood, H=Huxley, J= Jersild). In case a
concept is marked by two initials, this means that the first one got more observations.

The result shows a very obvious pattern. Huxley's novel is the one, which
most significantly describes a public morality by concepts of social planning. Huxley
is clearly rooted there, both when it comes to give a picture of the role of natural
science in leading a society as well as incorporating a morality component.
Concerning Jersild, he contributes in connection with some ethical standpoint, but the
responsibility is not quite as valid. Atwood describes a society in its controlling
function. According to the students' apprehension, it is not so much a matter of

11

natural science control but rather the political control of the citizens, in particular the
reproductive function of the women. This is also confirmed through Atwood's roots
in the dimension which concerns political acceptance, that is a method function,
which her novel alone is carrying. Jersild shows an individual pattern in being
represented at every surface concept pointing at those dimensions that denote
influence and social climate. It seems that he stands for communicational ethics and
seeks to represent the conscience of the public. He further seems to be in command of
corporativism, possibly due to insider knowledge of medical engineering. Some
understanding of society is hardly given by his novel, for it has too few concepts
belonging to the first dimension.

The deep concept movement as part of a social climate has only been marked
as present in Huxley. This means that only in his novel there are cues to the
comprehension of the effects of a civilisation ideology at some deeper level. In
Jersild' s novel the personal outlooks blur the deeper civilisation problems and
Atwood puts forward an horror vision of the methods that does not give enough
scientific reliability.

Figure 2.

Futurism in Civilisation Novels

Adjustment (H)

Responsib
Manipulation (H)

Lea
Processing (H)(A)
Industry

Co
Application

SystematisAig

Ethics (J)

Adaptation

Progress (J)

Processing Industry (J)
orporation (J)

A
Steering (A)

Legitimation

Mov ?ment (H)

Conscience (J)

Generalisation (J)

12

Discussion

Huxley writes in his preface 15 years later that "Brave New World" is lacking
artistic unification but that a book about future can, irrespective of its artistic or
philosophical qualities, interest us only if its prophecies seem to probably come true
(1967, s 9,). I think it is this view on the writing task, which gives a higher
trustworthiness to Huxley's novel, as "translation" of social matters, than to the other
two. With this point of departure Huxley's scientific schooling becomes evident,
without which the morality problem would not get the same sharpness.

Jersild is placing warning flags and uses humour and satire as his means. But
despite the medical laboratory environment the trustworthiness is lacking. The entire
story becomes science fiction although without its ambition. Atwood is the one
among these authors who has a humanistic schooling. She has further become known
as a feminist. Her story is a future vision of our times, the way it would look if our
reproduction ability would be strongly reduced. This idea becomes a functionalistic
exaggeration, which may be an explanation to the fact that any morality component
has not been apprehended.

Education means that some constructive activity takes place. If as a teacher
one wishes to mediate some constructive knowledge to students about how thoughts
and courses of events in our history of ideas are reflected in society and which their
consequences are or might be, literary texts play an obvious role, although not
unreservedly. The comparison between the three novels has shown that futurism in a
structural sense will best be apprehended through Huxley's story. He makes clear the
way in which the natural sciences may be a means to deliberate humanity, for good
and evil. There lies the possibility to comprehend the dimensionality or disparity
between responsibility and systematising. This is what the movement is sensing. Or,
as one of the students, finally, puts it:

"Just think if, as a matter of fact, he isn't critical or moral but is suggesting
a solution to a world wide problem?"

A Pretentious Proposal

The quality of teaching at various levels is a matter of controlling the structure
characterising a subject matter or material. It is important to distinguish between
content, which one can read out from surface features, and structure, which is the
inner properties of a material (I. Bierschenk, 1999b). In the same way as in physics
we can talk of a material in terms of density, firmness, and tension, similar properties
may be attributed to a text material. Therefore, not all texts within a subject area are
equally suitable as basis for analysis and synthesis of structural relations.

As we see in Figure 1, a text material may be described by sub structures,
which may be more or less nested and cover several dimensions. Futurism as social
concept, for example, is in the deepest sense a matter of organisation - in the field of
strain between the popular movement and an active political system. A person who
does not apprehend the futuristic text (p. 7) as an expression of organisation does not
have the insights required for fully accounting for the concept futurism in his/her
teaching or examination. The teacher who is in command over the materials thus has
the possibility to illustrate the concepts from various angles in a conscious way and
make clear to the student the way the structure is interconnected.

My study shows that Huxley's novel better than Atwood' s and Jersild' s
corresponds to the concept futurism in a social sense. If we primarily assume that the
author's intention was to construct his material in such a way that the structurally

13

deep relations will emerge, then he has almost succeeded. The students have
apprehended both systematising and movement. A perspective text analysis of the
novel would be necessary, however, to elucidate whether the organisation concept is
structurally rooted.

The referred result shows what an educational situation should be: A
consciousness from the part of the teacher about which structure will be conveyed and
a possibility to select the material/s corresponding to it. It is far from sure that
educators and educational materials meet each other at the right conceptual level
today. My suggestion therefore is that the primary component for the planners of
teaching be the science of materials construction for both natural sciences and
humanities. With this guiding line education becomes productive.

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Author's Note

This article has been produced with financial support from the Danish Research
Councils. Correspondence should be sent to Inger Bierschenk, Copenhagen
Competence Research Centre, Copenhagen University, Njalsgade 88, DK-2300
Copenhagen S, Denmark or via E-mail to INGER@axp.psl.ku.dk