Dr. Huizhong Shen strongly argues that reciprocity, education, and the other in particular should be the main concern of the writing pedagogy in today’s education.
Dr. Shen has grounded his theories and approaches about the role of the other, in the Yin-Yang cosmic dialectics – the idea that the interplay of two opposite but complementary forces (between self and the other for example) completes self-formation and myriad things in the world; the Meadian interactive and reflexive approach – the idea that the reciprocal interaction between self and the (generalized) other, the human individual and his environment completes the development of the self; and Vygotsky’s dialectical study of language and its relation with thought and culture to map genetically the formation of higher mental development. All these theories and approaches demonstrate that the other is never an outsider of the self.
The well-grounded interactive approach, supported by the empirical data is highly persuasive and thus highlights the writer’s viewpoint – writing is a process of an interactive nature at both inter-and intrapersonal level, and in this process the role played by ‘the significant other’ is just as important and inseparable.
This book has made great contributions and provided scholarship to the writing education and research in the Chinese context and other similar contexts of Confucian heritage cultures. Researchers and scholars can acquire fresh ideas from the book that give enormous help and support in their research and practice.
