Education and Society 1. What is the course about? 2. Why should you do it? 3. Will it make you a better teacher? 4. What is required of you? 5. How will you be assessed? Ronald G. Sultana
Textbook, power points and past papers are available: http://www.um.edu.mt/emcer/courses2/b.ed.hons.
What is the course about? Micro-level of classroom teaching Meso-level of institutions Macro level: education & society
The macro-level What is education? Apprenticeship into life Creating forms of life How the powerful use education
Examples of power / education Hitler and antisemitism Palestinians & Israelis Girls can do Anything Eco-Schools Streaming & employers The veil
Macro-Meso-Micro links Case study 1: Women s issues National politics - Links to global, regional, supranational politics Educational Politics: e.g. coeducation Institutional Politics: Curriculum, administration, socialisation Classroom Politics Policing the body
Macro-Meso-Micro links Case study 2: Disability issues National politics: representation of disabled - Links to global, regional, supranational politics Educational Politics: e.g. mainstreaming Institutional Politics: Curriculum, administration, socialisation Classroom Politics Policing the body
Macro-Meso-Micro links Case study 3: Social class issues National politics: representation of class - Links to global, regional, supranational politics Educational Politics: e.g. access, costs Institutional Politics: Curriculum, administration, socialisation Classroom Politics Policing the body
Why should you do this course? The need to understand the context in which you will work Professional issues: beyond technocratic skills The teacher as intellectual and reflective practitioner It will make you a better teacher
What is required of you Active attendance Download and read the course text Bring the course reader with you passages highlighted Open book examination Availability for discussion: ronald.sultana@um.edu.mt Power points
Why be critical? At the heart of it all: human dignity for all What is the legacy of the 19 th & 20 th century? The enlightenment, modernity and utopia The French Revolution The Industrial Revolution What kind of world have we created?
Arch of social dreaming / nightmares
Being critical is hard work Going Going against against the the grain Going against the grain Going against the grain Going against the grain Going against the grain Going against the grain grain The prison of language language language language language language Fighting Fighting the the tyranny tyranny of of common common sense Fighting the tyranny of common sense Fighting the tyranny of common sense Fighting the tyranny of common sense Fighting the tyranny of common sense Fighting the tyranny of common sense sense
Being critical has its consequences
The Frankfurt School Social philosophers in Germany The rise of anti-semistism Trying to understand the rise of fascism Understand the world as it is, in order to imagine a world as it could and should be
De-coding this complex world In whose interests does it all work?
Critical educators Education is not just about reading the word. it is about reading the world
Critical educators Paolo Freire Lorenzo Milani School of Barbiana (1969) Letter to a Teacher http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/ltat_final.pdf Manwel Dimech Gorg Preca
Social formations 1 2 4 5
The human condition: having a choice to act otherwise
The human condition: having a choice to act otherwise
Tools for critical thinking Anthropological Historical imagination
Against reification If people have not always come together the way they do now Across time Across space Then people have the option to act otherwise
A conflict or consensual view? Society as caring for all its members. Some are more equal than others
Social formations across time Slave mode of production Feudal mode of production Capitalist mode of production
The realities of class - A set of unequal relationships to the goodies of life Power / Influence Money Health Education Life-chances Status Security Lifestyle Autonomy Self-determination +
Education and social mobility
From ascribed to achieved status: towards a meritocratic society? It s what you do not who you are Ability + Effort = success Ma, ma mmurx skola Ma tmurx ghaliex?! Isa Toninu, isa sabiћ But: is this true?
Origins and destinations (Halsey, Heath & Ridge, 1980) Generation 1 Generation 2
Origins and destinations (Halsey, Heath & Ridge, 1980) Absolute mobility Relative mobility Generation 1 Generation 2
Education as struggle Struggle over access Struggle over financing Struggle over structures Struggle over curriculum Struggle over language Struggle over culture
Struggles over education Past
Jew b xejn..jew xejn!
Struggles over education Present
Future struggles?
Explaining failure at school: [1] Deficit theories Common sense explanations: < IQ + < effort = < success Deficit in individual Deficit in environment Deficit in family Hegemonic views among teachers, parents?
The dubious origins of IQ Links between social sciences and Imperialism/colonialism Fascism/Nazism Militarism Racism (the bell curve) Capitalism Repression in communist regimes Who defines potential? Darwinism
Empowering approaches to ability The indeterminate nature of intelligence Cultural vs Biological approaches to intelligence : Vygotsky vs Piaget
Empowering approaches to ability Constructivist approaches and the critical psychology The influence of critical educators: Bowles & Gintis, Willis, Bourdieu Getting inside the school
How do we explain school failure for working class background students? The most important variable to explain school failure: Socio-economic background Who is in lower streams? Who is in low achieving schools? Who does not go to post-compulsory education? Who does not get the high ability (high wage?) jobs? BUT: Importance of School Effects Influence of significant others [see ch.14]
The question is: Does schooling Facilitate social class mobility hence transform social structure Or Does schooling reproduce social structure
3 key reproduction theories: Economic reproduction Herbert Bowles & Samuel Gintis; Jean Anyon Cultural reproduction Paul Willis, Pierre Bourdieu Ideological reproduction Antonio Gramsci, Michael Apple
Economic reproduction: Schools and capitalism school work Inter- and intra-school streaming vs comprehensive systems Different diet for the different streams Where would we park students if all were successful?
The Correspondence Principle
Ideological reproduction The curriculum as a selection The curriculum has both formal and informal components What we select is never innocent The selection has real effects on who feels included, and who feels excluded The kind of knowledge we value has social class components
Cultural reproduction Culture as a form of life Whose form of life prevails in schools? Who feels comfortable with the norms, practices, traditions, pedagogies, ways of learning? Bourdieu s central insights and notions: Habitus symbolic violence learned helplessness
Reproduction of social position Inheritance in modern times son father Educationa l capital Economic capital Inheritance in feudal Cultural capital