THE TEACHER AND THE COMMUNITY, SCHOOL

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CHAPTER 3

Education and Culture

Education plays a major role in transmission of culture; this is achieved when

preservation is done from one generation to another. Cultures can potentially have a
great impact on education as well as social change. Culture is the social change of any
character in society. The main function of the educational system is to transmit the
cultural heritage to the new generations. But in a changing society, these keep on
changing from generation to generation and the educational system in such a society
must not only transmit the cultural heritage, but also aid in preparing the young for
adjustment to any changes in them that may have occurred or are likely to occur in
future. Culture can be developed through education. Education brings the desirable
change in both the culture and values for the progress and development of the society.
The influential facts of education on culture are: preservation of culture, transmission of
culture, promotion of culture, equips man to adapt to changing cultural patterns, molding
the personality, restoring unity of mankind through diffusion of culture and removing
cultural lag. Culture paves the way for education while education is responsible for
flavoring the cultural values in life. Therefore, both have to be interwoven in various
ways.

Schooling in Capitalist Societies by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis

Schooling in capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of

Economic Life is a 1976 book by economists Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis. Widely
considered a groundbreaking work in sociology of education. It argues the
“correspondence principle” explain how the internal organization of the capitalist work
force in its structures, norms, and values. For example, the authors assert the hierarchy
system in schools reflects the structure of the labor market, with the head teacher as the
managing director, pupils fall lower down in the hierarchy. Wearing uniforms and
discipline are promoted among students from working class, as it would be in the
workplace for lower levels employees. Education provides knowledge of how to interact
in the workplace and gives direct preparation for entry into the labor market.

They also believe work casts a “long shadow” in education – education is used
by the bourgeoisie to control the workforce. From their point of view schools reproduce
existing inequalities and they reject the notion that there are equal opportunities for all.
In this way they argue that education justifies and explains social equality.

The book is now considered the key text for the Marxist theory of sociology of
education.

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Criticisms

 Philip Brown and Hugh Lauder (1919) argue that Bowles and Gintis have
simplified the correspondence between education and the labor market. They go
on further to state that there are changes in the importance of bureaucratic
control in work organizations it has reduced and there is an increased importance
of team working.
 Michael Apple (1982,1986) examined the hidden curriculum and concludes
teachers are being proletarianized as the profession is de – skilled through the
standardized curriculum. This icreses state control over teachers and how they
carry out their functions. He believes schools are sites of struggle and
reproduction of inequalities persist. The formal curriculum is class biased.
Reproduction of high status academic knowledge is prioritized through the
schooling of those who are not poor or part of a minority. Textbooks neglect
social conflict, which contribute to the ideological reproduction of capitalism.
 However Ramsey (1983) conducted a larger survey of schools and found a
great deal of variation among working class schools.
 Hannah and Boyle ( 1987) argue the management and attitude of teachers
control the ethos of a working class school, not all working class schools prepare
their students for failing.
 David Reynolds (1984) Bowles and Gintis ignore the influence of the formal
curriculum. Much of the Bristish school curriculum does not promote the
development of an ideal employee under capitalism. The curriculum fails to teach
skills needed by employers.
 Willis ( 1977) Bowles and Gintis did not carry out detailed research into life in
schools and they made assumptions that the hidden curriculum was actually
influencing pupils. Many pupils had disrespect for the school rules and for the
authority of the teacher working class ”lads” learned to behave at school in ways
that do not fit with capitalism’s need for a passive workforce.

Conflict Theory

Conflict theorists do not believe that public schools reduce social inequality.
Rather, they believe that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social
inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Where
functionalists see education as serving a beneficial role, conflict theorists view it more
negatively. To them, educational systems preserve the status quo and push people of
lower status into obedience.

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Conflict theorists see the education system as a means by which those in power stay in power. (Photo courtesy
Thomas Ricker/flickr)

The fulfillment of one’s education is closely linked to social class. Students of low
socioeconomic status are generally not afforded the same opportunities as students of
higher status, no matter how great their academic ability or desire to learn. Picture a
student from a working-class home who wants to do well in school. On a Monday, he’s
assigned a paper that’s due Friday. Monday evening, he has to babysit his younger
sister while his divorced mother works. Tuesday and Wednesday, he works stocking
shelves after school until 10:00 p.m. By Thursday, the only day he might have available
to work on that assignment, he’s so exhausted he can’t bring himself to start the paper.
His mother, though she’d like to help him, is so tired herself that she isn’t able to give
him the encouragement or support he needs. And since English is her second
language, she has difficulty with some of his educational materials. They also lack a
computer and printer at home, which most of his classmates have, so they have to rely
on the public library or school system for access to technology. As this story shows,
many students from working-class families have to contend with helping out at home,
contributing financially to the family, poor study environments and a lack of support from
their families. This is a difficult match with education systems that adhere to a traditional
curriculum that is more easily understood and completed by students of higher social
classes.

Such a situation leads to social class reproduction, extensively studied by French

sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He researched how cultural capital, or cultural knowledge
that serves (metaphorically) as currency that helps us navigate a culture, alters the
experiences and opportunities available to French students from different social
classes. Members of the upper and middle classes have more cultural capital than do
families of lower-class status. As a result, the educational system maintains a cycle in
which the dominant culture’s values are rewarded. Instruction and tests cater to the

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dominant culture and leave others struggling to identify with values and competencies
outside their social class. For example, there has been a great deal of discussion over
what standardized tests such as the SAT truly measure. Many argue that the tests
group students by cultural ability rather than by natural intelligence.
The cycle of rewarding those who possess cultural capital is found in formal
educational curricula as well as in the hidden curriculum, which refers to the type of
nonacademic knowledge that students learn through informal learning and cultural
transmission. This hidden curriculum reinforces the positions of those with higher
cultural capital and serves to bestow status unequally.
Conflict theorists point to tracking, a formalized sorting system that places
students on “tracks” (advanced versus low achievers) that perpetuate inequalities. While
educators may believe that students do better in tracked classes because they are with
students of similar ability and may have access to more individual attention from
teachers, conflict theorists feel that tracking leads to self-fulfilling prophecies in which
students live up (or down) to teacher and societal expectations (Education Week 2004).

To conflict theorists, schools play the role of training working-class students to

accept and retain their position as lower members of society. They argue that this role is
fulfilled through the disparity of resources available to students in richer and poorer
neighborhoods as well as through testing (Lauen and Tyson 2008).

IQ tests have been attacked for being biased—for testing cultural knowledge
rather than actual intelligence. For example, a test item may ask students what
instruments belong in an orchestra. To correctly answer this question requires certain
cultural knowledge—knowledge most often held by more affluent people who typically
have more exposure to orchestral music. Though experts in testing claim that bias has
been eliminated from tests, conflict theorists maintain that this is impossible. These
tests, to conflict theorists, are another way in which education does not provide
opportunities, but instead maintains an established configuration of power.

THINK IT OVER

Thinking of your school, what are some ways that a conflict theorist would say that your
school perpetuates class differences?

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

What is Pedagogy of the Oppressed?

Pedagogy of the Oppressed is Freire’s attempt to help the oppressed fight back
to regain their lost humanity and achieve full humanization. Freire outlines steps with
which the oppressed can regain their humanity, staring with acquiring knowledge about
the concept of humanization itself.

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What are the main ideas of Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed?

Using Freire’s methods, educators and participants(students) teach each other

through respectful dialogue. All viewpoints are respected equally, and everyone learns
at the same pace. This new method of education humanizes students and prepares
them to fight for liberation from oppression.

Two Stages of Pedagogy of Oppressed

1. Actual liberation of the oppressed – Practical structural changes that have an

immediate effect on oppressed.

2. Deep structural changes to society: expulsion of “myths created and developed in the
old order.

What are the three main ideas of Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed?

In his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire advocates a revolutionary

program for education and liberation among the oppressed people of the world. Freire
explains the dualistic paradigm which holds that the world is comprised of the
oppressors and the oppressed. According to Freire, those who are oppressed are
dehumanized by their oppressors. As a result, the oppressed seek freedom and justice,
even if they do not realize it or know how to achieve it.
Based on the view of the world that divides people into the categories of oppressor or
oppressed, Freire suggests a new approach to education that would address these
problems. He calls this approach the pedagogy of the oppressed. According to this
perspective, the oppressed can overcome their oppression through an educational
process in which they are active participants. The pedagogy of the oppressed requires
oppressed people to recognize and adjust their roles in their own oppression. Freire
writes,

The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for critical discovery that both
they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.

Finally, a third point in chapter 1 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed is that liberation

of the oppressed is both necessary and difficult. Freire explains that, for liberation to
occur, the oppressed need to play an active role in becoming conscious of their
situation and voluntarily working to change it through self-empowerment. Liberation
cannot be forced onto the oppressed by revolutionaries or activists. Without genuine
participation in the process of their liberation, the oppressed will never be truly free.
To summarize, the three main ideas are the following:

The world is made up of oppressors and the oppressed

A “pedagogy of the oppressed” is necessary—not only for education, but also for

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freedom and justice

Liberation is a mutual process in which the oppressed must actively participate

Freire first begins by noting that a main problem with transforming the world into
a better place in which people can become fully human is that oppressed people
internalize the mindset of the oppressor and identify with it. As Freire puts it,

It is not to become free that they [the oppressed] want agrarian reform, but in
order to acquire land and thus become landowners—or, more precisely, bosses over
other workers.

Freire also writes,

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his
guidelines, are fearful of freedom.

Secondly, the oppressors themselves are dehumanized by the system in which

they function. They try to soften both the oppression they inflict and their own
dehumanization through acts of "generosity." However, this "generosity" perpetuates a
system of oppression: if people were treated as fully human from the start, they wouldn't
need charity or handouts. Therefore, the fight for freedom liberates both the oppressed
and the oppressor. It is an act of love:

And this fight, because of the purpose given it by the oppressed, will actually
constitute an act of love opposing the loveless which lies at the heart of the oppressors
violence, loveless even when clothed in false generosity.

Third, those fighting oppression must reeducate themselves (the system of

oppression can't provide this education) to value not becoming the "new bosses" in a
new system that simply replicates the old. There is an exit from the world of oppressor
and oppressed: it is transformation. Transformation means that the conditions that
create oppression must be changed. This transformation comes in part from education
—reading and learning—but also, and this is extremely important to Freire, through
action (which he calls "praxis"). People can't just dream about a new world, but must
work to make it happen. He quotes the psychologist Erich Fromm that humans need the

. . . freedom to create and to construct, to wonder and to venture. Such freedom

requires that the individual be active and responsible.

People, oppressed and privileged, must realize they are dehumanized by the current
system and fight that oppression through transforming the world. The world is
transformed through education and action into a new way of being.

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Freire's three major points begin with the concept of humanization and
dehumanization. Humanity is what makes humans who they are. Freedom is an
example of an aspect of humanization that contributes to how people grow as human
beings. On the other hand, dehumanization is where an individual's humanity has been
taken away. Dehumanized individuals are considered oppressed. Oppressed individuals
are oppressed by other people. The oppressors control others by taking away their
rights. This process causes the oppressors to also become dehumanized.
Secondly, Freire states that the oppressed are in danger of becoming the
oppressors. This is due to the fact that they are living within the structure the oppressors
have created for them. Freire discusses how the oppressed often become comfortable
within the system of the oppressors. Acting against these structures puts the oppressed
in opposition to the oppressors and creates turbulence. The oppressed can overcome
these structures, but they must work together.
Lastly, Freire goes on to encourage oppressed groups to rise up together and
break free of the structures placed upon them by their oppressors. The oppressed must
create their own pedagogy of liberation rather than have it created for them. They must
investigate (as a group) what elements of oppression exist within the structures of
society and create a pedagogy of liberation for all.

The three main Ideas of Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

 Humanization and Dehumanization. The most important reason people should fight to

liberate themselves from oppression is to "become fully human." This, Freire argues, is
humankind's central problem.
 Education in which Freire views it differently than most teachers.
 Dialogue and Language.

Reflection on the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Brazilian Paulo Freire wrote the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed in 1968. The
book quickly began a conversational topic among educators, students, policy makers,
administrators, academics and community activists all over the world. Freire's Pedagogy
of the Oppressed has been translated into many languages and is banned in a number of
countries.

In his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire discussed the problems that lay in
education and proposed solutions to the problems. Freire faulted the capitalist of
education and set a revolution in education. In his book Freire said that a problem-prosing
education is what was needed to revolutionize education. The book Pedagogy of the
Oppressed introduced Freire's concepts and theories surrounding education during the
20th century. Many of concepts discussed as the foundation of education include: the
"banking theory," "conscientization," "dialogical method," and "transformative education."
In his book, Freire shows that the practices in education that were being used were
dehumanizing and producing unproductive students to the world. He proposed the idea
that education should be a "dialogical process" in which students and teachers are

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learning from their experiences.

Conclusion

Throughout Freire's book, he argued for a system of education that emphasizes

learning as an act of culture and freedom. The first chapter defined the "oppressor" and
the "oppressor" and the actions that occur between them. Freire expressed his ideas that
society scares the freedom out of the poor and powerless. According to Freire, freedom is
the outcome of the informed action, which he referred to as the praxis.

The second chapter described the "banking" approach to education in which

Freire suggested that students were considered empty bank accounts and that teachers
were making deposits into them and receiving nothing back. The banking concept
distinguishes two states. In the first, the educator cognizes a cognizable object and
prepares a lesson. During the second, he expounds to his students about it. (67) Freire
argued that the underclass could be empowered through literacy. He also pointed out that
education could be used to create a passive and submissive citizen, but that it also has
the potential to empower students by instilling in them a "critical consciousness." (45)
Freire wanted the individual to form himself rather than be formed.

References:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00309230.2017.1288752

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/eandc

For deeper understanding please click the links below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCve5xC2-go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqaa684Eo7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YAPRsDEOsU

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