TEMP IFirst course: Education and

Development in the Context of Globalization, Jan 01-Feb27

Theme 1: Three subthemes:A. What is EducationB. What is DevelopmentC. The relation between

Education & Development

LITERATURE for these Sub-themes

• Look to the literature list

Introduction: Some concepts:

• Globalisation, • neo-liberalism, • Multilateral organisations• ….

What is education?

Related concepts, for example• Society,• Socialization• Education• Schooling• ..

SocietyGeneral meaning :• A group of people having some common

characteristics like same language, religion, culture, political system, and so on

Specific meaning :• A result of human relations and activity where

people interact with others and where there are rules and obligations as well as resources and constraints (from: Parajuli M , lecture MAP 2010)

Socialization, education and schooling

• Socialization is a process through which individuals learn the rules of the society

• Socializing agencies – individuals, groups, institutions (family, school, Masjid).

• Education refers to a more individualized process of lifetime learning that continues throughout the life of the individual.

• Schooling, on the other hand, is a formalized system of group activity for teaching and learning, carried out in schools following standard norms and rules, with set curriculum and textbooks

EducationEducation is a mutual process between a person or an institution which has the intention to transmit something (knowledge, values, skills, habits, etc.) and a person or set of persons, which is or are being educated and seek(s) or allow(s) this intended transmission (Adick, C. 2009 MAP Lecture pps).

The intention to educate and to be educated makes the difference between ‚education‘ and ‚socialisation‘ (socialisation means the general influence of the societal surroundings on the members of society).

Education cannot be ‚neutral‘: Even when only ‚hard facts‘ are transmitted,

Formal, Non-formal, Informal

• Formal education: formalised teaching and learning in highly organised forms of state-regulated schooling; mostly synonymous to the public education (school) system.

• Non-formal education: teaching and learning outside the public school system, in less formalised settings – traditional education mostly fall into this category

Informal – incidental education

• Informal education: teaching and learning in which either the learning person has the intention to learn or the provider has the intention to deliver something (knowledge, values, skills), but not necessarily both of them; e.g. visiting a library or a museum.

• Incidental education: an education that takes place in

everyday life without the explicit intention to teach or learn; e.g. looking television, attending a meeting, using new household tools like a washing machine. (The term ‚incidental education‘ overlaps to a great deal with the notion of ‚socialization‘ or ‚learning‘.)

Two main perspectives on education

• Functionalism• Conflict/Critical theories• These are also known as theories of society

These theories try to explain and understand the social process from different perspective and assumptions

Functionalism

• Functionalism sees society as an organism, each part serving a specific purpose or function

• Explains society as one whole system and any part of this society as a part of the whole system and thus closely interrelated, sharing common goals and values

• Functional explanation of social activities are thus made in relation to function that serves for the society and as contributing to maintain the integration and stability of social system

Cont

• Role of schooling is vital in consensus building through the process of transmission

• According to functionalism, one of the main functions or role of schooling is to socialize members of society as per the prevailing values, norms, rules, etc. (from: Parajuli M , lecture MAP 2010)

Function of schooling in a society

• According to functionalists, schooling has four different functions – performed in order to establish social order in the interest of majority :– Intellectual, political, social and economic

• Through these functions schooling contributes to develop a modern democratic society with equality of opportunity to all

Cont

• reading, writing and mathematics, general subject knowledge and analytical, inquiry, assessment

Conflict/Critical theories

• Conflict perspectives were developed as different explanations of the social processes arguing that coercion, and not consensus, is the norms of the society or social order

• These theories argue that there are differences in the society as a result of differential access to resources and thus to power and status

• Conflicts also arise as a result of competition for the control of resources

Role of schooling

According to conflict theorists schooling has, in a simplified way, three functions:• Reproduction -that social status and occupations are not

earned, but are inherited• Legitimization: Powerful groups use different strategies to

show that differences between them and others are real and that their customs and ideologies are the legitimate ones and others’ are not of worth

• Labeling: They make their own language and practice as the language and practice of school

Education as:

• Cultural capital (Bourdieu); • liberation (Freire); • A human right; • Human capital;

Education as ”Cultural Capital” (Pierre Bourdieu)

Bourdieu distinguishes between:• economic capital (money, property).• social capital (social relations), and • cultural capital (knowledge, skills, titles, certificates, etc of the

individual).

• According to Bourdieu the different forms of capital are basically convertible

Education for Liberation (Paulo Freire)

• Education‘ is never neutral. Either education serves the interests of the dominant groups in society (the ‘oppressor‘) or those of the dependent masses of the population (the ‘oppressed’.

• Political alphabetisation (instead of functional alphabetisation) -not just to teach reading and writing, but to mobilise people to work for liberation.

Banking Education:

• The dominant form of education (oppressing education) is an education for submission, a domesticating education: The teacher knows everything and instructs students who are supposed not to know anything yet. The body of knowledge is prefabricated in curricula and textbooks, and in the teacher’s knowledge base.

Education as liberation:

• Teachers and learners both acquire new knowledge and insight in the process of education. Human knowledge is not simply there, but it originates and is constructed when all who participate in a common process of seeking answers to problems (“problem-solving method“). The aim of education is „conscientisation“, which means to become (self-)conscious about what the world is about and what it ought to be.

B. Development

• What is it?

Development as Freedom - The concept of Amartya Sen

• The freedom to develop the full potentials of a person is the prerequisite of any development of society. Poverty reduction and any other social development are the results/the effects (and not the condition) of the personal freedom of each human being.

Development theories

• Modernization theory • Dependency theory• Human Capital theory• Human Right Theory

Modernization theory

• Modernization Theory understood development and under-development as a result from internal conditions

• states that the development can be achieved through following the processes of development that were used by the developed countries (Western Europe and North America).

• The World of modernity: deliver higher living standards, more efficient government and more rational forward-looking human subjects.

• The world of tradition: is characterised by static economies and poverty, corruption, incompetent government and backward-looking narrow-minded subjects.

Modernization theory cont

• Modernity is linked with:– world of modernity and that of tradition-– That economic, political and social formations of West were at a

more evolved level of development than the ‘traditional’, non-modern or underdeveloped societies of the rest of the world.

– a market economy – democratic politics -local affiliations and practices of governance

replaced by institutional forms associated with political parties, elected parliaments, and efficient local government

– A modern personality: independent and rational. – Different version of modernity …

Aims of education • Aims of education should include a process through which people

could become modern and ‘take off’ the burdens of ‘tradition’.• In schools and universities they would learn the characters of

citizenship, democracy and the importance of national economic growth.

• Education was thus a key process through which the transformation to modernity was to be achieved

• Schools were key spaces for teaching subjects associated with modernisation.

• The pedagogy that would support learning these subjects for these purposes was often termed transmission teaching, (Unterhalter, 2007)

Dependency theory

• Dependency theory understood development and underdevelopment as relational

• See nations as divided into a core and periphery: – Core –the wealthy nations which dominate the

rest– Periphery - the poor nations whose main function

in the system is to provide cheap labour and raw materials to the core.

Cont

• As a result of such a system the rich nations become richer and more developed, while the poor nations do not advance.

• Ex . Slavery trade, exploitation of colonies, • Education as Cultural imperialism

• Dependency theory suggested that schools should not only satisfy needs and empower individuals, but should also help them to transform themselves and their societies (Freirean method)

Human Capital theory

• Economic value of schooling is central to modernisation.

• Investment in humans is similar to investment in other means of production, like factories or mines.

• Investment in human capital produces a rate of return, which could be calculated

• Differences in per capita income explained by level of education

• EFA reports on enrolment rate

Human Right theory

• education is a personal human right. • Education has a value in itself• Education, beside its contribution to socio-

economic development of society, has an intrinsic value for individuals .– Cognitive development-ability to read &write– intelligently Participate in the governance of society– Become active citizen– “Democracy can not function without educated population”

• Second of MDG: Universal primary education

Topic for group work

• Read page 3-5 in • Unterhalter, E. (2009) Social Justice, Theory and the Question of

Education. In: R. Cowen & A.M. Kazamias (eds) International Handbook of Comparative Education. P 781 – 793 Dortrecht: Springer.

• Compare the and contrast the two versions of Modernization theories