8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

1/38

Education In Modern Society

Provenzo Chapter Two:

Schools as Cultural Institutions

A person should be just cultured

enough to be able to look with

suspicion upon culture.--Samuel Butler

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

2/38

Schools: cultural institutions

Culture: (T.S. Eliot):

All thecharacteristicactivities and

interests of apeople.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

3/38

Cultural eras:

Modern:

European male socialand cultural tradition

Postmodern:

Direct challenge to narrowWestern definition of

legitimate knowledge

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

4/38

High culture:

DaVinci, Michelangelo, Picasso, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Bach

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

5/38

Popular culture:

Rock music, hamburgers,television, world wide web, and . . .

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

6/38

Schools attempt to

introduce students to:

most noble, meaningful ofhuman creation

usually high culture

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

7/38

to respect culture

to become functioning members of society

Evidence: high school mission statements:

preparation for responsible living . . .

Schools (subtly, overtly) socialize students . . .

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

8/38

Emile Durkheim observed:

Education:

Systematic

socializationof young

generation.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

9/38

Culture question:

Whose culture is being passed on by schools?

1800, 1900, 2000, 2100 a.d.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

10/38

Historically, the U.S. has been:

Racist,

sexist,

discriminatory

culture.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

11/38

Cultural capital:

Curriculum reflects the realities of power andinfluence within our culture.

Curriculum selection is a cultural and politicalactwhether or not one is conscious of it.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

12/38

Cultural capital

The languageteachers use,

the curricula theyemploy,

the values they hold

can be described ascultural capital.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

13/38

Cultural capital(Education distributes and legitimates certain forms of:

knowledge language

practices

values

ways of talking acting,

moving,

dressing,

socializing.

Schools: not merely instructional sites,

Sites: where culture of dominant society institutionalized.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

14/38

Cultural capital

Teachers: 85% Caucasian Students: 33% self report as of color

In a diverse society such as the U.S. where differentvalues, traditions, and worldviews separate the studentsfrom the teachers, conflict is inevitable.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

15/38

Education: Embodies specific values and

purposes.

Not neutral or apolitical.

Subject to the personal needs and

interests of those in power.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

16/38

Increased empowerment of under-represented groups has

characterized U.S. society over the last forty years.

Resulted in increased demands that new models of

culture be represented in curriculum.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

17/38

Cultural conservatives

Argue for a model of

literacy that focuses the

attention of children on acommon western cultural

heritage.

E.D. Hirsch: What Your

First (Second, Sixth

Grader) Needs to Know.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

18/38

Cultural Conservatives argue:

Cultural literacy constitutes the only sure avenue ofopportunity for the marginalized.

Lest they remain the same as their parents.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

19/38

Western cannon:

valuable body of knowledge not the only body of cultural

knowledge children need toknow

Many of its assumptions need tobe challenged if we are toachieve a more just and equitable

society.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

20/38

Critical multiculturalists: Respect earlier insight.

Display their respect by continuing to question the

work of their intellectual ancestors.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

21/38

No curriculum is neutral.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

22/38

Formal curriculum:

The explicitly stated goals and

objectives of education.

idd i l

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

23/38

Hidden curriculum:

Unintended outcomes, subtleinfluences, and outcomes ofschool.

The many things which are

taught in school besides theformal subject matter.

Examples: Students learning how to behave in class;

rules of conduct, classroom organization, informal

activities such as brown nosing, being polite, decidingwho and what was cool, and so on.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

24/38

Null curriculum: The curriculum that does not exist

Did not make the cut

The hole in the middle of thedoughnut

Something that is there but does notexist

We teach things by excluding themfrom the curriculumby not teachingthem.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

25/38

What schools do not teach may be as important as what they

do teach.

Ignorance is not simply a neutral void; It has an important effect on the kinds of options one is able

to consider, the alternatives one can examine, and the

perspectives from which one can view a situation or problem.

If one of the purposes of schooling is to foster wisdom,weaken prejudice, and develop the ability to use a wide range

of modes of thought, then we ought to look carefully at what

the schools do not include in the curriculum.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

26/38

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

27/38

Resistance theory and learning:

Students rejecting thetraditional curriculum

not because they are not

smart enough to succeedin the work,

but because they see thiseducation as notrepresenting their familyor cultural values.

For many disadvantagedstudents, success in schoolmeans a type of forcedcultural suicide.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

28/38

Critical pedagogy:

(from pedagogythe work orfunction of a teacher)

Understanding the role of educationin the culture in which it functions;

Concerned with the realities of whatgoes on in the classroom;

The connections between the schooland the society, media, families, andthe society education serves.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

29/38

What is taught more often than not

reflects traditions of power, authority,

and domination in the culture.

Effective teaching must take into

account the fact that education,

pedagogy, teaching, and instruction are

cultural and political acts.

No such thing as neutral education

exists.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

30/38

Critical pedagogy:

Developing pedagogical practices informed by an

ethical stance that contests racism, sexism, classexploitation, and other dehumanizing and

exploitative social relations as ideologies and social

practices that disrupt and devalue public life.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

31/38

Critical pedagogy:

related to border crossing

to promote pedagogical practices that

offer the possibilities for schools tobecome places students and teacherscan become engaged in critical thinkingand ethical reflection about what itmeans to bring a wider variety of

cultures into dialogue with each other,to theorize about cultures in the plural,within, rather than outside antagonisticrelations of domination andsubordination.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

32/38

Who creates knowledge?

Who is empowered by it?

How are different groups subordinated, marginalized, and

excluded in U.S. education and culture? What are the possibilities for resistance?

What are the possibilities for achieving a more just andequitable society through the act of teaching (and

learning)? These are questions that must be asked by those working

(and studying) in postmodern schools and classrooms.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

33/38

Discussion questions:

Can you think of examples of cultures

competing with each other in your

community?

(Example: Gay Pride Parade and related article in Twin Ports)

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

34/38

Discussion questions:

Give examples of hidden curriculum from

your own experience as a student.

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

35/38

Discussion questions: CPS

discussionJ. What are the good things about

contemporary or postmodern culture?

What are problematic?

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

36/38

Discussion questions: CPS

definition, then discussionK. Why is the concept of paideia a useful one

in understanding education and its role in

our culture?

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

37/38

Your CPS responder

Registering online

Uses for our class

Piloting this for

course use--demonstration

8/11/2019 Chapter02 Wh (3)

38/38

Interstate New Teacher Assessment

and Support Consortium (INTASC) Ten standards or principles Ten entries assigned for the entire semester

Compiled in a professional portfolio

Handed in one week before final

Create one entry for each standard or principle

You may start with any principle which interests youfrom your reading

Samples available for reviewing: describe, analyze,

reflect Mnemonic devices for memorizing thesetest material

at any time. Demo devices to aid memory.

Questions are signs of intelligence: ask away