Culture and equality in education

The advent of comprehensive education implies a search for a common culture, or a common treatment of culture, across the whole school population. This article reviews the present stage in this search, attempting to define a suitable treatment of culture by secondary schools. The history of schools’ treatment of cultural sources is briefly invoked, particularly the differences in treatment found in grammar and secondary modern schools. Purportedly progressive attitudes to ‘formal’ or ‘high’ culture are analysed and found to be too simplistic. Traditional education is shown not to have genuinely served its own’ supposed cultural aims, whilst progressives’ rejection to those aims is shown to be inadequate as a reaction to what traditional education actually did rather than claimed to do. It is proposed that a more engaged approach to formal culture, involving critical receptivity, is appropriate for all pupils, and would also require the nourishment of a more receptive attitude to pupils’ own creativity.

Since we have liberated the term ‘culture’ from meaning merely a rarified level of works of art, it has become so all‐embracing as to be almost unmanageable. Influenced by anthropology, we now tend to think of culture as extending to the most casual level of value and idea by which we live our daily lives. It even includes our most informal language habits.

The difficulty, of course, with such an all‐embracing notion is that it makes the subject almost impossible to talk about. Criteria of quality , and currency are blurred. Part of the same confusion is that the education system, formerly seen as the custodian of ‘culture’, now has no name for the special resources of knowledge which are ‐‐ or used to be ‐‐ its particular responsibility.

I will use culture here to mean those public works or activities which represent man to himself and are value laden. Thus literature, psychology, history, philosophy, politics, law, economics and sociology would all be included. They might have scientific elements but they still convey normative images of man.

If the concept of culture itself, even as so defined, has a blunt edge, we must discriminate elements within it in order to make the area susceptible to discussion. To get a picture of how schools, traditionally, have mediated culture, we must distinguish at least five broad elements:

1. formal, by which is meant that part in which academic and professional institutions specialize;

2. informal, meaning relatively spontaneous and non‐centralized activities, including ordinary conversation;

3. mass culture, such as films, television, popular music, advertising;

4. avant‐garde culture, arising out of a sense of crisis in the formal culture; and

5. ethnic, other than that which coincides with the content of previous categories.

These are pretty crude categories, but they are a little better than such common divisions as ‘high/low’, ‘popular/serious’ and ‘traditional/contemporary’, and they permit some analysis of relationships between different elements within our culture as a whole.     

Culture and quality in higher education

The growth in quality assurance worldwide raises questions about what higher education should want from its quality programmes. The paper constructs a typology of quality assurance systems (drawing a distinction between the source of the judgement and the purpose of the process) and evaluates the alternatives. It argues that Total Quality strategies are the best suited to the higher education purpose but demonstrates that there are deep, often conflicting, cultural processes that can frustrate its introduction.     

新世纪:教育与人

教育的贫乏源于哲学的贫乏 ,哲学的贫乏源于对人单向度的理解。人不是单一因果关系的对象 ,而是自己综合意识的对象。人是能使自己获得新的生命的生命体 ,故教育的本性就是使人更像人 ,教师的神圣使命则在于使学生自己成为他自己灵魂的工程师。大学的崇高性来自于大学独立的个性和自由的精神。大学的理念首先是校长的理念 ,它植根于大学的传统 ,附着于大学主流文化。一流的大学要有一流的大学理念 ,新世纪的大学理念将以人文为基调 ,人文与科学的高度融合为主要特征     

Culture difference and science education

The author reviews conceptions of culture and language to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the ways in which cultural differences between students and science teachers can influence learning of that subject. The paper is both theoretical and practical.     

Culture and identity in higher education research

The aim of this article is to develop a cultural approach in higher education studies. It will be argued that the cultural approach is rooted mainly in two different intellectual starting points to analyze academic communities as cultural entities: studies of disciplinary cultures and institutional cultures. Notions of disciplines as cultural entities have been developed in Europe in relation to the two cultures topic and to issues developed in the sociology of knowledge. The institutional studies tradition is, in turn, rooted in the American intellectual tradition, where cultural concerns emerge from institutional level phenomena whether they concern students, faculty or higher education institutions. The article discusses the pros and cons of these traditions in order to find new avenues for future research. It will be argued that academic identity provides a seminal perspective for cultural studies in higher education.     

继续教育与终身教育的新方式:现代远程教育

继续教育和终身教育以促进人在一生中不间断的学习为主要目标,而现代远程教育作为新时代科技发展中的产物,其延续了继续教育与终身教育的教育观念,并结合自身的优势,创造出更加适合的教育方式。本文主要分析了现代远程教育的优势,并针对我国现代远程教育的发展问题及应对措施进行了研究和探讨。     

Culture and Technology: implications for multicultural teacher education

ABSTRACT

American classrooms are experiencing a rapid growth in cultural and ethnic diversity, as well as an increase in educational classroom computing. Because culture directly affects classroom organisation and classroom learning, teachers need to understand, incorporate, and support their students’ cultures. Furthermore, since educational computing is not culturally neutral, teachers in culturally diverse settings must integrate the computer culture, the classroom culture, and students’ learning preferences. To meet the need for culturally and technologically competent multicultural teachers, teacher education programs must first define both cultural competency and computer competency. After examining the relationship between culture and educational computing, the paper explores some essential components of cultural and technological competency for multicultural teachers. Finally, it indicates the need for further research on the interaction of culture and technology in the multicultural classroom.     

Culture and cognition in information technology education

This paper aims at explaining the outcomes of information technology education for international students using anthropological theories of cultural schemas. Even though computer science and engineering are usually assumed to be culture-independent, the practice in classrooms seems to indicate that learning patterns depend on culture. The situation in a college in Finland is evaluated based on study records, surveys on learning experiences, learning logs by students and classroom observations. Reasons for the educational outcome are discussed theoretically using cultural anthropology and the socio-cultural theory of learning. The universality of Western scientific thinking is questioned, and a need to recognise different cultural schemas in the thinking of international students is acknowledged. The study concludes that a view of human cognition as social and embodied gives new insights to information technology education when there is a great diversity of student backgrounds and their culturally produced mental schemas.     

Culture in the School: Assessment and the content of education

After obtaining more than 200 examinations used in 36 primary schools with 12-year-old children, a standard examination was made mixing questions of different subjects. This examination was taken by a group of university students and most of them failed outright. How is it possible to consider a 12-year-old a failure when university students are unable to succeed? What is wrong, the elaboration of examinations for 12-year-old children or the academic level of university students? What are the criteria for selecting the content of the curriculum? The paper concludes that schools follow traditions that are difficult to justify and reveals a lack of definition in the way we train teachers and, therefore, in the role that they develop in their work. Après avoir collecté plus de 200 examens utilisés dans 36 écoles primaires avec des enfants de douze ans, un examen type a été élaboré en utilisant des questions relatives à des matières différentes. L'examen a été testé avec un groupe d'étudiants universitaires qui ont tous échoué. Comment peut-on considérer comme un échec scolaire le cas d'un élè ve de douze ans qui ne réussit pas un examen que même des étudiants universitaires sont incapables de passer? Où est le problème, est-ce dans l'élaboration des examens pour enfants de douze ans, ou est-ce dans le niveau culturel des étudiants universitaires? Quels sont les critères de sélection des contenus du curriculum? Le présent article arrive à la conclusion que de nombreux procédés utilisés dans les écoles sont axés sur des traditions difficilement justifiables, et qu'ils révèlent un manque de définition de l'identité dans laquelle nous formons les enseignants, et donc dans le rôle que ceux-ci développent dans leur travail. Tras obtener más de 200 exámenes realizados en 36 colegios de primaria con niños de 12 años, se elaboró un examen-tipo, en el que se mezclaban preguntas correspondientes a las distintas materias de enseñanza. El examen se pasó a un grupo de estudiantes universitarios que fracasó claramente al contestarlo. ¿Cómo es posible considerar como fracasado escolar a un niño de 12 años por no ser capaz de contestar un examen que tampoco son capaces de contestar los alumnos universitarios? ¿Dónde está el error, en la forma en que se elaboran los exámenes de los alumnos de 12 años, o en el nivel cultural de los alumnos universitarios? ¿Con qué criterios se seleccionan los contenidos del curriculum? El artículo llega a la conclusión de que muchos de los procedimientos en curso en nuestras escuelas están basados en tradiciones que no tienen justificación, y que revelan una falta de definición de la identidad profesional que formamos en los profesores, y por tanto del papel que los profesores juegan en su trabajo. Nach Erhalt von 200 Prüfungen für zwölfjährige Schüler von 36 Schulen, erarbeitete man eine Prüfung mit Fragen aus den verschiedenen Schulfächern. Dieser Prüfung unterzogen sich 125 Studenten, von denen nur sieben den Test bestanden. Dieses Ergebnis wirft natürlich wichtige Fragen über die Legitimität unseres Lehrsystemes auf. Wie kann man einem Schulkind im Alter von zwölf Jahren Schulversagen attestieren, da es Fragen nicht beatworten kann, an denen Universitätsstudenten scheitern? Nach welchen Kriterien wird der Stoff ausgewählt, der in den Schulen gelehrt wird? Der Artikel schlägt vor, die Studie der häufigsten Verständnisprobleme zu vertiefen, um den Unterricht in den verschiedenen Fächern zu verbessern. Unter anderem zeigt der Artikel auch, dass Lehrer durch ihre Prüfungen mehr Wert auf das Auswendiglernen als auf andere intellektuelle Aktivitäten der Schüler legen.     

论教育的文化功能

教育具有传递—保存、传播—丰富、选择—提升、创造—更新文化的功能。充分发挥教育的文化功能 ,将大大加速教育与文化的发展 ,加快社会前进的步伐。     

New technologies and education: challenging disappointment

In the present article, I intend to look at information and communication technologies (ICTs), and their use in education, from the perspective of someone who has experienced both their advantages and disadvantages. Notwithstanding some reasonable scepticism about their theoretical miracles, I have decided to commit myself to applying them to my teaching; that is why here I will also give an account of a web project on English grammar I am actually implementing, the main aim of which is to benefit from the potential of new technologies, as long as students are ready to take responsibility for their own learning process.Nouvelles technologies et éducations, un défi à la déception. Dans cet article, j'ai l'intention d'´etudier les technologies de l'information et de la communication (TICs) et leur usage dans l'éducation dans la perspective de quelqu'un qui a fait l'expérience de leurs avantages et désavantages. Bien qu'ayant quelques septicismes raisonnables sur leurs miracles théoriques, j'ai décidé de les utiliser dans mon enseignement. Ainsi je vais rendre compte d'un projet sur le web concernant la grammaire anglaise que je mets en ce moment en oeuvre, dont l'objet principal est de tirer avantage des nouvelles technologies aussi longtemps que les ´etudiants sont prêts à assumer la responsabilité de leur propre processus d'apprentissage.Neue Techniken und Bildung, herausfordernde Enttäuschung. Mit diesem Artikel beabsichtige ich, mir Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (ICTs) und ihre Verwendung im Bildungsbereich aus der Sicht eines, der sowohl ihre Vorteile als auch Nachteile erfahren hat, anzusehen. Trotz einer vernünftigen Skepsis gegenüber ihren behaupteten Wundern habe ich beschlossen, mich darauf festzulegen, sie auf meine eigene Lehre anzuwenden. Deshalb werde ich hier auch einen Bericht über ein Netzprojekt über englische Grammatik geben, das ich gerade durchführe, dessen Hauptziel es ist, von den Stärken der neuen Technologien zu profitieren ist, solange jedenfalls, wie Studenten bereit sind, Verantwortung für ihren eigenen Lernprozeß zu übernehmen.     

Culture and sexuality in Finnish health education textbooks

In Finland, Young people’s sexuality education has not been examined from a multicultural perspective, with the exception of a few policy-oriented papers. This paper examines how cultural diversity is addressed in chapters on sexuality and sexuality education in Finnish health education textbooks. The analysis is based on material contained in textbooks used in grades 7–9 and upper secondary schools. Findings suggest that cultural diversity is included in textbooks in one of two ways: either to demonstrate the uniqueness of liberal, emancipated and progressive ‘Finnish’ sexuality; or as a way of distancing Finland and Finnish values from the rest of the world. In these textbooks, culture is understood as belonging to non-Finnish ‘others’ and a culture that itself as not being Finnish. This somewhat tendentious treatment of cultural diversity leaves teachers with limited tools with which to promote anti-discriminatory education. The textbooks also overlook the diverse backgrounds of young people growing up in Finland today.     

英语教学中的文化教育

在英语教学中,人们对语言与文化关系的错误理解主要表现在两点,一是认为外语教学的主要目的是语言知识的教学;另一点认为目前的教学内容使文化教学难以进行.本文结合对这两个问题的讨论,探讨交际性语言教学中,处理好文化与语言关系的必要性和可能性,并提出一些建议.     

Presidential Address: Culture and the future of education research

Recent changes in higher education have confronted education research with a conundrum: how our traditionally multidisciplinary field can refine itself as a unified discipline. In this address I sketch out what this conundrum may mean for education research, both substantively and methodologically, in the future. I propose that one starting point is for education researchers to consider what unites rather than divides us. One common, unifying conceptual concern is with the operation of culture/s in educational settings. I use the narratives of two teachers from different places and times to illustrate how culture analysis can be a fruitful tool for understanding the experience and practice of Education. In my conclusion, I extend the theme of culture to education research itself. I suggest that the challenge of disciplinary identity confronting education research requires a culture change in the modus operandi of our practice, and that this will involve an articulated focus on methodological pluralism, interdisciplinarity, and the use of new modes of communication as key unifying elements of the discipline of education research.