How Culture and Education Relate - Essay Example

Education and Culture A research has been done on how culture and education relate. Culture is the taste in art and manners that are favored by a particular social group at a particular period of time, a feature that distinguishes a group of people from others. The preference and tastes in schools are determined by how teachers teach and how they are trained to carry on their job activities. This therefore goes further in determining what happens around the school compound and in the classes. For success in academic work to be achieved, all these are parts of where attention should be directed. They comprise of the culture cultivated in schools. It is therefore right to say that the academic culture is key factor in taking the journey towards success. Some researchers such as Bobbitt and Charters have helped in improving the education culture in the United States, as they lived in the times when education progress was unsteadily in the country. This was due to application of a poor curriculum science that existed in those days. With concrete evidence, the curriculum makers were suggested by the two researchers to be the most appropriate factor that determines the extent of success in academic work. This means that the way learning takes place in schools, the behaviors that are cultivated in learning institutions, and the attitudes developed by teachers and students in schools have great influence on how students perform in their academic work. This sequentially has an impact to the entire nation’s education system. The system is judged in accordance to how student citizens perform academically and how they are able to apply the skills acquired in classrooms in real life situations. Culture has been found to affect education and classrooms directly. Some cultural notions on education have sprung and affected the attitude of both teachers and students in classrooms. These notions include the tenet that education is for the purpose of preparation for a better future. This has greatly influenced the way people think and react towards the whole struggle of getting educated and educating their children in the society. It implants thoughts that education is for the future and not for the current period that people are living. Many believe that nobody can tell about the future and that nobody can be so certain on what the future brings. It is possible to even fail to experience the future (Flinders and Thornton 70-74). With all these believes, education becomes something that people do and are not so certain about the reward. Why struggle for what will benefit you in the future, not now, and if only you will be lucky to experience the so named future? If the children getting educated are viewed as preparing for the future, it means they are only helpful to the society when the future becomes the present. This unfairly slices off children as part of the society people are living in yet it is true to everyone that children are part of the society. Most people are aware that children contribute much more in the modern society rather than assuring the parents and elders of a bright future for the society. In classrooms, when children are not motivated as part of today’s society and without being made to understand that education is the current way of life, teachers and trainers will always have to stimulate learning by inducing rewards and punishments at a large scale. This is of course not the right way to chase success in education. The willingness of students to learn is needed in making successful species in terms of education and can never be gained with the existence of such cultural notions. This kind of notion would only lead to development of status quo instead of making helpful social improvements. In connection to reality, life can only be lived and not be prepared for. It would therefore be better if parents, teachers, and students in society learnt that education is not for the preparation of the future but for maintaining and holding high the current life that people are living in the society. In scientific subjects especially, current education culture also happens to generalize things and it seems to appear harmful before in terms of impacts on education. As an example, the language used in teaching does not drive home points that are essential and needed for success to be registered in education. Teachers will talk of ‘Ability to care for one’s health’, instead of expounding it to ‘Ability to manage the ventilation of one’s sleeping room, ability to protect oneself against micro-organisms, capacity to take care of one’s teeth and so on’. This shows the defaults in the scientific curriculum that will ever deter progress in class work. The culture followed in education, the culture that affects learning directly in classrooms and the culture that the teachers are well aware of and follow in teaching is important if it is kept at the best level possible as it helps in maintenance of society values and fogging a smooth and sure path for students and learning institutions towards academic success. According to Bobbitt’s research findings, culture is directly related to the emotions of an individual towards bookwork. This means that culture has the power to influence one’s desires towards learning in classrooms. With the desire to learn, one gains ability to read and interpret content from books. This way, students develop the zeal to acquire the different skills offered in learning institutions and they are able to apply these important skills in life aspects as expected. The influence of culture on class work therefore seems great as the performance in academic work seems directly proportional to the kind of cultural believes on education. This means that there is the duty of keeping the cultural traits straight if only the graph of education is to be high. The influencers of education culture need to pay attention and become shaped according to the cultural requirements for a successful educational institution globally. The parents too and members of the society at large need to be aware of this requirement and adhere to it. Teachers too are needed in maintenance of a favorable culture in schools and training institutions to promote academic success. Teachers need to learn about culture so that they can learn more than just training skills. They need to understand how to explain and teach interesting subjects and topics in the most interesting ways possible. It is through teachers that education will be made interesting to students and stimulate excellent performance in schools and learning institutions. These teaching traits, as guided by a favorable culture, should be desirable so as to make positive progress in bringing about and initiating success in education. The way teachers are trained therefore accounts in the way the students will perform in classes. Teachers will need to learn the culture and realize what knowledge is worth teaching in classes, how it should be done, and how best it will contribute to the success of the institution and in turn of the nation at large. The effectiveness of teachers also determines how helpful they will be in producing children with good moral values to the society. The fact that teachers who have learnt about culture know the knowledge that is most worth teaching in classes makes it possible for this kind of teachers to contribute in bringing up of best morals in the society and obviously creation of a promising future. Teachers comprise the individuals that are most influential in determining what happens around the school compound and how the students relate to one another socially. This therefore means that a larger portion of the culture is school based for the children in the society. This is why teachers should be aware of the culture to help maintain what is right. Training teachers on how to conduct themselves before students has not been emphasized on training institutions for teachers. This has brought up great impact on how students behave. Many children will do what they observe at school and at their homes. However, students spend more time in schools as compared to their homes. This simply implies that teachers have better chances and are more influential on the conduct of a child. Do these teachers really know this? Do they act and make efforts as they consider this fact? Most teachers will only go to schools and classes to teach and await payment. It is time they know that their duty is far much more than just that. They need to realize that they hold the existence of the traits required in the modern culture. The way teachers teach in class, the news they feed children, and the behaviors they portray to students directly affect the cultural believes and the morality of members of the culture. Teachers should therefore be directed to conduct themselves in ways that are relative to the culture. This brings up the question, ‘who is a good teacher?’ What must be in the students’ hands must be in the teacher’s shelf. This seems to be the perfect answer for such a question. Teachers are expected to make it possible for children to have a sense of their interactions for them to be termed as successful teachers. This therefore is another major reason as to why teachers need to learn the culture. The language used by teachers to teach pupils and students is also in some different language from the normal language one uses outside school. This trait has to be made familiar to the teachers and it is another reason for training teachers and making them learn the culture cultivated in the education system. Language has a great role in cultural activities (Regan 15-18). Groups that go out for hunting together have their language that they use and clearly understand one another. This language has its root origin in classrooms with the help of teachers. This is how important it is for a teacher to learn and understand language in relation to the culture. It is also found that there is a disconnection between the children in the current generation and tools used in cultural activities. Many children will follow and keep close to the parents that live and work in factories situated in urban centers. Theses factories will be their work places in future. The only savior and link between the students and these tools are the teachers. This is why teachers should be familiar with the culture. Teachers also have a duty to teach and make children understand there is a society pattern followed in every society. Children need to be made to understand that there are stages involved in learning the society pattern. For teachers to achieve this, it is of great help to learn the culture first. It is also advisable, that through the collection of cultural material, in the process of learning the culture, that teachers should take part in helping the students understand what currently seem primitive but end up useful. All these are reasons as to why teachers need to learn the culture amongst many more reasons. In conclusion therefore, culture is something that everyone has a duty of maintaining. Culture tells and portrays differences between groups of people. When some do not act according to their culture, they are not being whom they really are. It is important for culture to be maintained in classrooms to avoid future complications in trying to learn one’s culture when it is too late. Teachers are the most influential in determining whether this will happen or not. Students and teachers who follow cultural activities and beliefs have ways of getting closer to success though with some norms eliminated. Schools and learning institutions have been very useful in enhancing continuation and development of cultural activities. The overall society relies on the capabilities of the teachers to execute their duties in teaching issues concerning culture. This means that teachers should best know their culture and the activities involved in maintaining it so as to insure the future through instilling the said culture in children. Works Cited Flinders, David J. and Thornton, Stephen J. The Curriculum Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print. Regan, Timothy. “Non-Western educational traditions: Indigenous approaches to education thought and practice, The Electronic Journal for English as Second Language 8.4 (2005): 1-27. Print. Read More