Socio-Political Influence on Education - Essay Example

SOCIO-POLITICAL INFLUENCE ON EDUCATION Introduction Plato, one of the greatest philosophers and of Socrates believed in the power of education and culture in which an individual was exposed. In his classic, The Republic, Plato quips that a person takes nothing with them to their new environment, but education. As he or she sets out to the new world, his education and culture can either be a great burden or provide the greatest assistance (Plato, 2006). Our first level of education starts at home. As an infant, a baby interacts with its parents and or siblings through imitation and experimentation. As it grows, it continues the learning process through these two fundamental methods. Through experience and instruction, an individual learns to acquire his needs from the environment. Since what a person learns is a function of their environment; the culture, society, or politics of the day will have a huge bearing on what a person can learn, unlearn, or relearn. All previous cultures and civilizations that have been experienced throughout the ages have had massive bearing on the populace behavior. The ancient Roman civilization was a republic complete with representative from every corner of the civilization. The concept of a republic complete with democratic institution was a reality. Our current civilizations borrow hugely from the Romans. This work will endeavor to interpret influences that create an individual and the social and political influence of our classrooms today. Social, cultural, and political influence on education In the ancient Roman civilization, both during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, culture, society and politics played a huge role in the education system. The ancient Roman civilization political elite such as Julius Caesar, the Senate, Emperor Augustus, Constantine etc. were constantly involved in campaigns and conquest that had huge implication on the education system of the day (Zumbusch, 2014). These conquests and campaigns brought many slaves to Rome, some of whom played a role in the education system of the Roman civilization. Romes education system borrows massively from the Greek culture. Many Greek slaves and freemen acted as tutors. Livius Andronicus, a Greek captive from Terentum provides a classic example. As a slave, Andronicus tutored his masters children while as a freeman, became the first private tutor in Rome (Zumbusch, 2014). Ancient Rome society was composed of rigid social structure, which included the elite and the commoners. The elite were mostly successful merchants, rulers, priests and nobles. The commoners were mostly composed of farmers and laborers. The education system was composed of a form of tier system much like what we have today. The commoners’ children rarely made it to the higher levels of the education tier. Unlike modern society were higher education is used for career advancement, during the Roman time it was accessed solely for status (Brucia, 2007). Typical lower tier of education system in Roman society was composed of learning reading, writing, and moral education. It was Roman culture that the highest male in the family be responsible for the education of the children. Often it was the father, or an elder brother who would teach the children of the house (Scurman, 2010). Higher tier of education were involved in teaching facets such as law and philosophy. Cato the elder transformed his children into responsible and hardworking Roman citizens. He acted as a law professor for his son, a reading teacher, athletic teacher, boxing instructor etc. Culture played a massive role in education in ancient Chinese society. During the Xia dynasty around 16 century BC, only elite citizens could access quality education in China. Confuciusm, a culture of doctrine preached by Confucius and his followers involved selflessness, honor, and service to oneself, family, and country. During the Xia era, Chinese education system was almost entirely based on Confucian culture. This system involved the five classics and the four books. These were a compilation of material that was used to teach. The five classics were composed of The Book of Change, The Spring and autumn analects, The Book of History, The Book of Rite and The Book of Poetry. The four books were composed of The Doctrine of Mean, The Works of Mensius, Confucian Analects and The Great learning. In the later period of the Han dynasty, common men were even encourage to study for the general benefit of the society and betterment of themselves. Confucianism emphasized the difference between a gentleman and a commoner. During the Qui dynasty, around 200 BC, Emperor Qui Shi Huang preached an aristocratic form of government called legalism. The system preached strict obedience of the law and banned anything that challenged the ruling class. All other forms of education were either considered useless or banned. Qui orchestrated the burning of book or banning them if they were dimmed that they threatened his rule The period between late nineteenth century and mid twentieth century, America witnessed somewhat contradictory struggles that shaped American classrooms even to this age. The first struggle involved the battle for control of both elementary and secondary curriculum by interested parties that were composed of four major groups that preached varied paradigm. The second struggle involved the different competing reform agendas that affected American school curriculum. The beginning of the 19th century up to the 1890s was marked with massive improvement in industry and transport. By the close of the century, there was a huge change in the perception and reality of schools and the society at large. Increase in immigrants, massive growth of cities and the improvement of railroads acted as a huge catalyst for change. By 1890, these cries for reform seemed to have reached crisis proportion( Kliebard, 1987). During these period, the media was busy exposing schools as monotonous institutions where students were involved in mindless drills, hash discipline and uncalled for verbatim (Kliebard, 1987). This atmosphere set the foundation for change as debate on school curriculum flared up. Humanist, Developementalist, social efficiency educators, and social mellonists struggled for the control of the school curriculum. The fifth group that was mostly more theoretical preached by John Dewey was to join the debate much latter. These debates in the society were classical and hugely influenced what the American classroom eventually became. Social efficiency educators’ aim was to fit the student to occupational and social status quo (Clements, 2013). This theory was easier to implement owing to the scientific paradigm of the age. Humanists were keen on systematic reasoning. Developmentalists on the other hand were of the opinion that the natural development of the child should determine the curriculum while Social mellorists wanted schools to act as lever for societal progress. The period after the great depression and the crash of 29 saw the society become hugely biased on social mellorist paradigm. Many felt that the classroom had to address the social and economic problems of the day ( Kliebard, 1987). Eclecticism was a hybrid that came about as a result of the struggle between the different paradigms entertained each of the par in the struggle of curriculum. By the end of World War 2, it became quite difficult to identify each group at least in its original form. During World War 2, there was a huge decline in high school attendance owing to the academic school subject prominence of the time. Educators felt that a work-oriented course would remedy this problem. This led to a huge disconnect between policy and implementation. By mid 20th century, the school curriculum of America had taken a completely different shape (Burger, 2013). Mathematics, English, and sciences experienced huge reforms on how they were taught. The 40s and 50s were marked with life adjustment training that taught students how to get along with others; how to respect and honor parents etc. These policy felt in disrepute soon as the society felt the need to catch up with the Russians academically. Recent incisive and critical work by Richard Elmore drill deep on school curriculum. Most of his work has been influenced by the work he did in District 2, New York. His recent work focuses on discrediting policies such as the No Child left Behind Act and other high-end stakes policies being preached by politicians and socialist (Elmore, 2004). Education in America in the 21st century will definitely be influenced by technology. The last decade of the previous millennium saw a huge increase in technology especially in the field of information technology and computers. In the last century, technology rarely influenced what went on in the classroom or curriculum development (Georgeson and Payler, 2013). Today, technology influences curriculum decisions, how classes are taught, planned and models used in student evaluation. The concept of e-learning is now a reality with many institutions of higher education providing e-learning where students can learn off campus. Today a future were traditionally printed books will not exist in no longer a far away mirage but likely. The digital divide among individuals born in the 80s and 90 is almost nonexistent. This cannot be said of the previous generation of baby boomers. Today even in the most remote parts of the world, you are likely to find an individual with a smart phone of a laptop computer. This interest in technology by the young has acted as a catalyst in the curriculum reforms. Indeed technology will be a cornerstone on the curriculum of the 21st century classroom. MIT currently has a program called Open Courseware whose goal is to share materials used to teach their students with anyone who can access a computer with active Internet connectivity. It is impossible to believe that some quality education can be accessed with a smart phone with active Internet from anywhere in the world and free. Apart from technology, other societal and political factors continue to influence education in the 21 century. Emotional factors, globalization, population diversity, spiritual and religious variables, gender issues, ethical factors and economical facets of American influences non only what the student learn, but what he or she eventually becomes. Summary This paper endeavors to explicate how social and political factors have affected what is taught in class and eventually play a pivotal role in determining the character and bearing of an individual who go through a given education system. The paper begins by introducing education in previous civilizations and ancient Rome education system. It explicates how the Roman political class influenced what was learned by their children and what these children became as citizens. The paper highlights how political campaigns and conquest played a role in the school system. Further, societal factors such as the patriarchal role of the father in educating their children are highlighted. Next, the paper moves to the East to examine how socio-political factors affected education in ancient Chinese society and how the Qui, Han and Xia dynasties influenced Chinese education system. The paper highlights how Confucism was the basis of education in almost all the Dynasties that existed during this civilization. The Confucian culture preached selflessness to family and self in the process determining the character and personality of the Chinese people. The paper further highlights a system of education system called legalism that existed during the Qui dynasty. Next, the paper moves to America to examine the social political influences on education and character between late nineteenth century and mid twentieth century. The paper gives a chronology of the struggle for control for school curriculum by four interest group. These interest groups were paradigm that the society and the ruling class aligned themselves with when they were debating on how best American classroom needed to be run. These four interest groups included developmentalists, humanists, social efficiency educators, and lastly social mellonists. A fifth paradigm that was preached by John Dewey soon appears. The paper explains how each of these paradigms was favored by popular society depending on the condition. These five schools of thought were to later combine to form a hybrid called eclecticism. The paper goes on to analyze the post World War 2 American education and how fields such as English, mathematics and sciences had ground breaking reforms on how they were taught. Concept such as life adjustments is addressed and how they affected the character of the student. The paper highlights how thinkers like Elmore approach the idea of change in the public education system. Elmores ideas on how school reforms needed to be addressed from the inside out are fundamental. Based on these views, reforms had to be initiated from the inside for them to be effective. In the last section of this work, we review American curriculum in the 21st century. This work reviews the social and political factors that influence our education system. Technology is addressed as a key determinant on the education curriculum of America. Political factors such as globalization are highlighted as factors that will influence the American classrooms. Other social factors such as population diversity, gender, religious variables, economic facets, and emotional issues are highlighted as factors that will affect American curriculum in the coming decades. In the end, this paper tries to establish with some success that the character of person is affected by his environment. The society and the political ruling class of the day play a role in determining the school curriculum. As students go through the education system, the curriculum enforces their character and eventually determines who they become. Reference Brucia, M. A., & Daugherty, G. N. (2007). To be a Roman: Topics in Roman culture. Wauconda, Ill: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. Burger, K. (2013). Early childhood care and education and equality of opportunity: Theoretical and empirical perspectives on social challenges. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Clements, M. A. (2013). Third international handbook of mathematics education. New York: Springer. Elmore, R. F. (2004). School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice, and performance. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Education Press. Georgeson, J., & Payler, J. (2013). International Perspectives On Early Childhood Education And Care. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education. Krug, E. A. (1964). The shaping of the American high school. New York: Harper & Row. Kliebard, H. M. (1987). The struggle for the American curriculum, 1893-1958. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Ravitch, D. (2000). Left back: A century of failed school reforms. New York: Simon & Schuster. Scurman, I., & Malam, J. (2010). Ancient Roman civilization. New York: Rosen. Plato & Allen, R. E. (2006). The republic. New Haven [u.a.: Yale Univ. Press. Read More