The Education System in the World Today - Literature review Example

Panopticism by Michel Foucault “Panopticism” by Michel Foucault and “The Banking Concept of Education” written buy Paulo Freire are two books that have raised divided opinions on what the two authors are talking about. Some have argued that Foucault and Freire are talking about the same concept while others have stated that the two are not talking about the same concept. Proper understanding and analysis of these books is what can therefore help understand the topic of discussion in the two books and the stands of the two authors on the current education system. This paper tries to analyze the views held by the two authors with major focus being on their take on the education system in the world today. Foucault in his book Panopticism uses a concept that is based on panopticon to drive his points across. The main question therefore is what panopticon are and why Foucault uses them to drive his point home in his book. Panopticon refers to prison design that was used in the late 18th Century. Panopticon was originally designed by a gentleman by the name Jeremy Bentham. These designs were used for prisons in order to keep the prisoners under check all the time. Panopticon consisted of a circular building which contained cells for the prisoners. It had a central structure in the building that had a surveillance tower in it. The prisoners’ cells were lit to make them as visible as possible. The central surveillance tower however was not visible from outside and the prisoners could not tell whether there were people inside it or whether they were being observed or not. The surveillance tower was camouflaged in a way that the prisoners could not see anything happening inside it from their prison cells. On the other hand, the individual cells were very well light and visible and the person carrying out surveillance from the tower could clearly see whatever activities that were going on in the individual prison cells. The importance of this design was to facilitate round the clock monitoring and observation of the prisoners to control their activities. The prisoners could not tell whether or not there was someone in the surveillance tower but they just had it in their mind that they were being looked at all the time from the surveillance tower. This therefore gave the prison officers power and control over the activities of the prisoners. The main idea here was to keep the prisoners in constant state of consciousness and to make them believe that they were being watched. This tactic ended up making the prisoners be their own guards and it was therefore not necessary for the observer to be inside the surveillance tower to ensure the prisoners were not engaging in anything fishy or unacceptable. This gave the authority even more powers over the inmates by using the inmates as their own guards by keeping their minds in constant state of coconsciousness. In his book, Foucault uses this principle of to illustrate how control and power are used. Foucault says that the concept of panopticism has been widely used in various institutions by the state in order to gain control over its citizens. He argues that the state has used equipment and systems in it various disciplines in order to keep the citizens in check and to control their actions. This is similar to the use of panopticon in the cells. This concept, he argues, has been used in prisons, churches, factories and courts. The idea, he argues is that the when dealing with a lot of people, in order to maintain power and authority over them, controlling them by means similar to the panopticon is necessary. This he adds has also been used in schools so that the state maintains control and power. According to Foucault, any system such as schools, factories and hospitals can be panopticon. This means that the principle of panopticism can be used in schools. The main aim of its use is to gain control over the people in the education sector just like the way panopticon is used in prisons in order to control inmates and to control whatever actions they get involved in while in the cell. This means that there is oppression in the education system. Therefore the two authors are in agreement that the education system which Freire refers to as “The Banking Education System” is full of control and oppression. Paulo Freire’s book “Banking System of Education” criticizes the current and widely used system of education. Freire says that the system of education can be likened to the banking system. He criticizes the system of learning where the teacher is just there to give information and the student is there to receive the information. He likens the giving of information by the teacher as banking and refers to the student who receives the information as receptors. The students are just there to sit and receive whatever they are given by the teacher. This, he say should not be the case and proposes a model in which the students are also allowed to give their views on issues and where the teacher should just act as a resource person whose work is to guide the students to achieve the goals of learning. He criticizes the system that is just purely focused on giving the knowledge and controlling the students by the teacher and says that he dreams of a system that is free and where students are also allowed to express their views on what is being taught by the teacher or instructor. From the review of the book by Paulo Freire and that by Michael Foucault, it is clear that the two gentlemen are talking about the same thing in a contrasting manner. Foucault in his book is talking about oppression. He explores how control is used in order to gain power just the same way panopticon did in the prisons. Foucault says that in order to maintain power over people, schools inclusive, there must be control for discipline and goals to be achieved. He argues that this concept of panopticism has been used in schools where the teachers have maintained control over students when teaching to maintain discipline. The government has also dictated and set the code of teaching that make s the students be controlled by the teachers so that it has control over the entire system. Freire argues that the current system of education is like an oppression where the students are controlled by the teacher and are not allowed to share their opinions on what they are taught .The teacher does the work of depositing information on the students and they are just the receptacle. Freire goes ahead to suggest a new system of education to replace the current oppressive system. He proposes a system that he refers to as a Problem Solving Approach where the students are allowed to share their views. Freire dreams of a free system that is less oppressive and that does not relegate the student to being just the receivers of information from the teacher. He dreams of a system where the students are allowed to learn by also sharing their views and the teacher just acts as a resource person to the students. Freire seems to have an answer to Foucault’s concern on the oppression and control that is taking place in the current schooling system. He suggests that to remove the current education system and replace it with a less oppressive system that allows for freedom of the student, there need to be a revolution. However, Foucault’s argument about the education system seems to discredit this suggestion .Foucault says that the education system, just like factories, barracks and hospitals are panopticon. This therefore mean that there is no way a revolution can take place in a panopticon as control has been exercised on the people involved and the government therefore has overall power on whatever takes lace in these learning institutions. It will therefore be hard to charge the learning system based on Foucault’s argument. At the end of his book, Foucault posses a rhetorical question asking whether it has been noted that schools, hospitals, factories and hospitals are similar to prisons. Though he does not give answer to these questions, it is visible that the education system is of no difference to prisons and the principle of panopticism has been widely used to control it. These two authors are therefore talking about the oppressive nature of the current education system .Foucault says the control of the education system has been used to control the stakeholders and to maintain discipline. Even though Foucault insinuates that change in a panopticon is almost impossible due to the control associated with it, Freire says that there is need for a revolution to change the oppressive education system that is currently in use. Even though the two authors approach this topic of oppression and control in the education system that is currently in use from different perspectives, the fact is that they are in agreement about the system’s oppressive nature. References Foucault, Michel. (1979). “Panopticism.” ways of reading. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 209 – 37. Print. Freire, Paulo. “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education.” ways of reading. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 243 – 57. Print. Read More