Working-Class Families, School for Racism, Culture, Class, and Pedagogy - Literature review Example

RUNNING HEAD: CRITICAL REVIEW Education Name Date Critical Review Introduction The hereditary educational system from the era of European colonialism, and later adapted or modified in the decolonization era, has had mixed outcomes. In this paper, a review of four major articles: Connell, R.W. (2003),Working- Class families; Perera & Pugliese (1998) School for Racism; Vincent (2000) Parents and education, and Giroux (2002) Culture, class & pedagogy are presented with a special focus on Australia , but which can also be applied more broadly to countries with culturally diverse population. Critical Review 1: Connell, R.W. (2003). Working- Class families This article discusses the issue of working –class households/families in relation to education programs as products of current structural challenges of education taking a new form under neo-liberalism. Specifically, the article concerns the issues of the conflicting relations between the working –class family and education systems which is brought about enhanced the need for review aimed at a more inclusive upper-secondary through Vocational training (235). Using various illustrations, Connell wants to enlighten his readers on various aspects of social justice and education systems, which, largely are influenced by social class systems. A case in point is the troubled interaction between public schools and the working class. The reader is also introduced to issues of class inequalities as exhibited in the education system where students mainly from the working-class have been discriminated following a 150-year history of mass schooling. Social justice interventions within education system has had mixed results. Although the reforms have received relatively good will, it is faced with a number of challenges. According to Connells, class divisions continue to influence the educational at not only the macro and micro-level (p248). He argues that the implementation of user-pay strategy has resulted in a reduced funding of government schools with more emphasis on consumers 'choice' where parents are viewed as clients/customers while schools are seen as business units competing for buyers and marketing through standard exams(236). This increases further division in the education system. A further division is also seen in the school choice policy. Connells argues that the working-class households tend to favour the minimum qualification compared to meritocratic projects thus delegating students to disadvantaged position especially in relation to the educational system multiplies choices, and in a market-based system which call for careful decision making on the part on students (245). He believes the existing school-choice policy tends to increase ethnicity and segregation, as parents are mostly ill-equipped leading to lack of informed decisions (247). This he attributes to the existing class-consciousness found among parents. Connell illustrates the dynamics of social class in relation to high school education. Depicting from Marginson (1997), the market-based education has encouraged competition in a market; consequently, re-definition of parents as customers and schools as business enterprises that are in constant completion through standard examination (237), in other words, education is viewed as some kind of goods/ merchandise ready for sale. In addition, contrary to neo-liberal’s assumption, market based system further enhances division bringing about marginalization of working-class education. Connells work shows some level of authority based on his method of data collection, where parents, students and teachers were intervened.  Furthermore, his discussions with rural and urban working-class families also helped in exploring the unclear yet vital interrelationship within the school system in the secondary education. Connells argument is a fact or reality of many challenges facing reforms in the educational sector. Schools are the best institutions for instilling respect and tolerance for cultural diversity and social structure. Thus, Connells work is very significant in understating the dynamics of social structure for proper implementation of educational reforms Critical Review 2: Perera & Pugliese (1998) School for Racism The article explores racism in Australian High Schools in terms of its consequences and recommends possible measures towards solving the widespread problem. Perera & Pugliese documents recent incidents of racism and explores its manifestations and its toll on our society. The focus on this article is on 'domestic' relations, based on historic racial and ethnic background which various nations attempt solve through multiculturalism and Pancasila strategies respectively. In this article, Perera & Pugliese not only bring together different views from other scholars but also present their own insights to illustrate the failures of the policies in combating racism (157). Specifically, Perera & Pugliese question the current assimilations pressures of Anglo-Australia and the so-called national 'success story' of Australian multiculturalism on the ground of representation(158) calling for the need to develop and implement a more appropriate pedagogical scripts and strategies that would successfully address the current racist tendency and complicity of multiculturalism(168) The authors of this article want readers to be aware of the ramifying consequences of ethnic stereotyping and be able to come up with appropriate solutions towards addressing the supposed needs of its ethnically diverse population. They also want readers to appreciate and respect cultural diversity, one of the vital ingredients building a conducive climate of respect and tolerance among students in the learning institutions (168) Perera & Pugliese (1998) have argued that against the assimilation strategy which led to outlawing of indigenous languages, banning of cultural based practices and rituals, forceful displacement of indigenous Australian enclosing them within arbitrarily locations but the worst of it all was the forced removal of children from respective their parents. In addition, the assimilation-encouraged violence against minority ethnic group not only at the national level where institutions and services favoured its English-speaking subjects as opposed to NESB subjects; discriminated against and often publicly ridiculed for speaking a language other than English. Assimilation based ideologies was also internalized or engrained at the psychic level hence influencing and sometimes deforming , the aspirations, values and desires of generations of NESB children who passed through the Australia educational systems in the previous years(162). Perera & Pugliese assert that assimilation-based ideologies continue to influence multiculturalism up to date giving rise to various forms of racisms not only at the national level but also at the school. Perera & Pugliese (1998) revealed that 'racist events were generally expressed in racist taunts, insults or name calling, exploitation or demanding for money, throwing food, and spitting (164). Drawing from the 1996 documentary, Perera & Pugliese cite Billal's story to bring to light the consequences of racism in the school system, which extends to include violence but which have often been trivialized as simple events of just name calling. Another case in point is the recent high levels of support for Hanson's anti-Aboriginal, anti-Asian and anti-multiculturalism remarks. Perera & Pugliese (1998) article revolves around two theories; they believe that there is some kind of symbiotic interaction between the politics of Hanson and that of the collation government (165). According to Perera & Pugliese (1998), the apparent evils may be due to some forces currently existing within the system; but not because of multiculturalism (p.165). They posit that much of the current public hostility towards multiculturalism is based on the Labor government's failure to go far enough in previous years-by which we mean that questions of ethnicity and difference were inadequately theorized and addressed in many of the strategies enacted in the name of multiculturalism in past years (p.165). The above argument holds some degree of truth. Indeed, the increasing wave of racisms is affecting the day-to-day lives of not only students in Australia but also the whole world in general. However, Perera & Pugliese have failed to clearly demonstrate how the so-called forces within the system is enhancing racist tendencies Critical Review 3: Giroux (2002) Culture, class & pedagogy This article is about pedagogical effects brought about by popular cinema on society. In this article, Giroux tries to demonstrate how the pedagogical can be utilized in the form of cultural production to re-define interrelationships between students, instructors and cultural mediums (77). Cinema, one of the signnifcant cultural medium encourages and particular dominant social order which unfortunately is undemocratic. This article also focuses on transformative power of educators, intellectuals, and artists but insists on the lack of a real democratic and progressive space in the educational sector. Using a more radical pedagogy, Giroux seems to challenge the current dominant norms and representations, which have encouraged inequalities while also refusing pedagogical strategies or methods which promote conflicts (78). In this article, Giroux want his audience to see the fundamental reinforcement of the dominant social order through various cultural mediums. His intention is educate its readers on the need to consider cultural texts due to the significant influence on audience. He re-asserts the need for its audience to appreciate the critical role of cultural text in providing set of ideologies and making students self critical about their positions equipping them with informed choices in guiding their interactions with others as part of a larger strategy to nurture appropriate conditions for cultural tolerance and democratic social order (78). Giroux line of arguments revolves around the need to re-define teachers and see them as cultural agents committed towards normative- based discourse, which enhances possibility for radical democracy. In addition, he calls for the need of reclaiming without romancing popular culture as multifaceted terrain of pedagogical effort and lastly he insist that pedagogy must be taken or viewed as the deliberate attempts to produce knowledge and equip students with ethical skills and social identities. In particular, Giroux projects that popular pedagogy would take as its objective the interrogation of traditional positivist and modernist notions of educational systems or curriculum, advocating against universal view of identity as subjective and private affair as well as the view that cultural different pose a threat to popular democratic social order (78). Giroux reinforces the common complaint of theory and its tendency to “treat cultural texts in a manner that is overly formalistic and pretentiously scientific” rather than “to fully engage them as a media that offer not only source of entertainment but also education (79). He believe that cultural text can be analyzed within the discourse of political economy and transnational capitalism in order to gain a better understanding of how such forces limit the range of meanings that can be taken up by readers in addressing films and other media texts. Citing Parenti, Giroux presents some of the existing myths about cultural texts including the believe that Audiences benefit more in terms of entertainment as opposed to knowledge. In addition, there is a believe that various societal ills as resulting from individual male factors and not anything in the socioeconomic setting. Giroux insist that cultural text like films should be analyzed from the perspective of both public pedagogies and as commodities with the potential to bring joy and educate thus opening the possibility for critical analysis of the norms and unsuitable practices of the dominance society (80). Although Giroux assertions and the need to make cultural texts avenues for social analysis in schools hold some degree of truths, his methodology is questionable as it is not empirical. Again, combining entertainment with social relevance may be risky politically and pedagogically. Nevertheless, the promise of a multicultural democracy far outweighs the challenges. Critical Review 4: Vincent (2000) Parents and education This article is on the role of parents in school governance. Specifically, the article explore on the different roles of community-based parent- centered groupings and institutions. Vincent (2002) in looking at participation in the school governance highlights the need for knowledge in terms of what is gained as well as informing their active involvement (p1). Vincent want the readers to know what happens when parents are involved in the school governing, the main objective is to revisit the neglected topic of lay activity in relation to education. She wants to demonstrate to the reader how experiences and motivations of parents as they engage in school governance while also bringing to light their various challenges and successes. She also enlightens the reader on how parents' relationships with schools cast light on the broader issues of public participation and how citizenship is experienced today by different social class and ethnic groups. Vincent (2002) believes that the benefits, which accrue to individual parent, are generally not clear. In addition, there are unclear guidelines to the type of engagement, the kind of home-school relationship and lastly the aims of such involvements (p.9). She concludes that participation of parents have been largely assumed to a good thing, though the assumption is made mostly from the perspective of pupils/students and school (p.20). This article has used a theoretical underpinning based on the integration and encouragement of active participation by parents as a way of advancing suitable and appropriate education policies aimed at changing disturbed relationship between the public and private spheres as well as between the State and the public. Vincent argues that there are two dominant common-sense understandings of the linkages between parents and public schools state education namely the parent as consumer and parent as partner with education professionals. She advocates for parent as a partner as the ideal since it elides parental involvement and support for the school as an institution and support for children's education. Such groupings are likely to form ‘protected enclaves' where parents meet and share opinions on various aspects of education both locally as well as internationally and be able to come up with various proposals to implement into public sphere at large (p.20). This article offer good insight into the issues of active participation of parents in school governance however, it is ignored the fact that the same polices may work particular against the same parents. This is because the same voice is not always consistent with the needs of the public. References Connell, R.W., (2003) Working-class families and the new secondary education, University of Sidney, Sydney, New South Wales. Giroux, Henry, A. (2002). Culture, Class, and Pedagogy in Dead Poets Society in Breaking in to the movies, Malden MA, Blackwell Publishers. Perera, S., and Pugliese, J. (1998). "A school for racism: Pedagogy in the face if ethnicity" Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 19:2, 1998, 157-170 Press. Vincent, C. (2000). Including Parents? Education, citizenship and parental agency, Open University Press Buckingham. Philadelphia Read More