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Unit 5
Unit 6 |
Unit-two: Socio-historical context of schooling In his book Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality Joel Spring illustrates that knowledge is a social construction. The book challenges some of the ideas popularized in the curriculum such as Indians are hostile, westward expansion of the United States brought salvation to the American Indians, and a historical myth that depicted slaves as happy and carefree. There is no doubt that the knowledge construction exercises that excluded and devalued whole groups of people are systemic and shaped the world within which we struggle to live and find meaning (Minnich, 1990). As Nieto (2004) notes young people who differ from the dominant group often struggle to form, and sustain clear image of themselves. They also struggle to have teachers understand who they really are especially when the pathological and deficient paradigm shapes the lenses of viewing the students' differences - racial, ethnic, language, sexual orientation etc. The knowledge constructed in the past attempted to throw away differences, an approach based on the notion that unity creates harmony whereas diversity breeds instability and discord. In his book, Spring illustrates the historical contexts of how education as social engineering machine was used in attempt bring about the transformation of the Native Americans. In some subtle ways today, schools in our communities are used as machines for silencing the voices that are not harmonious with the mainstream school culture. The socio-historical context of education helps us understand the roots to ideologies, and policies that shape our lives. Especially powerful is the notion of superiority that subordinates the cultures and lives of the indigenous populations. More recently overt theories of inferiority are undesirable; however the historical trend leads to deficit theories of learning. These deficit theories are likely to guide knowledge construction that forces some students to lose purpose in schooling and eventually to dropout. Reading: historical construction of inferiority status for minority students. Spring , J. (2007). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality. A brief history of the dominated cultures in the United States. New York: McGraw Hill Higher Education Reading on deficit theories of learning: Ford, D. Y. & Granham, T. C. (2003). Providing Acess for culturally diverse gifted students; from deficit to dynamic thinking. Theory into practice 42 (3) 217-225 What is the impact of being constructed as inferior in history have
on students from the minority cultures?
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