In our theme Education 4 Empowerment we are committed to build a deep understanding of the text and context of school education , reflect and ask critical questions of what empowerment of the learner can mean in its political, sociological, anthropological and economic sense.
The belief that society needs to be held together by a shared ‘set of norms, morals and trust’ which would assure cohesion, necessitates institutions to ensure this. School then emerge as institutions that instill in the young common beliefs and values creating a strong sense of togetherness.
This socialization not only leads a child to regard the structure as superior to the agency, but it also prepares the adult to accept a certain inequality and emphasizes values of ‘achiever’, ‘competition’ and ‘capability’.
A good boy, a good man, a good citizen.
As Marx would say, all social relations are after all economic relations. Schools thus socialized the Child to join the workforce and be particularly useful in the workforce.
The mode of production which determined the role in which one participated had a place for some which was again ,either worker or owner.
This social relation of ‘class’ was an outcome of a economic relation, schools were also reinforcing the acceptance of this inequality ,without allowing the collective to become aware of the self.
Ideology was a tool, to socialize the child to accept sub-ordinated dominant, positions.
The way a school is designed in its architecture, separation of space, its negotiation with the surroundings ,led to unconscious acts that reproduced a certain social condition, systems of meanings and representation.
Drawing from these underlying theories of education system design, juxtaposing the current education outcomes, the key actors and factors- the teacher, learner, curriculum, language, community we will bring questions in form of monthly knowledge series for dialogue and debate on what it may mean for policy.