Convenor
Jean-Marc de Grave
Institut de Recherche sur l’Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine /
Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia, Bangkok
Abstract
As was shown by Pierre Bourdieu, reflections about the formal school education system is dominated by utilitarian conceptions which mainly consider the school as a bridge to economic activity. In this dominant perspective, ethical and relational quality generally take second place. More than that, the socialisation aspect of school practice is not considered outside the goal assigned to introduce students into active working life. Some different streams have begun to grow at the period of independences such as Gandhi’s proposal to value local socio-cultural elements through school lessons. Alternative systems also exist, such as Montessori schools or, more diffuse, the influence of John Dewey conceptions in many countries, including China. More localised lesser known initiatives also exist.
In this workshop, I propose to develop a reflection on school education as a means of socialisation and of learning socialisation, with the idea that school represent an important contribution to the effective formation of social models and quality of social life. The anthropology of education and the anthropology of school offer interesting descriptions about what is actually going on at school between students, teachers and administrators. Sociology and educational sciences also offer very interesting materials and reflections on this issue. In this regard, the papers will present ethnographic data, descriptions of educational applied systems, questionnaires based surveys, comparative approaches of different school, educational or didactic systems, historical investigations of past or contemporary school models, etc., to propose illustrative and reflective elements on the socializing nature of education and – if possible – its impact on non-school and post-school social life.
A wider spectrum may also be used to put into perspective the role of national and international policies and their impact on local school practices more specifically focused on aspects of socialisation. For example, recent Asian national policies have emphasised the need to develop decisiveness and initiative among students; what is the impact of such policy? Or what is the impact on national policies of international organisations such as ASEAN, the European Union, the Non-Aligned Movement or UNESCO? What pedagogical and educational characteristics can encourage the dissemination of the international Pisa report through the criteria it employs? What can we learn from the fact that Asian systems have performed better than others in the last publication of this report?
From these different perspectives may arise euristic propositions answering the question of schooling in the broad perspective of building social organisation and ethos.