This week’s reading raises an issue regarding the education of citizenship in today’s society. Stockden (2001) expresses his concern on the impact of corporatism in public institutions. He believes corporate capitalism impedes the development of teaching true democratic citizenship and thus removes the prospect of developing an individual and collective atmosphere in a democratic polity. In addition, with the advancement of the notion of global citizenship it complicates the issue of individual legitimacy even more. He argues for an education system that is "...in the public's interest..." (Stocken, 2001, p.90), where an individual's autonomy and participation is supported while at the same time fostering the skills to work toward a shared objective with others.
In the beginning of the article Stockden acknowledges the ambiguities of several of the concepts surrounding an education of citizenship. For instance, citizenship is seen as giving people equality and not the other way around (Stockden, 2001). In addition, the increasing diversity across nations presents a growing challenge to create a unified idea of a nation's citizenship. Furthermore, one can imagine the perplexity in defining one's global citizenship. Two views of a global citizen Stockden (2001) points to is one of ethics and one of an economic influence. The first view involves a universal attitude where an awareness of others needs and rights are considered. The second view embraces the free market and is geared toward satisfying self-interests "...for further development and exploitation of markets..." (p.74). He also voices his concern for this type of global influence wondering whether it poses a risk for one's national identity and, also, supporting the drive of values of economic enterprises into public school systems.
The author then describes the state of the poltical climate which go against his view of an ideal education for citizens. It is stated that democratic societies are becoming more dominated and influenced by what corporatism promotes, that is, an economic driven state of mind and whose decision making and power derives from certain group influences,
“[S]ociety is now seen as the sum of all groups, and the primary loyalty of the individual may [be] to the group to which he or she belongs...Consequently more power is slipping toward groups, which limits the capacity of individuals to exercise the rights and duties of citizenship…in turn decreases the opportunity for the development of the notion of a democracy of participating individuals” (Stockden, 2001, p.76).
Since there is still inequality in society, groups are varied and carry different skills and influence, and in turn, there are different levels of power. He believes corporatism is to blame because its political ideology relies on group interests rather than individual ones. He also points to how the notion of democracy is ambiguous, it is based on being ruled by its people, but who are these people and what do they stand for (2001). The term liberty can also interpreted differently because in the various ways people see how the government should support their freedoms (2001).
In order to solve unjust imbalances between groups Stockden recommends people take a community-centered approach in today's society. This means there should be more value given toward one's responsibilities to others, and their communities around them, rather than solely focus on their own particular group interests. An education for citizenship should take the form of liberal education where both the curriculum and instruction is democratic in values and will equip citizens to help in building a future they want to have (Stockden, 2001).
Stockden makes a strong point on how to structure an ideal liberal education in order to create a just society. His beliefs borrow from early differing philosophical ideas from two traditions which, when blended, create a people who are prepared to participate in improving current issues. One aspect involves understanding that knowledge is a process where one can develop and form information, and the other, nurturing a compassionate spirit (2010). I would have liked to read about concrete examples of how one could support characteristics like creativity and empathy. Lastly, his statement on providing every child with the same start in school I found to be a very important one. It made me think of Canada's current situation with universal childcare. Although there is some support for families to give their child an early schooling experience, it is not enough to make that an easy choice, in my opinion. [Unable to double space paragraphs]
I agree, and I like your point about the creation of knowledge as central in the work of liberal education for a just society, in your second last paragraph. When one interprets received wisdom from society, or unchallenged discourse in the media, one engaged in knowledge production. One is producing knowledge about a text. That critical activity I would consider central to learning, consistent with Stockden. Interestingly, in the years since Stockden, the "knowledge production" is precisely what is said to drive modern economies. But what count as knowledge, what are the privileged forms of knowledge, is not often examined in the "knowledge economies" rush towards utilitarian forms of learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you both! Concrete examples of how to teach that knowledge is not a fixed thing would be forever useful, but they are also probably hard to provide given the complexity of understanding that needs to be cultivated in students. It is also hard for me to think about the usefulness of in-classroom practices in combating the corporatization of schools, when the answers to combatting this promotion of individualism likely involves the collaboration of many systems, and not just the education system.
ReplyDelete