Other Sciences

Q&A: Researchers claim mass education is designed to counteract critical thinking

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Education should encourage deep inquiry and personal autonomy, but too often it has been used as a means of indoctrination. That’s what Agustina S. Pagulayan, assistant professor of political science in the School of Social Sciences and Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, argues in her new book, Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Popular Education. This is what is happening. ”

Using both past and present evidence, Pagulayan argues that schools around the world are failing to foster critical thinking skills in their students, and that these institutions are actually trying to promote conformity. It claims to be designed. The book has already been hailed as “pathbreaking and iconoclastic” by 2024 Nobel Prize winner James Robinson, and Pagulayan’s perspective promises to open new debates in politics and education. .

UC San Diego spoke with Pagulayan to learn more about the study and the implications of its findings.

What led you to question the traditional narrative that universal primary education is driven by democratic ideals?

When I was advising education policy makers in various countries, I looked closely at the history of their education systems and noticed an interesting pattern. That is, primary education was created long before the advent of democracy, sometimes under oligarchic or absolutist regimes. This made me question the conventional wisdom that democracy is the main driver of expanding primary education.

I wanted to know if the patterns I noticed in some countries held true globally, so I analyzed data on the uptake of primary education around the world and found that in most countries, the majority of children are in a position where democracy takes root. I found out a long time ago that I can get a primary education. . This applies not only to countries like China and Russia, but also to most Western countries.

This led me to the following questions: Why were non-democratic regimes so interested in collective schooling, and what legacy and impact do these non-democratic origins have on modern education systems? These questions ultimately became the core of “Raised to Obey.”

In your book, you argue that elites introduced mass education as a way to control and discipline the children of the lower classes. How was this done and why was it considered necessary?

Mass education was actually created as a clever system to instill obedience to the state and its laws. Schools use rewards and punishments to enforce rules, moral education dominates the curriculum, and even basic reading and writing exercises, such as when asking students to spell words such as “duty” and “command,” Taught compliance.

School routines like following a schedule, marching in line, and asking for permission all reinforced discipline. The entire system, from teacher training to school inspections, was designed to create a population that would not question authority or disrupt the status quo.

The government considered schools essential to maintaining domestic security and viewed primary education not as a means to reduce poverty or promote industrialization, but as a means to prevent social disorder.

The timing of the expansion of primary education is clear. Primary education often occurred after episodes of large-scale violence or rebellion. Prussia created a public primary education system after a peasant revolt, Massachusetts passed its first education law after Shays’ Rebellion in the late 1780s, and Colombia passed La Violencia, which lasted from 1948 to 1958. Accelerated access to education.

In both cases, domestic threats heighten elites’ fears of mass violence and the breakdown of social order, reinforcing their fear of the masses and transforming their “unruly” and “savage” children into obedient and law-abiding citizens. It urged them to support mass education to change the .

Discover the latest in science, technology and space with over 100,000 subscribers who use Phys.org as their daily source of information. Sign up for our free newsletter to receive daily or weekly updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and important research.

How do your findings on educational history influence current political debates around textbook bans and curriculum change?

The past four years of anti-critical race theory curriculum reform and textbook bans, as well as Donald Trump’s recent announcement to promote “patriotic education” and ban “extremist” ideas from classrooms, set precedent. It may sound like there isn’t one, but it’s not abnormal. . They fit into the cross-border patterns I uncovered in this book. Over the past 200 years, politicians in Western societies have been particularly concerned with teaching children that the status quo is okay following episodes of large-scale rebellion against existing institutions.

This is exactly what is happening in the United States. The Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020 made Republican politicians especially concerned about systemic reform. Then-President Trump responded by creating the 1776 Commission to strengthen patriotic education and prevent children from being exposed to notions of institutionalized racism. Republican state legislators and governors are following suit, pushing for curriculum reform in red states, and the president-elect has made it clear he intends to expand these efforts to blue states.

A key lesson from my book is that curriculum reforms tend to stick around for a very long time and outlast the governments that adopt them. It is important that people recognize this fact. If you care about the content of your education, now is the time to get involved in curriculum development.

How do you respond to those who argue that mass education, despite its origins, has been a positive force for social progress and equality in many places?

I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my teachers who gave me the ability to live an autonomous and fulfilling life. Education should do this for everyone, but schools around the world are failing to deliver on that promise. Most education systems still focus on instilling certain values ​​rather than developing the critical thinking skills essential for personal autonomy.

Approximately one-third of children still cannot read simple texts after four years of schooling. This skill deficit disproportionately impacts low-income students. This problem exists in both developing and developed countries, and the problem has been recognized by many international organizations.

For example, in the United States, children from high-income families enter kindergarten with much better reading and writing skills than children from low-income families, but K-12 schools are unable to close the gap. I argue that these problems are rooted in the very origins of modern education systems, which are not designed to promote skills or equity.

What do you hope policymakers, educators, and general readers take away from Raised to Obey in terms of how they approach the future of education?

For public schools to deliver on that promise, major changes to the education system are needed. The current system is inherited from an era when promoting compliance was the goal and critical thinking was considered dangerous. In the 21st century, critical thinking skills are essential to defending liberal democracies, getting good jobs, and staying globally competitive.

The challenge going forward is not to fine-tune the specific subjects taught. The challenge is to reimagine K-12 public schools as spaces that truly foster critical inquiry and creative, independent thinking.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into education, are there any words of hope or caution about the emergence of these technologies?

With the rise of AI, there is an urgent need to promote critical thinking skills. The way most schools are run, students are more likely to memorize and repeat what their teachers say. In doing so, they give up their ability to think for themselves.

AI tools are no exception in this regard. The main difference is that we are giving the power to think for ourselves to algorithms rather than humans. Having strong critical thinking skills can help prevent this. That’s why such skills are more important than ever.

Provided by University of California, San Diego

Citation: Q&A: Mass education is designed to counteract critical thinking, researchers claim (November 27, 2024) https://phys.org/news/2024-11-qa-mass-quash Retrieved November 27, 2024 from -critical.html

This document is subject to copyright. No part may be reproduced without written permission, except in fair dealing for personal study or research purposes. Content is provided for informational purposes only.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button