Education: The Great Debate

As educators, we have talked, discussed, spoken, collaborated, cooperated, worked together, and joined forces as a means of working out advancing teaching and learning despite cultural differences in the educational environment. Much of it was to dispel myths about each of the ethnicity, cultural and diverse needs of all.


Cultural differences have been noted since the beginning of time. I suppose that if we looked real hard at Biblical times, we can see that cultural hegemony existed between the 12 Tribes, Romans, and Egyptians. There were unequal power relationships between two or more cultures, ideologies, and socioeconomic groups even then.


To better understand cultural hegemony, I have added a link to a very illustrative video.
http://youtu.be/EDxmzCVFLu8 . Now what does all of that have to do with what happens in the classroom? How does it define the relationship between the meaning of hidden curriculum and the role of schools in cultural hegemony? In addition to what Tozer shared regarding cultural hegemony, I found that there is a foundation that prides itself with providing teachers and administrators with valuable training on topics dealing with culture. It is called the Educultural Foundation. The foundation aims to provide workshops that focus on self - awareness and an in-depth insight to the way culture and society works. Everyone brings a different culture and tradition to the classroom. The way of life for one person can be perceived very differently by diverse students in the very same classroom. Teachers will need to ensure that they strive to create a classroom environment that encourages differences. Curricula should be accessible to all students regardless of cultural background. In order for all students to gain full exposure to the curriculum, teachers must make a conscious effort to share vocabulary and 1st hand examples of the happenings on particular subject matter. School districts will need to provided professional learning experiences that deal with the integration of major cultural aspects into the classroom such as art, film, dance, and literature.

In today's contemporary society, we know that in order to keep people from running wild with their imagination or asking too many questions, groups are to remain marginalized. Society will fight to the end when they do not want to see their communities change & leek in social ideals that don't really fit the mold. The need for learning will ultimately deteriorate if students won't participate in courses for their own sake of learning. Perhaps educators may turn a blinded eye and pretend that it just does not happen in their classroom or building or school district. Truth is, they more than likely do not know what to look for.