CULTURE, PERSONALITY AND EDUCATION

Transcription

1 CULTURE, PERSONALITY AND EDUCATION Mark Braham One of he essenial problem areas in he social foundaions of educaion is ha of he relaionships beween Culure, Personaliy and Educaion. Tha here are very definie relaionships is, of course, unquesionable. Bu wha hese relaionships can, or should be, is always open o quesion. They are he concern of he presen discussion. Firs, hree definiions: Culure, Personaliy and Educaion. By Culure, l undersand he shared ways of believing, behaving and hinking common o a group of human beings wihin a paricular environmen and mainained over ime. By Personaliy, l undersand he individual human uni as such, a nexus of genoypic and phenoypic rais, endencies, disposiions and capaciies engendered, repressed, modified or qualified by he paricular culural condiions in which he exiss and wih which he ineracs. By Educaion, l undersand he processes of guidance and insrucion hrough which successive generaions of human young are: (a) inegraed ino heir culure (enculuraion), (b) helped o develop heir poenialiies and capabiliies and become self-aware, (c) augh o apply and conribue heir knowledge, undersandings and abiiiies o heir culure, and (d) augh o ranscend hemselves and heir culure and conribue o he world. Transcendence is no 147

2 148 Culbre, Personaliy and Educaion aken o mean personal or culural negaion or denial, bu is regarded as he mos posiive kind of self and culural affirmaion, a conribuive exension of self and culure ino a wider environmen. This generally depends on he achievemen of a high degree of mauriy. Addiionally, 1 should noe he place of he school as a culurally developed cener for insrucing and guiding in he educaional caegories lised above. To he exen ha he schools conribue o individual and culural developmen, hey are educaive. To he exen ha hey repress, disor, or even desroy individual and culural developmen, hey are mis-or non-educaive. Schools, herefore, are purporedly, bu no always, educaional insiuions. Schools and culures are inseparable. Like Mary and her lamb, wherever he culure goes, he schools go railing afer. If he general endencies of he culure are fuure-oriened, he schools are rapidly called upon o fulfill he culure's new demands. If he general endencies of he culure are conservaive, he schools willlikewise be conservaive, working possibly o srenghen or repair weaknesses in he prevailing culure srucure, bu providing lile for change and progress. And in culures where oo much educaion is regarded as harmful o he exisence of he saus quo, schooling will be limied accordingly. Whaever he goals and aspiraions or limiaions ha a culure acceps for iself and is progeny, he schools will accep hem in heir own programs and pracices. I has been radiional ha he schools are handmaidens of, and subservien o, he dominan ineress in he culure; he who pays he piper sill calls he une. There are many reasons why here is such a close rappor beween culure and school and many reasons why here should be such rappor. The coninuai quesion, however, is wheher here should always be his kind of rappor. Should he schools always be subservien o he dominan ineress in he culure? Il Schooling eners he human siuaion where insinc is ranscended and parens are increasingly surpassed as agens in he developmen of human life. Naure has lef he human infan wih he greaes deficiency of insincive adapive paerns of any known life forms. Consequenly, he human infan more han any oher kind of offl!lpring mus learn in order o live and mus go hrough an exended period of posnaal nurure and raining in order o

3 Mark Braham 149 become sabilized in his environmen and achieve sorne modicum of independen funcioning. Taken in a nauralisic perspecive, educaion is no merely a culural aciviy, bu has a biological funcion as weil. The biological funcion of educaion, which is o ake up where insinc has lef off in he course of human developmen, akes us beyond culure as he sole crierion for our educaive aciviies and inroduces a second elemen ino our hough, ha of evoluion. We are o undersand from biology ha evoluion has by no means ceased, bu ha i has been increasingly appearing on psycho-social raher han on biophysical levels. In man, a leas, evoluion can be undersood as he coninuai, if no always smooh or unbroken, ransiion from insinc o inelligence, and from minimally differeniaed and diffuse o highly coordinaed and complex inellecual funcioning. This is a process ha is sillconinuing, and man wih his muliplex and adapive mind represens he growing ip of he ree of life. In The Phenomenon of Man, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin quoes Julian Huxley's somewha poeic bu serious suggesion, "Man discovers ha he is rwhing else han evoluion become conscious of iself."1 Bu more poined perhaps is Huxley's saemen ha evoluion... is a self-mainaining, self-ransforming, and self-ranscending process, direcional in ime, and herefore irreversible, which in urn generaes ever fresh novely, more complex organizaion, higher levels of awareness, and increasingly conscious menal aciviy.' From he sand poin of culure, we find ha here is a consonance beween "increasingly conscious menal aciviy" and culural complexiy such ha culural complexiy can be shown o be derived from and, in a cyberneic sense, o give rise o he increasingly conscious menal aciviy - or rae of cogniive complexiy - of is members. In his perspecive, as culures become more complex, heir requiremens for living are increased, and hese in urn require an exension of educaion, which in is urn facilia es menal aciviy and he developmen of inelligence. Thus, hrough he medium of educaion, inellecual and culural evoluion go hand in hand. Educaion hereby serves he biological funcion of enabiing men o overcome heir inheren deficiency in insincive adapive pa-

4 150 Culure, Personaliy and Educaion erns by helping hem o learn in order o live, and i serves he anhropological funcion of being he means hrough which culures assure heir own survival and coninuiy by ransmiing heir paerns, beliefs, values and aciviies o heir ensuing generaions. Following Huxley, we may noe ha "Psycho-social evoluion - human evoluion for shor - opera es by culural ransmission. Ha Or following Waddingon/ we noe ha evoluion in he human phase proceeds hrough socio-genesis; he "inheriance" of culuraily acquired characerisics hrough he socio-geneic or ransmission sysem of educaion. Wheher we sar from evoluion or from culure, educaion is essenial o boh. III We arrive hen a he fairly common noion of educaion as culural ransmission. However, here sill remains, and no doub here will always remain, he problems of deciding wha is o be ransmied. Quie ofen "culural ransmission" is aken o imply he ransmission hrough schooling of he modal characerisics of a culure, and anyhing ha goes beyond he bounds of such ransmission is considered o be beyond he office of he school, which is he culure's official ransmiing agency. In conras, hose educaors who have been irked a he resricions "culural ransmission" appears o place upon educaion have sough o deny ha he ask of educaion is necessarily or sufficienly ha of culural ransmission. I seems o me, however, ha we can usefully hold on o he noion of culural ransmission as he prime funcion of educaion, bu wih sorne essenial qualificaions. There is lile poin in limiing ourselves o a narrow view, whose crierion is sasis and whose effecs, unless marked by srong disconinuiies and couner-forces, are culural sylizaion and crysallizaion. Culural, and hus human, evoluion proceeds hrough a hree-fold ransmission: he ransmission of hisory and radiion, hus sabilizing he child in his culure; he ransmission of presen-ime needs, ineress, echnology and undersanding, hus oriening he suden o he curren problems of living; and he ransmission of fuure possibiliies, hus seing "ends-in-view" as a direcive power for personal-culural developmen. Spaceships o Venus wih all hey imply for a new orienaion o he uni verse are as necessary for culural evoluion as are our

5 Mark Braham 151 mos viable and fundamenal values necessary for culural sabiliy. I is only as he new froniers of human possibiliy become ransmied o he res of us ha we are able o ac upon hem, incorporae heir meanings ino our hinking, and re-orien ourselves o a coninually modern world. Significanly, here is a presen a basic richoomy (wih shades of overlap) ha runs hrough our educaional hough and pracice and lies a he source of many of our educaional argumens and conflics. Firs, we have hose educaors who end o recognize an evoluionary, or a leas a nauraiisic crierion for educaion, whose orienaion is fuure ime, and who cali for an educaion ha will free us, personaliies and culure alike, for he fulles expression of our poenialiies and possibiliies. Second, we find hose educaors who regard he school as primarily a reflecor and servan of he dominan ineress of he culure and for whom culural conservaion is a prime concern wihou oo much emphasis eiher on progress or hisory. Finally, here has been he recen emergence of wha can bes be called culural hisoricism, whose educaional leaders cali for exemplars hased on hisory ("he grandeur ha was Greece, he glory ha was Rome") raher han on presen-ime or fuurisic norms. In general, he firs caegory of educaors seeks change, he nex seeks sabiliy, and he las seeks a reurn o he pas, and ail demand ha he schools adhere o heir bidding. In heir responsible momens each of hese posiions can be shown o be inernally coheren and consisen, and a every momen can usually he shown o he in direc conflic, if no conradicion, wih each oher. As human, and hus organic organizaions, each sysem displays he phenomena of ail organizaions owards self-mainenance and perpeuaion, wih ail he selecive percepion, bias and self-validaion of every sysem ha seeks o remain alive. Such diversiy may be desirable, bu i is also problemaic for i ends owards endless argumen, bickering and hosiliy which engenders a confusion ha runs righ hrough he educaional sysem a large. I leads, I would sugges, no so much o culural diversiy as o culural conflic since he culure is he recipien of he "messages" ransmied o i hrough is educaional sysem. The educaor who is open o possihiliies raher han o ideologies is, i seems o me, sill faced wih his prohlems. Wha kinds of school programs wih wha kinds of orienaion shall he develop?

6 152 Culure. Personaliy and Educaion To whom does he, essenially a public servan, owe his allegiance? To he fuure? To presen-ime demands? To he culural heriage and is hisorie exemplars 7* IV l should like o shif back o some evoluionary hinking which, l believe, may sugges some resoluion for he problem of educaion ideologies and he wider problem upon which hey bear, ha of he relaionship beween culure, personaliy and educaion. The facor of personaiiy has been emporarily side-racked bu will be reurned o as par of he presen discussion. For purposes of examinaion l find i useful o disinguish beween wha we may erm he evoluionary and culural funcions of educaion. By way of illusraion we can envisage he evoluionary funcion being represened by a verical coninuum, a coninuum of increasing complexiy of cogniive operaions which has is base in insincual and non-reflecive life and is upper reaches in he highes conceived sae of hum an consciousness. In Teilhard de Chardin's erms, his would describe he ransiion from he Alpha o he Omega in human evoluion. The culural funcion of educaion can be represened by a horizonal line which can be drawn across his evoluionary coninuum a any given poin o depic he evoluionary condiion of a culure. Placed wihin he schema of he normal curve we can hen hypohesize ha he horizonal line represens he paricular culural "norm" wihin a given evoluionary period. The "ails" represen he hisorie and fuurisic endencies of he culure respecively. Wha is hen disclosed is ha wihin any culural period or epoch each educaional facion has a legiimae, bu perhaps no equally legiimae, place in educaional programming and pracice. There is, of course, room for a big argumen here. l am no a ail sure, for example, ha because of is bulk he "norm" should legislae over he "ails" in our educaional hinking, for o wha exen norms should be normaive is highly debaable. The ension ha exiss beween he evoluionary and culural funcions of schooling is precisely he ension we find in he educaion profession wih he differing argumens for fuurisic, presenime, or hisorie orienaion. Wihou doub, should he fuurisie *In he Unied Saes his richoomy is nealy labelled in erms of Progre88ivism, E88enialism and Perennialism respecively.

7 Mark Braham 153 ~ o "'......, Q ~; ~ ~ > o 0 0. ::s Il> ~ ID ~ () ::r Presen Time culural radiion IDEOLOGY--< mainenance.)--utopia Direcion of Increasing Complexiy of Cogniive Opera"ions > conceps prevail alone, he whole sabiliy of he culure would be in jeopardy and simply engender he kind of reacion o he recenly passé Progressivis El'a ha has appeared in he Unied Saes wih he emergence of such organizaions as he Council on Basic Educaion and he reurn o McGuffy's Reader as a basic ex. Should he presen-ime concep prevail alone, possibiliy would be bluned and we would find ourselves wih a marked increase in conflic beween he demands f{)r sasis and he pressures owards growh, which marks he exisenial dilemma of our ime.

8 154 Culure, Personaliy and Educaion Should he hisoric concep prevail alone, we would rapidly he on he road o dysfuncionaliy by seeking o deermine our direcion from a pas while living in a world ha is rapidly seeking is way ino he fuure. However, a complee denial of he hisoricis's concern leads o a break in he coninuiy from pas o presen o fuure, which gives a culure and is peoples much of heir sabiliy and ideniy. The quesion hen is can he school funcion as an agen of culural progress, culural mainenance and culural radiion a one and he same ime wihou endlessly conradicing iself? Or o pu he poin more sharply, can he school funcion as an agen of hoh evoluion and culure and a he same ime do jusice o he requiremens of personaliy for culural ideniy, sabiliy, and full developmen? Can we no say, perhaps, ha here are hree culurefuncions for he school, ail of which can be subsumed under "culural ransmission" wihin which evoluion, undersood as culural evoluion, culural mainenance, and culural ideniy are included? And addiionaily, from he sandpoin of educaion in an increasingly inernaional world, should we no also make provisions for culural ranscendence? The ask, i would appear, is o find sorne unifying consruc, sorne mode of inegraion ha will enable us o order our conflicing claims and develop a more coheren se of educaional principles and pracices han now prevaii. V An iner-disciplinary approach o he problem suggess a hreefold relaionship of culural, personal, and educaional developmen proceeding, heoreicaily a leas, hrough four sages. Each sage can be undersood as a "ask" o he compleed if poenialiies and possibiliies are o be recognized and uilized. The foilowing general consruc is suggesed, which may perhaps be applicable o emergen naions (as in Africa) as weil as o well-esablished ones. 1. We can conceive of culures as having four developmenal asks wih full regard, of course, o he ime-spans involved: 1.1 The firs ask of survival and mainenance, leading o 1.2 The ask of providing for he clarificaion of purposes and he recogniion and developmen of possibiliies, leading o 1.3 The ask of culural reconsrucion a ha poin where he prevailing srucure is reslicive of furher developmen, leading o

9 Mark Braham The ask of culural ranscendence, of looking beyond he level of need-saisfacion and self-ineres, and of paricipaing in a wider sphere. Wihou he assurance of survival and mainenance, of being a "going concern," no culure can clarify is purposes or develop is possibiliies. Neiher ime nor energy can be urned o speculaion and exploraion unil a basic organizaion wih sorne working paerns of acion has been esablished. However, once purposes have been clarified, or even modified, and possibiliies recognized, a poin is ulimaely reached where he prevailing srucure becomes inadequae for progress, and reconsrucion becomes essenial. The failure o reconsruc means rigidiy. Through he processes of reconsrucion, poencies are brough o he fore and can be acualized. Paricipaion in a wider sphere in erms of culural ranscendence is remendously difficul, if no weil nigh impossible, unil a culure has "come ino is own," has recognized and esablished is selfhood. There can be no ranscendence of culure unil here is in fac a culure o ranscend, and from he sandpoin of an inernaionalizing world, his mus sill be regarded as an envisaged necessiy raher han an immediae possibiliy, as many emergen saes are finding ou. Now, each "culure-ask" requires he manpower capable of carrying i ou. A culure ha does no face up o is manpower requiremens simply fails o develop. A culure ha is resriced or resrics is manpower o any one ask orienaion is in danger of: (a) no evolving wih sufficien rapidiy o remain viable in he modern world; (b) ending owards sylizaion and impending dysfuncionaliy by refusai o reconsruc; (c) becoming so concerned wih iself ha i becomes blinded o he problems of a wider world in which i exiss; (d) becoming so fuure-oriened ha i lierally arophies is own heriage. In oher words, a balanced and progressive orienaion o each ask level is a necessiy. 2. Immediaely hen, as i is human abiliy ha is required in carrying ou any culure "ask," he personaliy dimension is involved. Four corresponding personaliy "asks" can he suggesed: 2.1 The ask of learning o live in a paricular sociogeographic environmen, he ask of "adapion, assimilaion and accommodaion" (Piage) of he individual in ha culure in which he has been born or ransferred, leading o

10 156 Culure, Personaliy and Educaion 2.2 The ask of socially direced auonomy, which meane he ask of inellecual developmen, of being able o discern, reflec, judge, conceive and consruc, leading o 2.3 The ask of self-recogniion and affirmaion, qualified by knowledge which can be applied o culural developmen and reconsrucion, leading o 2.4 The ask of group conribuion, of culural and ransculural conribuion. These personaliy "asks" correspond in general o he following acual and possible developmenal phases: (1) Infancy: ego-cenric ~ socio-cenric phase; (II) Adolescence: socio-cenric ~ egoisic phase; (III) Young Adul: egoisic ~ self-realizaion phase; (IV) Laer Adul: self-realizaion ~ self-ranscending phase. 3. As we are no dealing wih eiher insincive or innae behaviors, excep perhaps a he mos primiive levels, he individual mus learn his personaliy "asks," and in so doing, as a member of a culure, learn he culure "asks." As a child he needs o learn o adap o and acquire his culure. As an adolescen he needs o learn o reflec abou himself and his culure. As a young adul he needs o learn how o reconsruc himself and his culure. As a mauring adul he needs o learn o ranscend himself and o help, in concer wih ohers, his culure o ranscend iself. He needs o so learn for he sake of his own becoming and his culure's mainenance and evoluion in which he is inegrally involved. This means hen ha here are sorne corresponding educaional ''asks.'' 3.1 The ask of primary educaion, which is ha of en culuraion, of insrucing he child in his culural heriage, of helping him o paricipae in, and o undersand his culure's hemes, values and aciviies, leading o 3.2 The ask of secondary educaion, which is essenially inellecual, corresponding o he developmen of absrac cogniive abiliies in he adolescen. This is a period in which hough becomes refined, and he self as subjec recognized as he agen in he ac of knowing, wih he accompanying responsibiliy and freedom for he organizaion and applicaion of ideas. 3.3 The ask of higher educaion, which builds upon he discriminaing and reflecive inelligence derived from laer adolescence, is o provide he opporuniy for selfawareness and he acquisiion of knowledge and profes-

11 Mark Braham 157 sional skills which can be synhesized ino a culurally producive orienaion. Thus, a basis is formed for culural reconsrucion, which demands boh inelligen purposes and abiliy qualified by culural - raher han simply self-ineres - o effec posiive change. 3.4 Finally, adul educaion. We may sugges here no he usual elemenary or secondary educaion for aduls (which should always he available as and where needed), bu public and privae, formai and informai sudy, Ieading mauring aduis, who in many insances have increasing leisure ime, ino areas of wisdom which can uilize he increasing accumulaion of knowledge which is available in he modern world. A SCHEMA FOR THE "INTERFUNCTlONS" OF CULTURE. PERSONALITY AND EDUCATION The Culural Domain 1.4 The ask of culural ranscendence; of iner-culural consciousness. 1.3 The ask of culural reconsrucion; of changes for full realizaion of culural poenialiies. 1.2 The ask of clarifying culural purposes and recogniion and developmen of possibiliies. 1.1 The ask of culural survival and mainenanclil. The Personaliy Domain 2.4 The ask of selfranscendence, of group, culural and rans-culural conribuion. 2.3 The ask of selfrecogniion and affirmaion qualified by knowledge for culural applicaion. 2.2 The ask of socially oriened auonomy, of inellecual developmen. 2.1 The ask of "Adapion, Assimilaion and Accommodaion" a he socioglilographic environmen. The Educaional Domain 3.4 Adul educaion, he ask of aaining wisdom; he synhesis of knowledge owards humane living. 3.3 Higher educaion, he ask of acquiring sel f - awareness, knowledge and professional skills. 3.2 Secondary educaion, he ask of developing absrac cogniive abiliies wih freedom and responsibiliy for hough. 3.1 Primary educaion, he ask of enculuraion.

12 158 Culure, Personaliy and Educaion VI This is admiedly a highly compaced schema, one ha is presened no as a las word, bu as a suggesion for he ordering of educaional hinking. Is purpose a his poin is o porray wha we may cali he "inerfuncions" of he hree domains of culure, personaliy and educaion. Seen in a nauralisic or evoluionary perspecive, each sage in each domain is direced owards he increase in efficiency of form and funcion of ha domain. Seen in culural perspecive, each sage gives limied warran o he prevalen claims for hisorie, presenime, and fuure ime orienaions, wih he addiion of he ranscenden orienaion. The addiion of he ranscenden orienaion is held o be essenial, for once culure or personaliies reach he sage of self-recogniion and acualizaion, here is he danger of aggressive self-ineres unmodified by a concern for oher culures or pers ons, and his is precisely he problem we mus overcome for posiive living in an already conflic-ridden world. Alhough warran is given o prevalen claims, wo resricions mus be added. The firs is ha alhough having cerain validiy, he suggesion is ha hey are no valid, as heir proponens would perhaps like hem o be, across he range of sages, bu raher represen valid cenral endencies of operaions a he given sages. The second resricion concerns mehodology. This is o sugges ha, for example, alhough here is a validiy for "hisoricism" on he primary level, his does no imply ha hisorie mehods of eaching are sill valid, ha McGuffy's Reader is he bes insrumen. This is a maer for learning and insrucional heories, which requires a separae discussion. Finally, i should be emphasized ha his is a enaive schema in which rigid caegorizing is no inended and in which i is recognized ha considerable overlap and blending occurs beween he sages. The quesion which we sared wih - wha is and should he he relaionship of culure, personaliy and educaion - is no, 1 believe, o be answered by reference o one paricular ideology wheher of culure, personaliy, or educaion, nor by some eclecic po-pourri, bu raher by an analysis of, and reference o he "inerfuncions" of he hree domains and heir respecive asks. Thus, i should be possible o conceive of a curriculum plan, a eaching mehodology, or a heory of educaion on correlaive anhropologica], psycho]ogical and educaional grounds.

13 Mark Braham 159 References 1. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenoo of Ma.n, London: Collins, 1959, p Julian Huxley, "Evoluion Culural and Biological," Curren Anhropology, 1956, p , Evoluion in Acion, New York, New American Library (Menor Books), 1957, p Cf. C. H. Waddingon, The Ehical Anima.l, New York, Aheneum, , The Naure of Life, New York, Aheneum, 1963.