Learning in Contemporary Culture

Will Curtis,Alice Pettigrew

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781844455829
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Théorie et pratique de l'éducation

This book provides an accessible undergraduate-level introduction to the central educational concepts of learning and culture. In examining these themes it addresses key issues including: what is meant by ?culture?; characteristics commonly associated with contemporary culture; relationships between culture and learning; changing understandings of how, what, where and when we learn; the relationship between learning, national identity and citizenship; and the impact of all these on our way of life today. These ideas are approached from historical, philosophical, sociological, political and psychological perspectives: the traditional disciplines of Education Studies.

Chapter 1

Culture and learning

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Learning outcomes

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• demonstrate that culture is a complicated concept with a variety of contested meanings and uses;
• distinguish between a number of features commonly used to identify and examine culture as a shared way of life, including beliefs, norms, tastes, values, roles, language and artefacts;
• recognise that learning is a cultural activity;
• understand some of the ways in which contemporary culture might offer both challenges to and opportunities for contemporary constructions of learning.

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Chapter outline

‘Culture’ appears a very familiar term and yet it has been described by writer Raymond Williams as one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language (1983, page 87). This chapter examines where some of this complication lies, and outlines a number of possible interpretations and uses for the word. It builds upon the seemingly straightforward definition of culture as a ‘way of life’ with identifying markers such as beliefs, norms, tastes, values, roles, language and artefacts. Most significantly, culture should be understood in active rather than passive terms, as it takes a certain degree of action and intention to produce and reproduce meanings, understandings and expectations that are shared. From this perspective, the chapter asks, what shared meanings and collective understandings can be identified within Britain today? Where are they being made? Why? And by whom? Given the fluidity, speed of change and plurality of influences upon contemporary life, does it continue to make sense to talk about a single, shared, dominant culture at all?

The chapter outlines relationships between culture and learning and argues that how, where, what and why we learn can all be shaped, enabled and/or constrained by the cultural expectations that dominate. It also suggests that the distinctive characteristics of contemporary culture offer both opportunities and threats to learning.

Culture as a contested concept

Learning is a cultural activity. Learning encounters do not take place in a vacuum: teachers train to teach, students are enrolled in school, policy makers and professional experts design curricula and course materials. In each case, these encounters are influenced by wider shared expectations – of how a teacher should behave, of who should be at school and when, and of what sort of information a Year 9 history textbook should contain. Such expectations do not appear from nowhere, nor are they constant or consistent in different parts of the world or over time. In fact, they are closely related to the cultural contexts in which all learning takes place. But what exactly does ‘cultural context’ mean here? And what specifically is implied by describing learning as a ‘cultural’ activity?

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Reflective Task

Look at the following statements and consider the way that culture is being presented and understood. In each case, compile a list of characteristics, objects, or concepts that culture may be referring to. Can you think of any alternative words that could have been used? Do the replacement words make sense if used in all of the remaining statements? If not, why not? Can you think of any other examples of how the word ‘culture’ could be used?

Try to come up with your own dictionary-style definition for the term. Do the examples below help or hinder your task?

• Among his colleagues at the university, Paul often felt uncultured by comparison.
• I don’t like the way they treat girls and women, but I guess it’s just to do with their culture.
• Come to our traditional Native American reserve for an authentic cultural experience.
• Police Chief attacks ‘Asbo Culture’ as crime rates soar.
• Increased funding required for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
• Multicultural policy is failing our inner cities.
• Staffroom culture of silence to blame for increased bullying in schools.

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One of the reasons the word ‘culture’ is so complicated is that it is regularly used in a number of very different ways. Robert Bocock (1992) provides a useful history of the word.

Culture and ‘cultivation’: distinguishing ‘high’ from ‘low’

Bocock tells us that when it was first introduced to the English language, ‘culture’ referred to the cultivation of land to grow crops and rear livestock: think of the word ‘agriculture’ as it is used today. This meaning is no longer very common but its history is significant: here culture referred to a process of ‘taming’ and ‘domesticating’, turning unruly vegetation and wild animals into manageable farmland, cattle and pets. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this understanding had been extended to human beings. ‘Cultivation’ was now seen as something that could be applied to the human mind. ‘Culture’ began to reflect ‘refinement’ and ‘civility’.

However, eighteenth-century social commentators did not seem to think that all human minds could be ‘cultivated’ in the same way. Some minds were seen as more ‘refined’ than others; some tastes, activities and behaviours more ‘cultured’. Existing relationships of economic and political power were mapped onto and reflected through understandings of culture and cultural value here: it was the aristocratic elite who were first able to define what being ‘cultural’ meant. They did so narrowly in terms of those forms of artistic expression and intellectual scholarship that reflected their own interests and expertise. The lifestyles, loves and labours of the common man and woman were derided as ‘uncultured’ by comparison. In many respects, these distinctions endure today.

Some critics might argue that for something to be culturally worthwhile – to count as what might be termed ‘high’ culture – it must be difficult, not immediately easy to engage with, exclusive. More accessible things with wider appeal are designated ‘low’ or ‘popular’ culture and scarcely awarded the same significance or respect. And there is an important educational implication of this. One of the roles of a national education system might be considered the transmission of knowledge about and appreciation of a people’s shared cultural heritage. But whose cultural output should be celebrated? Which paintings immortalised in art history textbooks and which novels included in course requirement reading lists? Is culture what you find in art galleries, theatres and opera houses – or is it found on street corners, in graffiti art, soap operas or gossip magazines?

Culture as a ‘distinct way of life’

Perhaps the most familiar understanding and use of culture that Bocock describes is the whole ‘way of life’ of a particular group. Sometimes culture is used to refer to behaviours shared by all of humankind, but when used by anthropologists and other social scientists, it more commonly focuses on differences between identifiable groups. This broad definition could include all intellectual, emotional and behavioural characteristics transmitted through social interaction. Of particular interest are shared understandings and ways of making sense of the world. When studying a culture from this perspective, a social scientist would traditionally look to identify a number of characteristic features.

Norms are the expectations for ‘normal’ behaviour. These might be formalised through law: in Britain for example, you can only be legally married to one person at a time. They might also be informal: although not spelled out anywhere, it is a norm today for people to have a series of faithful partners, known as ‘serial monogamy’.

Values are the underlying principles that norms are based upon: the ideals or morals that provide the foundation for society. Modern Western cultures tend to emphasise values such as individualism, secularism, justice, equality, freedom and democracy. The monogamous norms identified above are underpinned by values like faithfulness, loyalty and trust. The recent introduction of the ‘serial’ dimension of monogamy largely comes from the increasing significance of freedom as a core value of contemporary Western life. Again, a culture’s values may be made explicit, as in the French motto Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, or hidden from conscious view.

Beliefs are the propositions collectively held to be true. They might be concerned with knowledge (statements of fact) or with morality (statements of value). They are held to varying degrees.

• Absolute beliefs are the statements that we know are true: for example, that there are 31 days in January. The veracity of these claims is taken for granted. We do not question their accuracy: they are certain and we will refer to them as ‘knowledge’.
• Strong beliefs are the claims we are convinced by, but that are open to contest. While we are likely to be very attached to our strong beliefs, we can at least acknowledge that alternatives do exist.
• Weak beliefs are the claims that we are attracted to, but that we are not entirely married to. These are beliefs that are open to persuasion and can be abandoned without too much discomfort. For example, an individual might believe that nuclear power is dirty and dangerous, but be convinced otherwise by new scientific evidence, technological advances or economic necessity. However, for an environmental activist, an opposition to nuclear power may be one of their strongest beliefs.

It is worth noting here that even the most absolute beliefs are in fact culturally framed. The knowledge that there are 31 days in January derives from the Gregorian calendar, but this too is culturally specific. The Mayans of Central America for example, had a completely different way of conceiving the passage of time.

Roles are the norms that are attached to the particular positions we occupy within a society, a family, a workplace or any other social grouping. Like norms, our roles can be formal (defined by rules or laws) or informal (shaped by convention, expectation or social desirability). An example of the former is that a doctor will write appropriate medical prescriptions for her patient and an example of the latter is that she will not write these prescriptions while wearing hot pants and listening to Kylie Minogue.

Tastes are the things we like and do not like, from foods, to music, to other people. While these appear highly personal, they are also enabled and constrained by culture. Prevailing tastes of a culture shift over time. In the seventeenth century, for example, people gathered together to enjoy the punishment of criminals in very public and brutal spectacles (Foucault, 1991). Organs spilled out to the delight of the crowds. Contemporary culture seems generally repulsed by the less ‘civilised’ aspects of humanity (see Norbert Elias’ The Civilizing Process for an early account of this). Today, prisoners serve out their punishments behind giant walls, hidden from the gaze of the public. In fact, the ‘distasteful’ aspects of human life (including pa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• The authors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Culture and learning
• 2 Lessons in culture, community and change: an historical account
• 3 Learning in uncertain times: perspectives from philosophy
• 4 Learning to live in uncertainty: perspectives from psychology
• 5 Politics, power and priorities: perspectives on education policy
• 6 In classrooms and corridors: a sociological approach
• 7 Learning and identity in a multicultural community
• 8 Outside the school gate: alternative cultures of learning
• References
• Index