How Culture Impacts Education, Essay Example

Introduction

Cultural tendencies influence the manner children get involved and take part in their education. The below essay will examine Bordieu’s thesis of social reproduction in the light of previous course readings and personal experiences.

Bordieu and Passerson (204-205) state that family habitus is influenced by culture and class. As culture and knowledge is distributed on an institutional scale. As Tzanakis summarizes the thesis: “cultural capital actively reproduces social inequalities”.

The reading of Gladwell’s (250) analysis of Marita’s situation and the bargain she enters, the thesis the authors would like to prove through the case and personal experience review, interviews with family members is that cultural and family legacy, as well as class creates a unique situation for every child related to their opportunities within the education system. Social and cultural inequalities exist in the society and they create unequal opportunities for children from various backgrounds.

Theories and Literature Related To Culture and Education

There are various theories related to “normal”school behavior for children from either collectivist or individualist cultures. The teaching staff who have little awareness about knowledge related to culture might understand the behavior of a student from a collectivist society and culture. Such kind of differences can be the basis of educators to imprecisely judge children from a number of cultures which are disappointingly disrespectful or behaved. Adding to this, since the cultural differences are quite firm to perceive, children may find out themselves admonished by their instructors who fail to recognize what they did that caused anxiety. This essay talks and discusses excerpts from different views on the cultural effect on education. As a case study for this essay will focus on the viewpoint of my Asian friends and American European friends, their inherited cultural impact on their children’s education using the social reproduction theory.

Social reproduction theory is one tool used by sociologists to describe the impact of  cultural, linguistic, and social class stereotyping in the educational system. It is suggested by proponents of this theory that public institutions automatically assign societal roles based on stereotypes that influence children’s choices. This social or cultural influence can impact children’s choices and self-image.

Several theories were introduced to explain the relationship between socialization and perceptions related to education. Levitan offers descriptions of common stereotypes about lower socioeconomic classes and minorities. He describes common perceptions as  being “related to age, race, household type, and educational attainment. According to stereotypes in education, the author (Levitan) finds that stereotypes are based on generalization of statistics. He states that  Blacks are  thrice as likely to be poor than Whites. Families headed by women are five and a half times as likely to be poor as all other families. Adults with less than 12 years of schooling experience are five times more likely to suffer from poverty than those with some college education” (Levitan 7). This implies that minority groups are conditioned to be disadvantaged by the society and educators believe they have lower chances to academic success.

Burciago suggests that public education today is successful in reaching a good deal of the population—the white, middle to upper socioeconomic classes . However, it is failing to provide an equal education to several overlapping groups: people in the lower socio economic strata in the United States and people who represent linguistic minorities (Bourdieu).

Another idea, introduced by Levitan concludes that “when children are told by well-meaning people that they cannot be expected to succeed like other children because of the deficiencies of their environment, then they fail” (Levitan 179). Often students mark their discontent with the institution’s lowered standards by refusing to attend classes or by dropping out altogether. Thus, children are pushed towards failing instead of getting encouragement from the educational institutions. Some children, however, decide to go against this social positioning  like Marita and strive to do better by looking for a school with better standards. Still, the influence of educators is needed to encourage children and give them self-belief.

Influence of Culture

I would like to discuss the influence of culture on education next. When determining the worth of getting education, participation styles cannot be overvalued. As an example, in the Asian countries the students are shy in the class. On occasions, these children – because of their unique cultural diversity – intend to keep quiet in the classroom.  For them, making an eye contact with the instructors teaching in the class is considered to be inappropriate. In distinction to this, in most European and American students are taught to give value to active classroom discussions. Also,looking directly in the teacher’s eye in western cultures is considered to demonstrate respect, while their teachers visualize students’ participation as a symbol of competence and engagement. Similarly, different cultures look at education strategies from a different perspective. Some parents believe that most of the things taught in school are not useful in real life situations, therefore, they do not encourage their children to learn them.

In the case outlined by Gladwell, the author states that “KIPP is, rather, an organization that has succeeded by taking the idea of cultural legacies seriously (252). The emphasis of the above statement is on “cultural legacies”. Acceptance of diversity and showing the way to succeed despite different chances and social inequalities, described by Bordieu and Passerson (204-205), is the key to improving education outcomes. Gladwell (255) also confirms that the attainment (mental capabilities) of children do not show a great difference based on low, middle and high social classes. However, their attainment level differences increase throughout the years spent in educational institutions. This phenomenon called “achievement gap” (Gladwell 256) certainly has cultural and social aspects alike. Children’s attainment is determined buy their home environment; whether or not they have the time, space, opportunity and motivation to study. Further, their parents’ attitude towards learning, achievements and school will influence their thinking. Still, the role of schools and educators is not negotiable: they need to work on understanding the socialization patterns of children, their perceptions, cultural and economic aspirations, attitudes towards learning to empower them. I have overcome the above “achievement gap” through my personal aspiration. However, the role of the librarian who supported me in the process, as well as the role of my teachers after discovering my interest in specific subject is also important.

Marita does not follow the path of her mother, who never went to college and is a single mom. She is determined. However, it is possible that her motivation is to “do better” than her mother and get out of the Bronx neighborhood. She simply understands that she has a serious chance to do so, through education provided by KIPP. She no longer belongs to the group of Korean minorities living in Bronx. She gave up a part of her identity. As the author puts it: “her community does not give her what she needs”. (Gladwell 266) Therefore, Gladwell states that Marita decides with another life because her circumstances and environment do not satisfy her.

Personal Perspective

I started school as a child who struggled with reading and writing. I attended a public school first and 80 percent of the children were from ethnic minority groups. Further, in my elementary school, over 60 percent of the children were receiving reduced or free meals, just like in the main school of Marita’s case. I did not feel like I was getting enough support from educators, and children in the neighborhood did not speak a lot of English; they did not care about school, either. I was, however, lucky to be motivated by my parents. They did realize the existence of inequalities and told me to grab every opportunity to get education, status and respect by the time I grow up.

After a discussion with my mother about a neighbor who had to give up her children because they caused trouble on the street and she could not provide them with the right support, she told me that I had a choice. She said: “I know you grew up with these kids. I know that they do not care about school. This does not mean that you have to be the same. There are two ways of dealing with inequality: accepting it and behaving accordingly or fighting it. You can have a chance and change your life.”

That was the time when I started to care about school. Like Marita, I had to enter a “bargain”. Instead of playing on the street after school, I went to the local library. We did not have many books at home, but there was a solution. I had to walk about 20 minutes each day, but my mother knew that I was safe there. I made friends with a Hispanic librarian who gave me advice on what to read and how to improve my language skills. Later, I saved up my pocket money I had for sweets to buy a computer access card. This was when I found educational resources that helped me. My grades went up. My teachers started to listen to me. They enrolled me to special classes. My journey paved with sacrifices towards college began.

If my mother’s attitude towards life, work and learning was different, I would have settled with the lifestyle, culture and neighborhood I was born into. But my mother wanted me to succeed. She did not want me to work hard for little money, like her. I was passed on the idea of my mother that education is power. While my mother could not help me at home with my homework, she encouraged me to seek help and educate myself.

Reflection

Steele states that “deep in the psyche or American educators is a presumption that black students need academic remediation or extra time to overcome background deficits” (77). Such predetermined notions alleged by educators and administrators concerning the rational abilities of people of color or latest immigrants comprise a variety of cultural prejudice or stereotyping or expected learner behavior. Negative expectations by the instructors are murmured by the students who, in turn, take on the expected attributes. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy chat the instructor impose on the students.

Research has justified that the self-fulfilling foresight also sometimes works in the reverse way. In other words, “superior expectations have led to superior performance” (Levitan 179). In fact, “when they are told that their intellectual abilities are no different from anyone else’s, that they are expected to succeed and encouraged to do so, then they do succeed” (Levitan 179). However, positive stereotypes are often as harmful as negative stereotypes.

Tatum suggests that preconceived ideas like, “Orientals will do well in math, and, “women are good in languages, while men are good in math and science, have “negative effects because they deny a person’s individuality” (3). These misconceptions are more prevalent than is expected and are infinitely more harmful to the student than is believed. For instance, when African-Americans enter the classroom (especially in the inner-city), both the teacher and the students expect them to be intellectually slower and a great deal more violent and dangerous than other students (Rist). In fact, “society is preconditioned to see the worst in them” (Steele 74). This focus on racial preconceptions leads African-American students to act defensively.

Conclusion

To conclude with I would like to state that the theory of Bordieu about social reproduction is confirmed on the large scale. Students like Marita and me have to reject the impact of peer pressure and they need more determination. Students from a well-off upper middle class family would not have to wake up early; their parents would drop them off at school or have a babysitter. If my mother could afford books and a personal computer, I would not have had to walk to the library every day after school. However, the ability of overcoming these difficulties is based on one’s values, perception and parental influence, support. When support from schools (KIPP) and parental motivation meet, students’ pre-determined learning outcome inequalities can be overcome.

Works Cited

Bourdieu, Pierre. “Cultural Production and Social Reproduction.” Bourdieu, Pierre. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. 56-68.

Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J. C. “Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture”  1977. Print.

Burciago, J. A. “Forty-five Percent of Latinos Don’t Complete School” In: S. Farkas (eds) Changes and Challenges: City Schools in America. 1983. Print.

Levitan, S. “Programs in Aid of the Poor” 6^th Ed. 1990. Print.

Rist, Ray C. “Student Social Class and Teacher Expectations: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Ghetto Education” Harvard Education Review. 1970. Print.

Roger, Carl R. “Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory” 2003. Print.

Steele, C. “Race and the Schooling of Black Americans” n.d. Web.

Tzanakis, M. “Bourdieu’s Social Reproduction Thesis and The Role of Cultural Capital in Educational Attainment: A Critical Review of Key Empirical Studies” Educate 2011. Print.