Feb 28 2009
A little bit of theory – I value-added a mean gain of 2.3% IQ points
In the first volume of Educational Philosophy and Theory for 2009 Marshall raises the question of teaching in neo-liberal world. He challenges us to question to what extent neo-liberal thinking has invaded education and altered the very concept of teaching itself. He provides us with an analysis of the concept of ‘valuing adding’ to students and provides a useful narrative to illustrate his point.
“Some five years ago in a class of final year Bachelor students, one student said that after her recent teaching practice her practice supervisor asked her this question at the outset of their post-lesson meeting. ‘In lesson X, which I observed, how much value do you believe that you added to those students?’ Not, how much do you think they learned?; not, how well do you think that you taught?; and not, how might you do it the next time you teach X?” (Marshall, 2009: 81).
Peters (1966) describes education as a ‘process of initiation’ and may be useful in adding another dimension to Marshall’s examination of teaching in neo-liberal times. For example, if we think of a youth in a primitive community being initiated into the tribe, we think of ‘acceptance’. When the youth has reached a certain stage of development, he is accepted as an adult. As an outward sign of the recognition of his adulthood by the elders of the tribe, he passes through an initiation ceremony. From that moment he enjoys all the privileges enjoyed by other adult members. He has made it.
But initiation into education is not exactly the same. The first initiation into education in the sense of ‘schooling’, takes place at a certain age (usually 5 years – however also a complicated issue for any parent trying to enrol their child who is born in the month of May into kindergarten will know). The age is determined by the State, as the elders of the tribe determine at what stage of development they will accept a young man as an adult. After this the two stage of initiating begin to differ.
When we say that a child is ‘initiated’ into education or culture, we mean that he / she is ‘exposed to’ or ‘committed to’ specific situations. All children are initiated into the skills of reading, writing and counting. Not all children, however, benefit equally from the initiation. Some children learn to read, writ, and calculate better than others. The skills are the same for all those initiated, but all the initiates are not the same ( for a variety of reasons).
So what then is the purpose of this initiation? Is it for the benefit of the individual (from the above example it may well not be), or is it for the benefit of society? In contemporary Australian society, the person who cannot read or write is of little use economically to the society. And since he can scarcely earn a living to feed him/herself , year after year living at subsistence level, we can question whether he/she is any use to himself.
On the other hand, initiation must show respect for individuality. Because children are committed to learning the same basic skills, this does not mean that they are all to be poured into the same mould. Nor do we accept that the State has a right to make them what it likes> When this happens, we have coercion and indoctrination replacing education. “So what are the criteria for determining that value has been added?” (Marshall, 2009: 90).
References
Marshall, J.(2009) ‘Revisiting the Task / Achievement Analysis of Teaching in Neo-Liberal Times’. Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 41, no. 1: 79-90.
Peters, R. S. (1966). Ethics and Education. George Allen & Unwin: London.
