IDEOLOGY AND EDUCATION
The nature of ideology
All human knowledge is socially constructed, i.e. no area of human endeavour can ever be neutral or value-free since it is always underpinned by the values and beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, of its proponents. Such sets of beliefs or worldviews are examples of what sociologists call ideologies. Education itself can therefore never be neutral or value free, whatever critics may say. Meighan & Harber, in A Sociology of Educating (2007) define ideology as:
a broad interlocked set of ideas and beliefs about the world held by a group of people that they demonstrate in both behaviour and conversation to various audiences. These systems of belief are usually seen as ‘the way things really are’ by the groups holding them, and they become the taken-for-granted ways of making sense of the world (Meighan & Harber, 2007: 212).
It is important therefore to understand the political ideologies (see note below) which underpin the current western worldview and in summarising (if oversimplifying) some of the key features of neoliberal and neoconservative ideology I have drawn particularly on Heywood (2007), Political Ideologies, and Goodwin (2007), Using Political Ideas, both of which are vital background reading if you wish to understand the nature and power of political ideologies. It is important to understand these ideologies because they have shaped so much of education today.
Preparing for the Future
If you have not already done so you first need to consult Session 4 of the Teaching Unit ‘Preparing for the Future: An Introduction for Educators’ which provides the background reading needed to understand the nature and impact of ideology on education. The following materials are then available to support further study and discussion. Please note that these introductory materials necessarily involve a degree of oversimplification. They do, however, highlight essential differences and key ideas.
NB. The word ‘political’ is often taken to refer to political parties but it is used here in its wider sense, i.e. issues relating to power and authority in society and how that authority is gained and used. Differing political ideologies are what lie behind different political parties, they embody the varying beliefs that people hold about society and how it should work.
Powerpoint presentation
In order to highlight some of the key issues relating to ideology and education this presentation focuses on two distinctive political ideologies – neoliberal and welfare state. It then looks at two educational ideologies – person-centred education and global citizenship education – which derive from and are related to the latter.
Some supporting documents
Here are six handouts, each of which will enable you to explore and debate education and ideology in more depth.
- 1.0 Competing political ideologies – some of the key features of neoliberal and welfare state ideologies
- 2.1 Neoliberal education – a summary of its key features
- 2.2 Person-centred education – a summary of its key features
- 2.3 Global citizenship education – a summary of its key features
- 3.0 Design a school – what would a school look like based on neoliberal/welfare state ideology?
- 4.0 Further reading – references and resources to help consolidate knowledge and understanding
Teaching for a Better World: Is it geography? (Download paper)
This paper gives examples of how ideological clashes can occur in education using as illustrations neoliberal attacks
i) against global education in the 1980s and ii) against the nature of the geography curriculum today.