Cover Story Rethinking Education

UNDERSTANDING
Modern Education
Increasing knowledge or ignorance 16
& Helena Norberg-Hodge
TRANSFORMING
OUR SCHOOLS Education in Pakistan
From numbers to learning 24
AMBREENA AZIZ Wasif Rizvi

Page 7
Reconceptualizing Good Schools 28
Shahid Siddiqui

UR On... Critical Educators

Neoliberalism, Global Capitalism

& Educational Change 42
Dave Hill

Teachers as Transformatory Intellectuals 46

Henry Giroux

Peter McLaren In Passing

An Interview
for EDucate!
Noam Chomsky on Schooling 31
MASHHOOD RIZVI Noam Chomsky
Page 19
How Factory Schools are Like Big Dams? 34
Shilpa Jain
Fatima Suraiya Bajia
Looking at the World
Through an Societal Learning
Unschooled Perspective
Books for a Better World
n
Deschooling Society - Ivan Illich 53
n
Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paulo Freire 55

Websites for a Better World

www.infed.org 57
Rethinking Development
AZIZ KABANI & AMBREENA AZIZ

Page 12 What is Sustainable Development? 38

Ted Trainer
 July 2002 – Sept 2002 EDucate! Issue No. 1, Vol. No. 2

This pioneering magazine has been created to challenge ethically,

Rethinking Globalization morally and intellectually the inequalities in the existing
paradigms of education and development in order to liberate
people’s thoughts and actions.

Some of the Instruments CHAIRPERSON

Prof. Anita Ghulam Ali

Might be New 35 EDITOR–IN–CHIEF

Mashhood Rizvi
Aziz Choudry EDITOR
Ambreena Aziz

Rethinking Media & Technology CONSULTING EDITORS

Tehseena Rafi, Shahbano Bilgrami
ASSISTANT EDITORS

Computers and the Aziz Kabani, Naureen Butt

CONTRIBUTORS

Deskilling of Teachers 32 Robert McChesney, Shilpa Jain, Wasif Rizvi,

Henry Giroux, Shahid Siddiqui, Ted Trainer,
Michael Apple Aziz Choudry, Helena Norberg-Hodge,
Dave Hill.

Regular Features EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE

Shakeel Ahmed, Naeem Nizamani
DESIGNER
OPEN LETTERS 4 Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi
ILLUSTRATION/PHOTO CREDIT
Naeem Nizamani, Shakeel Ahmed,
Shukri Rehman

EDITOR’S NOTE 6 www.shareint.org, zmag.org/photo3.htm

CORRESPONDENCE MANAGER
Somaiya Ayoob
CIRCULATION MANAGER

WAKEUP CALLS 41 Shukri Rehman

CONTRIBUTIONS

INSPIRATIONS & REFLECTIONS 41 We welcome your questions, suggestions, support and contributions.
Letters to the editor should not exceed 500 words. Essays and articles
should not exceed more than 3000 words. Previously published articles
and essays should be supported with references and permissions to
reprint. The editor reserves the right to edit submissions prior to

VOICE OF THE VOICELESS 50

publication.
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Muhammad Khan Zada EDucate! is published quarterly by the Sindh Education Foundation.
The opinions reflected in the various contributions and articles do not
necessarily reflect the views of the Sindh Education Foundation.
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FINAL ANALYSIS 58 CORRESPONDENCE

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 OPEN letters
Power, force and insight for the development professionals.
I am really impressed with the quality of the Liaquat Thaheem, Program Officer, Peoples Continuing
journal, the layout, the themes, design, and, of Education Peace & Cultural Services
course, and most especially the content. This is a
magazine with power, force, and insight behind it
– with a noble purpose. It is really quite Feeling at home
something. It will make a strong impact for justice, I am a teachar at Bahria College, Karsaz. I find
I am sure of that! EDucate! very informative and it makes one feel
Peter McLaren, Professor, Division of Urban Schooling, at home since the experiences of the writers are
Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, of our own context.
University of California and a prominent author Shahina, Karachi

Compete with the Times - No!

Outstanding job I must confess now that the Renaissance is on in
Once again, it looks great. You people are really Pakistan. I was very impressed with the physical
doing an outstanding job. Congratulations to real outlook of the magazine and also the website is
cultural workers. quite remarkable, although it needs to get an edge,
Henry Giroux, Director of the Waterbury Forum in but hopefully by the passage of time its going to
Education and Cultural Studies at Penn State compete with ‘The Times’ and I am looking
University and prominent author forward to that.
Raja Adnan Razzaq, Rawalpindi

Challenging norms and taboos

The tragedy of education in Pakistan is that it Inspires fresh thinking
comes very low on the priority order of the Thanks for sending me EDucate! Pakistan’s First
decision makers. A large number of initiatives focus Magazine on Education and Development. I am
on the quantitative expansion. Be it the number impressed with the contents and the titles inspire
of schools or number of ‘trained teachers’. There fresh thinking. It gives the reader confidence to
is least attention given to the qualitative aspect of know that others also think as rational individuals
education. Aren’t we just producing students to fill in a conservative society.
out the empty slots of society and become ‘good Dr. Khalid Aftab, Principal, Govt. College, Lahore
citizens’? What we need to strive for is an
educational system that focuses on emancipating
our students by thinking critically. We need to Source of liberation
produce students who should not just fit into the Congratulations for initiating the thought-provoking
slots of society but who could challenge some of magazine EDucate! This time it is more eye
its norms and taboos. I am glad EDucate! is opening as it problamatises the role of media with
focusing on this important function of education. profound intellectual rationale. The dialogue of the
Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, In charge, Management Sciences contemporary media critics on the prevailing role
& Humanities Program, of media is opening new windows of thinking in
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences the existing epoch of fragmentation and dogmatism.
and Technology It needs to decentralize the lessons of the
contemporary dissents at community level, so that
a sustainable change could be posed in the
Good learning experience spectrum of the prevailing global realities.
We have great value and respect for the efforts May EDucate! becomes a source of liberation for
and endeavors the Sindh Education Foundation is the restless majority from the prosperous few.
engaged in. The experiences and achievements of Barkat Shah Kakar, Academic Program Associate,
the Foundation serve as a good learning experience IDSP-Pakistan, Quetta

4
Reflections from a Reader
EDucate! is a wonderful magazine that allows incisive insights into education and development issues.
After reading the four issues I have some first impressions.

1. I agree that a radical approach to solving education problems is required. We need an overhaul
of the system, to turn around this specialty producer of brown sahibs and clerks designed to churn
out a cadre of locals, ill-equipped to question, analyze, and rise, just trained to serve the British raj
in its administration of the Colony. The overhauling is not just about better public management and
policy. It’s a very tricky political process, which should empower the proverbial PTV ‘common man’
(that is atleast the intention of education reform) and disinherit the feudal power structure among
other power-wielders. The contribution of your magazine and website is to generate an awareness
about the need for radical overhaul. My humble suggestion: the target audience is probably aware
of this need for reform (though not of how to question the curriculum) but to reach a critical mass
of awareness you have to reach the non-English reading audience. The fact that the magazine is in
English limits its proliferation. Perhaps an Urdu version of the magazine carrying translations of a
summary of Iqbal’s ‘Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’ or Ali Shariati or Syed Qutb’s ideas
would be a better mechanism. An English collection of radical essays are important to convert a few
of the Anglicized graduates from KGS or St. Patrick’s (that’s a generalization but for effect). But what
we need is critical mass and that would come largely from a segment that doesn’t read English.

2. Unfortunately, I am a realist and crave for specific issues. Yes, the magazine has debates on
‘overarching paradigms’ on what ‘education should do’ but I haven’t read a piece that outlines a
problem in schooling in Pakistan AND suggests a solution to overcome it. Perhaps policy / solution
oriented debates on more specific issues would be a greater contribution.

3. I am particularly delighted to see pieces on Iqbal and a remembrance of Shariati. It indicates that
there is some emphasis by your team on drawing on the pool of ideas that philosophers in Islam have
accumulated in their quest to reform Muslim societies. I hope to see greater emphasis on learning
from models based on our societies and religion than on transplanting Western paradigms of education.

As a policy analyst concerned about education reform in Pakistan, I applaud your effort to highlight
the critical significance of education on development. My concern is that an emphasis on progressive
slogans/critiques of education may inhibit your ability to bring change due to opposition from the
Establishment. What is required is a delicate balance between quiet practical change/reform and a
loud dissemination of ideas. It’s a tricky balance, but that’s the fun part!!

Hope my comments are taken as a positive, constructive contribution to the process.

Regards,
Mohammed Rehan Malik,
RGS Doctoral Fellow, RAND Graduate School, USA.

We welcome your comments, critique and suggestions.

Fax: 92-21-9251652
E-mail: educate@sef.org.pk
Mail: Plot 9, Block 7, Kehkashan, Clifton 5, Karachi – 75500, Pakistan
Include your full name, address, e-mail, and daytime phone number. We may edit letters for brevity
and clarity, and use them in all print and electronic media.

5
 Editor’s
Note
“School is a place where tests are failed and passed, where amusing things happen, where new insights are tumbled
upon, and skills acquired. But it is also a place in which people sit, and listen, and wait and raise their hands, and
pass out paper, and stand in line, and sharpen pencils. School is where we encounter both friends and foes, where
imagination is unleashed and misunderstandings brought to ground. But it is also a place in which yawns are stifled
and initials scratched on desktops, where milk money is collected and recess lines are formed. Both aspects of school
life, the celebrated and the unnoticed, are familiar to all of us, but the latter, if only because of its characteristic neglect,
seems to deserve more attention that it has received to date from those who are interested in education.”
(The Daily Grind, Philip Jackson)

W
hether we like it or not, schools are places that propagate standardized learnings, ritualistic and
cyclic classroom activities, curriculums oriented towards the western pattern of education, evaluative
mechanisms based on the much controversial IQ and meritocracy techniques to grade and classify
students. The grading and classifying further induce stratification and inequality among children making them
feel inadequate and uneasy with their own unique capabilities. Uniqueness is marred by the intention to
homogenize not only the aims of education but also the tools to communicate it. The only rationale behind
acquiring education is achieving an economically sound stature in society. The definition of education is sadly
confused with the laborious process of attending one schooling institution after another. All other forms of
learning outside the physical boundaries of a school/college/university are marginalized if not completely wiped
out.

To understand the institution of schooling in the historical context of colonialism, to analyze the social, cultural
and moral impacts the school creates by promoting westernized forms of learning that have little or nothing
to do with our indigenous culture and language and to appreciate the value and significance of alternative
educational approaches, this issue of EDucate! aims at rethinking and reclaiming the meaning of education and
schooling in our society. The content is a varied mix of articles and interviews on critical and transformatory
education, neo-liberalism and education, concept of schooling and the part schools play in society and role of
teachers. The present day education system of the country cannot be analyzed without referring to the colonial
influence in the Subcontinent. The cover story ‘Understanding and Transforming Our Schools’ deals with this
issue and analyzes the schooling system in the light of colonial times. Wasif Rizvi’s article ‘Education in Pakistan:
From Numbers to Learning’ is also a critique of the current education system of the country and outlines
corrective measures for its transformation. Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, a well-known name in the education circles of
Pakistan, discusses the preconceived notions of schools in our society and redefines them in his article
‘Reconeptualizing Good Schools’. Throughout this issue we have emphasized the notion that education should
not be restricted to mere schooling. A face-to-face with Fatima Suriya Bajia, a much-loved playwright and person
for all generations, supports this idea since her own education took place at home without any formal schooling.
UR On features Peter McLaren, one of the leading critical educators of the present times. In this interview
he focuses on progressive and critical education, critical pedagogy, teachers as transformative intellectuals and
the role of schools in the struggle for social justice.

We hope this issue of EDucate! proves to be a powerful source of learning and understanding for teachers,
parents, students and all those involved with the process and institutions of education.
I would like to sign off with a few lines of Ivan Illich: “Everyone learns how to live outside school. We learn
to speak, to think, to love, to feel, to play, to curse, to politick, and to work without interference from a
teacher. Even children who are under a teacher’s care day and night are no exception to the rule. Orphans,
idiots, and schoolteachers’ sons learn most of what they learn outside the ‘educational’ process planned for
them.” Let’s not make schooling the end of the wonderful world of curiosity and perpetual discovery of truth.

Ambreena Aziz

6
COVER STORY

Understanding &
Transforming our Schools
AMBREENA AZIZ

What is the role of schools mistaken solutions of obscure problems. The real
problem is not a depleted school building or a low
in our society? What does attendance rate, the real issue here is the collective
mindset towards the total concept of education; the
the paradigm of education lack of capacity to dismantle and unveil the nefarious
mean to us? Is the groundwork that underlie the institution of schooling.
We are still not sure where to head and what to
prevalent education system pursue, we are still looking for that one guidepost
which will rid us of all our economic, political, social
meeting our societal needs and moral ailments. For most of us, economic growth
or only impelling us forward (translated a job voucher for a multinational) is the
ultimate, most sacred aim of education; there is no
in the rat race for material higher goal beyond. Achieving maximum material gain
occupies the chief tier in the hierarchy of one’s
gains? How can education personal goals or for that matter collective aspiration
be used as a critical vehicle of the society. It is a deep-rooted apathy, an heirloom
of colonial times, a sad legacy we cannot get rid of.
for envisaging a And we pass on the bequest to our youth; we give
them gifts of competition, envy and an utter sense of
democratically vibrant inadequacy with their own caliber.
society? The Reality Underlying Schooling

I
n the last fifty-five years, there has been a Schooling ignores, negates, and demeans intelligences,
perpetual debate on the system of education knowledge systems, making-meaning systems, and
prevalent in the country and how it can learning styles that do not fit within its parameters.
contribute to the socio-economic welfare. Much has For example, a number of multiple intelligences have
been said and written since then; an array of aims and been identified by cognitive scientists/psychologists.
objectives being outlined customarily in the national- These include intrapersonal, interpersonal, logical,
level conventions deliberating the education agenda. spatial, natural, verbal, musical, kinesthetic, spiritual,
We stand at a threshold where we are trawling for emotional, creative, etc. Yet, schooling denies the
existence of all of these intelligences in each and every
1
Exposing the Illusion of the Campaign for Fundamental Right to Education, George. Selena & Jain. Shilpa, December 2000, Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking
Education and Development.

7
one of us. Furthermore, its emphasis
The whole education The Implicits: Seldom stated and
on superficial info-knowledge – never left to critical public opinion,
cramming us full of rote facts and phenomenon of our it is high time we become receptive
mindless trivia – makes a mockery country rests on to the real causes of the problem
of what it means to be fully quantitative measures with rather than stray in the endless
human. Nor is there any real space qualitative outcomes circle of symptoms. The whole
f o r c r e a t i v i t y, f o r l o c a l education phenomenon of our
languages/expressions, nor for playing a trivial role. country rests on quantitative
exploring a variety of relationships measures with qualitative outcomes
or other kinds of settings.1 playing a trivial role. We do not
value the worth of shaping a long-term vision for the
For us education is synonymous with schooling. There most important need of the society. As a consequence,
is no other definition. All parameters, which fulfill the our course of action determining every aspect of the
promise of a ‘bright prosperous future’, come under the education system (curriculum, teachers, students) is
slogan of education. So immersed are we in the directed by a myopic vision for the future. Seldom the
materialistic conquest that we deem the institution of school has introduced a course teaching us how to
‘schooling’ as being the sole, unrivaled agency of resist oppression or how to value our own history and
producing civilized, progressive individuals, who in culture or for that matter how to work collectively for
reality are culturally illiterate, all out to join the the welfare of the humanity. These are imparted as
bandwagon of power-status seekers. intangible lessons always secondary to courses rendering
partial knowledge about a foreign history and language
Our schools suffer from numerous explicit and far too at the cost of undermining and devaluing our own
many implicit problems. If this segregation is further culture, history and language specific subjects.
classified we can easily distinguish the elusive line
between the two peripheries. The underlying values of the current system of
education are geared towards a single pronged goal of
The Explicits: This is stating the obvious, which achieving accelerated economic growth by producing a
we have been doing repeatedly over the last five breed of degree-holders (not scholars) to take the
decades. country full-throttle in achieving its dream of being a
‘progressive’ ‘developed’ nation. By steadily multiplying
g Our schools lack the basic infrastructure: dearth of the number of education institutions each year, we
proper buildings, classrooms, water, electricity and falsely believe the realization of this dream could come
sanitation facilities. through and yet it is not even remotely happening.
g We don’t have well-trained and committed teachers: Not only the literacy rate staggers low but also the
teachers need skills and motivation to impart status of employment opportunities, despite the
education. mushrooming schools, colleges and business institutions
g The textbooks belong to the preceding generations: all over.
we are being taught the same thing as our parents
and grand parents. The Colonial spill over: Our present day
g Lack of financial resources: how can we improve schooling system is one of the many (but most
the schools when we don’t have money? The important in the order of destructive leftovers)
children are poor and the State does not provide remnants of our former British masters. It is imperative
us with adequate funds. to understand where our present day schooling has its
g Lack of supervision and monitoring mechanisms: roots and why does it exist, as it does, in the present
no system of accountability for implementation of shape and form? Leafing through the annals of
performance enhancing measures. subjugation in British India, we can trace the advent
g Lack of concerted efforts on behalf of the of Western forms of learning to 1834 when Lord
government to improve the state of education: Macaulay stated in his famous Minute:
despite sky-high claims, no substantial actions are
taken at the policy level. “The great objective of the British Government should
be the promotion of European literature and science
It must be noted that the purpose of highlighting the among the natives of India and that all the funds
above-mentioned issues in this context is to draw a appropriated for the purpose of education would best
line between the too-obvious issues and the understated be employed on English education alone”.
ones and not to project them as insignificant in any This resolution laid the foundations to promote Western
way. thoughts and cultural practices among the Indians of

8 COVER STORY
 What is the role Students were taught in The Reality Underlying
of schools in our school that their beliefs
were primitive and Schooling
society? What superstitious. We are still Schooling ignores, negates, and
demeans intelligences, knowledge
does the paradigm holding on to a system of systems, making-meaning systems,
education, which has and learning styles that do not fit
of education mean nothing to do with our within its parameters. For example,
to us? Is the indigenous culture and a number of multiple intelligences
have been identified by cognitive
prevalent forms of learning. scientists/psychologists. These include
intrapersonal, interpersonal, logical,
education system spatial, natural, verbal, musical, kinesthetic, spiritual,
meeting our societal needs emotional, creative, etc. Yet, schooling denies the
existence of all of these intelligences in each and every
or only impelling us forward one of us. Furthermore, its emphasis on superficial info-
knowledge – cramming us full of rote facts and
in the rat race for material mindless trivia – makes a mockery of what it means
gains? How can education tocreativity,
be fully human. Nor is there any real space for
for local languages/expressions, nor for
be used as a critical vehicle exploring a variety of relationships or other kinds of
settings.1
for envisaging a
democratically vibrant For us education is synonymous with schooling. There
is no other definition. All parameters, which fulfill the
society? promise of a ‘bright prosperous future’, come under the
slogan of education. So immersed are we in the
n the last fifty-five years, there has been a perpetual materialistic conquest that we deem the institution of
debate on the system of education prevalent in the ‘schooling’ as being the sole, unrivaled agency of
country and how it can contribute to the socio- producing civilized, progressive individuals, who in
economic welfare. Much has been said and written reality are culturally illiterate, all out to join the
since then; an array of aims and objectives being bandwagon of power-status seekers.
outlined customarily in the national-level conventions
deliberating the education agenda. Our schools suffer from numerous explicit and far too
We stand at a threshold where we are trawling for many implicit problems. If this segregation is further
mistaken solutions of obscure problems. The real classified we can easily distinguish the elusive line
problem is not a depleted school building or a low between the two peripheries.
attendance rate, the real issue here is the collective
mindset towards the total concept of education; the The Explicits: This is stating the obvious, which
lack of capacity to dismantle and unveil the nefarious we have been doing repeatedly over the last five
groundwork that underlie the institution of schooling. decades.
We are still not sure where to head and what to
pursue, we are still looking for that one guidepost g Our schools lack the basic infrastructure: dearth of
which will rid us of all our economic, political, social proper buildings, classrooms, water, electricity and
and moral ailments. For most of us, economic growth sanitation facilities.
(translated a job voucher for a multinational) is the g We don’t have well-trained and committed teachers:
ultimate, most sacred aim of education; there is no teachers need skills and motivation to impart
higher goal beyond. Achieving maximum material gain education.
occupies the chief tier in the hierarchy of one’s g The textbooks belong to the preceding generations:
personal goals or for that matter collective aspiration we are being taught the same thing as our parents
of the society. It is a deep-rooted apathy, an heirloom and grand parents.
of colonial times, a sad legacy we cannot get rid of. g Lack of financial resources: how can we improve
And we pass on the bequest to our youth; we give the schools when we don’t have money? The
them gifts of competition, envy and an utter sense of children are poor and the State does not provide
inadequacy with their own caliber. us with adequate funds.
2
ibid

COVER STORY 9
g Lack of supervision and monitoring mechanisms: remnants of our former British masters. It is imperative
no system of accountability for implementation of to understand where our present day schooling has its
performance enhancing measures. roots and why does it exist, as it does, in the present
g Lack of concerted efforts on behalf of the shape and form? Leafing through the annals of
government to improve the state of education: subjugation in British India, we can trace the advent
despite sky-high claims, no substantial actions are of Western forms of learning to 1834 when Lord
taken at the policy level. Macaulay stated in his famous Minute:

It must be noted that the purpose of highlighting the “The great objective of the British Government should
above-mentioned issues in this context is to draw a be the promotion of European literature and science
line between the too-obvious issues and the understated among the natives of India and that all the funds
ones and not to project them as insignificant in any appropriated for the purpose of education would best
way. be employed on English education alone”.
The Implicits: Seldom stated and never left to This resolution laid the foundations to promote
critical public opinion, it is high time we become Western thoughts and cultural practices among the
receptive to the real causes of the problem rather than Indians of the Subcontinent and so began the still
stray in the endless circle of symptoms. The whole surviving tradition of demeaning our indigenous
education phenomenon of our country rests on languages, culture and the richest heritage in the world.
quantitative measures with qualitative outcomes playing
a trivial role. We do not value the worth of shaping In order to understand the colonial system of
a long-term vision for the most important need of the education, we must briefly dwell on the ideology,
society. As a consequence, our course of action concept and implications of colonization:
determining every aspect of the education system
(curriculum, teachers, students) is The process of colonization involves
directed by a myopic vision for the Schools within an ever- one nation or territory taking
future. Seldom the school has aggressive corporate control of another nation or
introduced a course teaching us territory either through the use of
how to resist oppression or how to
culture are reduced to force or by acquisition. According
value our own history and culture new investment to expert opinion and research, as
or for that matter how to work opportunities, just as a by-product of colonization, the
collectively for the welfare of the students represent a colonizing nation implements its
humanity. These are imparted as own form of schooling within their
intangible lessons always secondary
captive market and new colonies. Two scholars on colonial
to courses rendering partial opportunities for profits. education, Gail P. Kelly and Philip
knowledge about a foreign history G. Altbach, help define the process
and language at the cost of undermining and devaluing as an attempt “to assist in the consolidation of foreign
our own culture, history and language specific subjects. rule.” Often the implementation of a new education
system leaves those who are colonized with a lack of
The underlying values of the current system of identity and a limited sense of their past. The
education are geared towards a single pronged goal of indigenous history and customs once practiced and
achieving accelerated economic growth by producing a observed slowly slip away. The colonized become
breed of degree-holders (not scholars) to take the hybrids of two vastly different cultural systems. Colonial
country full-throttle in achieving its dream of being a education creates a blurring that makes it difficult to
‘progressive’ ‘developed’ nation. By steadily multiplying differentiate between the new, enforced ideas of the
the number of education institutions each year, we colonizers and the formerly accepted native practices.
falsely believe the realization of this dream could come Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, author of Decolonising the Mind,
through and yet it is not even remotely happening. believes that “education, far from giving people the
Not only the literacy rate staggers low but also the confidence in their ability and capacities to overcome
status of employment opportunities, despite the obstacles or to become masters of the laws governing
mushrooming schools, colleges and business institutions external nature as human beings tends to make them
all over. feel their inadequacies and their ability to do anything
about the condition of their lives”.
The Colonial spill over: Our present day In short,
schooling system is one of the many (but most I. Colonization existed to exploit abundant natural
important in the order of destructive leftovers) resources in order to feed European and North

3
ibid

10 COVER STORY
American consumerism. Not only a transformation m u s t c o m p e t e . P i t c h i n g c h i l d
II. In order for the colonizers to against child, schooling reinforces
exploit for labor they first
in the curriculum is the notion that life is a huge race
needed to establish themselves needed but more against every other individual and
a s t h e a u t h o r i t y. B e c a u s e importantly a critical shift if one wants to win, they better be
authority traditionally rested in in the collective attitude ready to fight against and crush
the hands of community leaders everybody else.2
or those well-versed with
and vision towards
indigenous knowledge and education is required. The purpose of education has been
wisdom, the colonizers needed reduced to being well equipped to
to begin dismantling cultural traditions. The main grab the best job opportunity from the very limited
tool for doing this was the colonial school. pool of available prospects. Higher learning goals,
III. The colonial school was set up to instill the values learning to be a better human and working towards
and practices of the colonizers on the indigenous the collective growth of the society, have been
people so that the indigenous people would open marginalized. The educational institutions of our country
up their land and their minds to market follow an isolationist curriculum. If one wants to be a
economies. In order to establish control over these doctor, she/he will only study medicine and cannot
economies, the colonizers had to first establish pursue any social science/ humanities or arts course in
control over the socialization of the people. As a the formal setting of the medical university. Imagine
result, the colonial schools began socializing the those who pursue the world’s noblest profession are
children in ways that conflicted with their not taught the magnitude and values of the social
traditions. The students were taught to despise responsibility they are about to undertake. Imagine a
their own language. They were taught that nascent nuclear scientist not being formally taught the
everything in their culture was inferior to the social consequences that his expertise could wipe out
colonial culture. Students were taught in school the entire human race. The importance of subjects like
that their beliefs were primitive and superstitious. philosophy, education, religion, and literature is always
As a result, they began to lose faith and respect undermined since they are not ‘in demand’, they do
for the elders as authority figures, and began to not ensure a swift hike on the ladder of material
see the colonizers as the authority. success.

If we analyze our schooling system in the light of the Learning for the sake of learning is alien to our
above, we can easily draw similarities and conclude students. Shilpa Jain and Selena George elucidate this
that we are still holding on to a system of education, fact in their paper ‘Exposing Illusions’, “ not only are
which has nothing to do with our indigenous culture jobs being eliminated due to government and corporate
and forms of learning. down-sizing, but without a ‘jack’ or a ‘donation’ (i.e.,
influence or a bribe), a job is largely unattainable. And
g Our schools do not teach us to be a member of since schooling has denied youth knowledge and
our local community/society. practice of traditional livelihoods — or has conditioned
g We learn to read, write and speak things that them to believe that such activities were below them
don’t fit in our indigenous knowledge system/life. — they are left with few other options to sustain
g With the disappearance of traditional culture, the themselves.
knowledge that once enabled us to be self-reliant
has also gone. Thus, for many, schooling has failed to deliver on the
g We are painfully dependent on the First World promise of ‘better life chances.’ In fact, the statistical
countries to provide us with such everyday needs and positive co-relation between education and
as food, clothing, and shelter. employment/equity/poverty alleviation/health/democracy
g The system of rote learning (memorizing subjects is seriously questionable in the face of grassroots
usually alien to inherent way of life) has replaced realities. What is evident is that over the past 50
the local participatory and age-old systems of years, growing levels of school enrollment/completion
learning through the local environment (family- have been accompanied by overall increases in
oriented methods practiced in the past) inequality, unemployment, poverty, vulnerability (political,
economic, social, physical).”
Schools as institutions of career training:
The culture of schooling drills into each child that The content of the curriculum does not
there is only one definition of success — to make it teach us about our own culture, history
to the top of the status-power-control ladder and or language: Helena Norberg-Hodge beautifully
dominate others. Of course, to get to the top, one

COVER STORY 11
 Fatima Suraiya Bajia
Looking at the World
Through an Unschooled
Perspective
TRANSLATED & EDITED BY
AZIZ KABANI & AMBREENA AZIZ

Fatima Suraiya Bajia is a famous playwright who has

written many endearing television serials. Her plays are
as popular as she is throughout the country and people
from all generations love, admire and respect her equally.
Besides being a household name she is an educator, a social
worker and a person with a treasure of wisdom, indigenous
knowledge and a wit to match. She has never attended
a formal school, all her education took place at home. She graced the EDucate! team in person and narrated her lifestory,
her long association with Pakistan Television as a playwright and her powerful views on education and culture, society
and role of family in the upbringing of children.

Bajia on her Education & Childhood to be a normal human being? We were ten brothers
I never attended a formal school. The elders of the and sisters and we never fought with each other
family decided that all my education should take place because we never saw any quarrels within the family.
at home. The teacher lived in our home where we Our elders never used physical force to express their
were taught discipline along with our education. My anger or dissatisfaction. I remember when I was eight,
family was settled in Hyderabad Deccan, which was the mathematics teacher hit me with a pencil. I started
then a paramount cultural center in undivided India. crying as I had neither been beaten nor shouted at.
Although there were a few prominent schools e.g. Saint My grandparents learnt about the incident. Later my
Josephs School, although my grandfather could afford grandfather called the teacher, thanked him profusely
the fee (which was Rs. 20), he still preferred to for teaching me, handed him his salary and told him
educate us at home. These schools were primarily that it was not customary in our family to beat or
attended by pampered girls from the elite families of frighten children. Very discreetly the teacher was told
nawabs and jagirdars. From the beginning we were to leave. The point is that since I have never
taught self-sufficiency, although we employed 60 to 70 experienced beatings and shouting during my childhood
servants, we were not allowed to ask anyone of them I would not beat my children. All this is part of one’s
for water. There was a huge difference between girls upbringing including cleanliness and hygiene. Infact in
of the elite families and us. My grandfather felt that Islam cleanliness is integral to faith. It is the duty of
if we attended such schools, we would suffer from an parents and adults of the family to take care of
inferiority complex, but since proper upbringing is not children’s nutrition and hygiene as all these factors
possible without coaching, he decided to carry out our influence their personality. Parents should also make
education at home. Nevertheless, we were taught all sure that their children are taught proper table
the subjects that were taught in the formal Hyderabad manners. When eating with our parents and family,
schools with separate teachers for every subject e.g. children were always told to put aside some food for
calligraphy and maths. In those days there was no other living beings. This is not a religious obligation
concept of girls having careers. The only future for but our moral duty. Similarly, there are certain ways
them was to get married and take good care of their of extending material support to the less privileged. We
family and home. should give away only those things which we want for
ourselves. If I give away clothes that are torn and
A child’s upbringing is greatly influenced by the family’s shabby that is not genuine generosity. I should give
attitude. If the family members nurture jealousy and away clothes that I wear and like not some dirty, torn
grudge against each other, how can a child grow up ones. This is Islamic morality and was the tradition in

12
our household. Our family was not wealthy but we notion that just because I gained respect and popularity
were never short of money. through television, everyone should salute me. I don’t
like people who expect that kind of acknowledgement.
Even though we lived in a huge mansion before We should get rid of our egos and concentrate on
Partition (pre 1947) I was very familiar with the way work.
the poor lived. As children my grandfather made us
live in small mud huts in the backyard so we could Bajia on her television serials and media
experience how the poor people lived in such I have not written any TV play for the last 5 years.
conditions. We even had to help the labourers in I feel my hands have been tied. Several people from
building those huts. This experience came in handy TV call me with love and respect, in fact, the new
when we moved to a small house after Partition; it MD has even appointed me advisor of PTV but since
did not make any difference to our lives. In my my advice is ignored I am disheartened. It is also
opinion upbringing is the most important part of one’s disheartening to see so many senseless plays being
life. televised nowadays. With the proliferation of private
channels, money laundering and commercialization have
Bajia on her Career become the name of the game in place of producing
The lack of a formal education has not been an quality, meaningful programs that carry a social message.
impediment in my life or career because I always had Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I am not
self-confidence which came from my upbringing and it presently doing any work for television. What difference
made all the difference. I don’t claim to be an would a sensible 50-minute drama make amongst the
extraordinary person; there are so many bajiyas in our plethora of so many useless ones.
society. I know so many mothers who earned money
by sewing in order to provide an education for their The print media has a similar problem. When you
daughters some of whom became doctors, engineers etc. open the newspaper, you find vulgarity and violence.
I know so many widowers who have taken very good You will not find a news item that says for example
care of their children after the death of their wives. that SEF has done good work by conducting a session
The society does not lack good people but these good to raise awareness about social issues. Our media needs
people are not given importance in the society any to highlight our strengths. They are responsible for
longer. I give great importance to the dignity of work. playing a constructive role in society. But why would
If you trust your own abilities you will never feel they do so? Why would they mention that a poor boy
inferior or undervalue any skill or work. I have had studying in a government school in Malir has secured
many different jobs throughout my life; I embroidered a top position? I believe there is a serious need to
clothes and sold them, I sold sarees and was associated create alternative media that would help move us
with the textile sector of the country for a long time. towards a cultural revival. Lack of education is one of
Then I became a playwright. I believe work itself is a the reasons for a lot of problems in our society.
source of dignity and respect. I am strongly against the
Bajia on the role of education in society
Most people in our society believe that by getting an
MBA degree one can secure a well-paid job in a multi-
national etc. This system dominated by business
administration or computer sciences, which are
considered to be the signs of progress, should be based
on morality and be people-centred rather than money-
centred. We need to learn to be public-centred in our
approach. It is the self-interest of the world’s economic
and political powers that underlies the technological

The lack of a formal

education has not been
an impediment in my life
or career because I
always had self-confidence
which came from my
upbringing and it made
all the difference.

13
 and engineering progress. For example, today a new knowledge) wants a child of grade 6 to know funeral
computer comes in the market costing thousands or prayers by heart. What possible significance does it hold
millions of rupees; after few months, a modified version for a child so young? These things need to change. A
is launched and one is forced to purchase it, spending child born into a Muslim family is given basic religious
more money, because the previous one is obsolete. This orientation at home where he is taught about Khana-
vicious cycle of technology extracts more and more e-Kaba (Highest place of worship for Muslims), Mecca,
money from us and hinders our process of positive Medina and prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
development and progress and is pure
commercialization. To get rid of this dependency on Bajia on parents & teachers
the developed world to provide us with technologically Parents should ensure that their children are not being
advanced products at extremely high prices, we should sent to teachers who just take salary but lack morals.
learn to become self-sufficient. Education needs to You can see for yourself what is happening in the
eliminate this darkness by raising awareness about these highly reputable schools here. Teachers are more
issues. It is alright to acknowledge the importance of concerned with the way they dress and look rather
modern technology but we have to achieve the than the actual purpose of coming to school. In
advancement on OUR OWN – how long will we be government schools lack of cleanliness is deplorable. A
dependent on THEM? teacher will either be found with his feet on the table
or lying down. I remember seeing a college principal
When our education system is reviewed and the and her attire and makeup shocked everyone present
curriculum revised to make it more appropriate to our because it was not appropriate. Simplicity should be
own cultural and social needs, then only can we move mirrored in the personality of someone who is
forward towards a social change. We should stop associated with the sacred job of teaching.
burdening our children with backbreaking school bags
and look for ways to make the whole education Parents have become negligent about the upbringing
process more meaningful in terms of quality rather than and education of their children. They do not pay
quantity. regular visits to the school. We need to change this
lax attitude and there are ways to do it. Those parents
Bajia on religion & morality who care about their children’s education and well-
A child’s religious education starts at home. At school, being should be brought together in a forum; I have
at best, it is only ethics that is taught if it’s a good met many such good people while I was teaching.
school. Religion and morality are closely linked and we There are parents who bother about their children’s
cannot separate the two. Children should be taught progress and make regular inquiries about their
ethics according to their age. They can be told performance. Parents should participate in their
inspirational stories of Ibrahim bin Adum or Rabia children’s education at all levels, they should be
Basri only when they are able to comprehend their full regularly called to schools, no matter to which socio-
meaning. In our society the alim (one who possesses economic background they belong, to participate in
discussing their children’s education and collectively
look for ways to improve the education process.

Bajia on cultural education

Children’s mental growth can be greatly facilitated
through stories, riddles and poetry which are a powerful
tool in helping them learn sounds and alphabets as
well. There is a dire need to impart such knowledge
through reviving the oral culture in order to make
them more eloquent. As children, we were taught
Iqbal’s poem parinday ki fariyad (The Bird’s Complaint),

O the one who confined me make me free

A silent prisoner I am, earn my blessings free
(The Bird’s Complaint)

14
20 to 30 birds were brought to our house and kept in Wisdom (danai) is needed along with knowledge. For
a cage; this developed very strong feelings about the acquiring wisdom you do not need to read a particular
birds particularly about their being imprisoned in a book but when books are complemented by the
cage. We all pleaded to release those birds. That was experience of life wisdom is created. Understanding life
the precise purpose of bringing those birds to our is real wisdom. People today have knowledge but they
house while we were taught the poem. lack wisdom and to attain that we will have to make
serious efforts. Take the example of the legendary love
During the training programs given to our teachers we tales of Balochistan. They are so gripping that they
should also guide them to teach these valuable things floor any contemporary writer. These stories are
to children. Oral literature has not been transferred to produced by Balochis who are considered illiterate and
our younger generation because there is a tendency to backward. The original Arabic version of the poem
emphasize on materialistic achievements rather than Laila Majno is outstanding. It depicts that love uplifts
the academic strength. It is a travesty that our schools the body, it urges you to come out of the prison of
have marginalized such a treasure of literature. I believe the body because that love takes you to God. Laila
that local knowledge still exists at the grassroots Majnoo is one of the first romantic tales of the world.
community level. Take the example of Sindhi fil badi
(extempore) poetry program on TV. Children should Bajia on the present and future
be taught that language so that they can also I think Pakistan stands on the verge of complete
participate in such culture promoting activities. It is breakdown. If we do not take the necessary steps now
important for children to learn poetry as it not only we will run out of time to reverse the situation. I
brings rhythm in speech but also requires a knowledge believe education can play a key role in bringing about
of vocabulary and an inherent cultural ability to that social awareness and consequently a social change.
decipher and interpret literature. Parents and teachers Our society is becoming increasingly materialistic. What
can work together to revive and convey this cultural we are witnessing today is the height of vulgarity and
and literary heritage to people. We can use audiotapes lavishness; they do not affect me and my individuality
if the storyteller cannot go to every school in person. because my upbringing has taught me resistance. I
In my personal experience whenever I tell stories both believe that every individual manifests the whole
children and elders listen with equal fascination. universe thus I am the universe. Why should I
Literature is important to learn. For example without consider myself inferior just because I don’t have a
poetry you cannot read prose (nasar) properly whether large house or I don’t own an expensive watch? Why
it is in Urdu or English. should I bother? It is important that every individual
develops the pride that he/she possesses the universe
Lack of focus towards this indigenous form of within himself and understand that as individuals we
education has created a vacuum in our culture and it have significance.
has allowed western literature to thrive instead. Western
civilization considers itself so superior that it wants to I think we all will have to work from the grassroots
dictate everything but that myth has now been level. We have to start work on different fronts
shattered. Harry Potter has appeal for us because we simultaneously. We not only have to revive the moral,
don’t have a clue that the actual concept of this spiritual and ethical basis of schooling but also the
popular tale comes from our very own myths and economic side of it. The colonial school has not yet
legends. Since we possess little or no knowledge about died. It is alive and thriving in our system. Schools
our cultural myths, Westerners take advantage of this alone cannot address the issue of morality. This can
fact and produce Harry Potters, which become roaring only be done through a strong cultural partnership
successes throughout the world. The whole philosophy between the school and society. That partnership would
of Walt Disney is based on our stories such as kalila mean a good upbringing and the practices in schools
wa damna or alf laila wa lail etc. Just take the example complementing rather than negating the upbringing at
of ikhwan-us-safa. If such tales are narrated and passed home. For example if children are taught cooperation
on then believe me even the leadership will come back at home and competition in schools, you can imagine
to its senses. Take the example of qisa chahar darvesh the outcome.
(the story of 4 saints). Whenever I read it I find it
very relevant to what is going on in our society today. Young people like you need to invest your energy and
The Farsi stories of Amir Khusro are amazing. These intellect in ridding the society of all these ailments.
stories were written 900 years ago and they still hold There is no dearth of opportunities to do good work.
true for our current situation. Children should interact If one is committed to make a difference, it can start
with these things. from anywhere.

15
 R E T H I N K I N G
EDUCATION

Modern
Education
Increasing Knowledge or Ignorance?
HELENA NORBERG-HODGE

N
o one can deny the value of real education – the widening ‘Western-style of education’) has
and enrichment of knowledge. But today education has changed all of that. For the
become something quite different. It isolates children from majority of the year in Western
their culture and from nature, training them instead to become as well as developing countries
narrow specialists and urban consumers. children spend around eight
hours a day sitting at desks
There is a great need to pay attention to the actual curriculum in memorizing information that will
schools today. In the West there has been a move towards more prepare them for ‘getting ahead’
alternative styles of education. However, most alternative schools in an unsustainable, competitive
mainly address the mode of teaching – the style in which the economic system. With
curriculum is presented. This is extremely important; however, there conventional development this
is relatively little change in what is being taught. Many in the field type of ‘education’ has been
of environmental education have spread around the world.
begun to address this issue, however Globalisation is now speeding up
we must extend the analysis to all this process. Children all over
areas, including history, biology, arts the world are being forced to
and languages. We must make room attend school away from their
in education once again for the community and the natural
fundamentals of life: how to get environment. The focus is on
along with others, respect and trust memorization of distant facts and
oneself, survive and prosper using figures, while knowledge relevant
primarily local resources, maintain to the local culture and
cultural integrity and honour environment is disregarded
diversity. entirely.
HELENA NORBERG-HODGE
Helena Norberg-Hodge is founder and Before there was a structured system Education vs. Learning
director of the International Society for called ‘education’, children in all in Ladakh
Ecology and Culture (ISEC), which runs cultures grew up learning the skills
programs in four continents aimed at
strengthening ecological diversity and
they needed to survive and succeed What has happened in Ladakh
community, with a particular emphasis on by observing and participating in is a striking example of how the
local food and farming. She is the family and community life. Modern imposition of modern, Western-
author of the inspirational classic, Ancient education (also can be called
Futures: Learning from Ladakh. style education has eroded

16
cultural and individual self- The global educational in school can never be of real
esteem, decreased self-reliance, use to them in Ladakh’s culture
increased dependence on distant
system is making us all and economy. They learn from
governments and corporations, poorer by teaching people books written by people who
and set the stage for increased around the world to use have never set foot in Ladakh,
competition, conflict and the same industrial who know nothing about
violence. Modern schooling acts resources, ignoring those growing food at 12,000 feet or
almost as a blindfold, preventing about building houses adapted to
children from seeing the very
of their own environment. Ladakh’s climate and topography
context in which they live. They from local materials.
leave school unable to use their living world. It gave children an
own resources, unable to intuitive awareness that allowed Undermining Self-Esteem,
function in their own world. them, as they grew older, to use Encouraging Competition
resources in an effective and
With the exception of religious sustainable way. This situation is not unique to
training in the monasteries, Ladakh. In every corner of the
Ladakh’s traditional culture had None of that knowledge is world today, the process called
no separate process called provided in the modern school. ‘education’ is based on the same
‘education’. Instead, education Children are trained to become assumptions and the same
was the product of a person’s specialists in a technological, Eurocentric model. The focus is
intimate relationship with their rather than ecological, society. on faraway facts and figures, on
community and their ecosystem. School is a place to forget ‘universal’ knowledge. The books
Children learned from traditional skills and worse, to propagate information that is
grandparents, family and friends look down on them. meant to be appropriate for the
and from the natural world. entire planet. But since only a
Helping with the sowing, for Modern education first came to kind of knowledge that is far
instance, they would learn that Ladakhi villages in the 1970s. removed from specific ecosystems
on one side of the village it was Today there are several hundred and cultures can be universally
a little warmer, on the other schools. The basic curriculum is applicable, what children learn is
side a little colder. From their a poor imitation of that taught essentially synthetic, divorced
own experience children would in other parts of India, which from the living context. If they
come to distinguish between itself is an imitation of Victorian go on to higher education, they
different strains of barley and British education. There is may learn about building houses,
the specific growing conditions almost nothing Ladakhi about it. but these houses will be of
each strain preferred. They Once, while visiting a classroom concrete and steel, the universal
learned to recognise even the in Leh, I saw a drawing in a box. So too, if they study
tiniest wild plant and how to child’s textbook of a bedroom agriculture, they will learn about
use it, and how to pick out a that could have been in London industrial farming: chemical
particular animal on a faraway or New York. It showed a pile fertilizers and pesticides, large
mountain slope. They learned of neatly folded handkerchiefs on machinery and hybrid seeds.
about connection, process and a four-poster bed and gave
change, about the intricate web instructions as to which drawer The global educational system is
of fluctuating relationships in the of the vanity unit to keep them making us all poorer by teaching
natural world around them. in. Many other schoolbooks were people around the world to use
equally absurd and inappropriate. the same industrial resources,
For generation after generation, For homework in one class, ignoring those of their own
Ladakhis grew up learning how pupils were supposed to figure e n v i r o n m e n t . I n t h i s w a y,
to provide themselves with out the angle of incidence that education is creating artificial
clothing and shelter; how to the leaning tower of Pisa makes scarcity and inducing
make shoes out of yak skin and with the ground. Another time competition.
robes from the wool of sheep, they were struggling with English
how to build houses out of mud translations of The Iliad and In Ladakh and elsewhere,
and stone. Education was Wordsworth. modern education not only
location-specific and nurtured an ignores local resources, but worse
intimate relationship with the Most of the skills children learn

R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION 17
 still, robs children of their self- to be just as good as the next course so as to provide training
esteem. Everything in school one. In a group of ten children in regional sustainable agriculture,
promotes the global consumer of quite different ages, there will architecture and appropriate
culture and, as a direct naturally be much more co- technology would further a real
consequence, makes children operation than in a group of ten decentralization of production for
think of themselves and their twelve-year-olds. basic needs. Rather than
traditions as inferior. encouraging specialization for a
Institutional education also pulls competitive, ‘jobless growth’
A few years ago, Ladakhi people away from agriculture economy, children would be
schoolchildren were asked to into the city, where they become educated for diverse
imagine their region in the year dependent on the money environments, cultures and
2000. A little girl wrote, “Before economy. Traditionally, there was economic systems. This does not
1974, Ladakh was not known to no such thing as unemployment. imply that the flow of
the world. People were But in the modern sector there information from other cultures
uncivilised. There was a smile is now intense competition for a would be curtailed; in fact
on every face. They did not very limited number of paying cultural exchange would be an
need money. Whatever they had jobs, principally in the important part of education.
was enough for them.” In government. As a result,
another essay a child wrote, unemployment is already a In much of the ‘developing
“They sing their own songs like serious problem. world’ formal education
they feel disgrace, but they sing continues to be based on the
English and Hindi songs with colonial model – with rote-
great interest... But in these days Future generations need learning in the language of the
we find that maximum people colonial power, with cultural,
and persons didn’t wear our own the knowledge and skills historical and other information
dress, like feeling disgrace.” necessary not simply to coming from abroad, and with
survive, but to repair the training in skills relevant to the
In the traditional culture damaged world we will export economy rather than the
children benefited not only from local or regional economy. In
leave them.
continuous contact with both most countries, this form of
mother and father, but also from education filters out any
a way of life in which different information from around the
age groups constantly interacted. Modern education has brought world about widespread social,
It was quite natural for older some obvious benefits, like ecological and economic
children to feel a sense of improvement in the literacy rate. problems in the West, leaving
responsibility for the younger It has also enabled the Ladakhis idealized myths about
ones. A younger child in turn to be more informed about the ‘development’ and modern urban
looked up with respect and forces at play in the world life intact. We urgently need
admiration, seeking to imitate outside. In so doing, however, it information campaigns that
the older ones. Growing up was has divided Ladakhis from each demystify the Western consumer
a natural, non-competitive other and the land and put culture and that provide people
learning process. them on the lowest rung of the with facts and figures about the
global economic ladder. crises facing the planet. This
Now, children are split into means that the way forward is
different age groups at school. Shifting Direction in not one of isolation and
This sort of leveling has a very Education separation. Instead, better
destructive effect. By artificially communication between North
creating social units in which, We urgently need to change and South can strengthen the
everyone is the same age, the both; how and what we teach voices of sanity – the voices of
ability of children to help and our children. Future generations those who are working for a
to learn from each other is need the knowledge and skills world where diverse cultures
greatly reduced. Instead, necessary not simply to survive, have the power to teach their
conditions for competition are but to repair the damaged world children what they need to
automatically created, because we will leave them. Shifting know to live and work in a
each child is put under pressure truly sustainable way.

18 R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION
 UR On...

Peter McLaren
An Interview for
EDucate!
MASHHOOD RIZVI

Peter McLaren is one of the most influential representatives of critical pedagogy, both nationally and
internationally. A major exponent of the work of the late Paulo Freire, McLaren is considered one of the
world’s leading critical educational theorists. Professor McLaren began his teaching career in his hometown of
Toronto, Canada. Teaching in an inner–city school in one of the most highly populated housing projects in
the country. McLaren completed his Ph.D at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of
Toronto, in 1983. In 1985 McLaren worked with Henry Giroux to create the Center for Education and Cultural
Studies, at Miami University of Ohio, where he served as both Associate Director and Director. While at
Miami he was awarded the title of Renowned Scholar in Residence, School of Education and Allied Professions.
Professor McLaren is the author and editor of over 35 books. He specializes in critical pedagogy, multicultural
education, critical ethnography and critical theory. He began teaching at the University of California in 1993,
where he serves as Professor, Division of Urban Schooling, Graduate School of Education and Information
Studies. Professor McLaren lectures worldwide and his work has been translated into 15 languages. He became
the inaugural recipient of the Paulo Freire Social Justice Award on April 26, 2002 during a ceremony at
Chapman University.

McLaren has been one of the major inspirational forces behind EDucate! In this interview he expresses his
views on progressive and critical education, critical pedagogy, teachers as transformative intellectuals and on
the role of schools in the struggle for social justice.

19
 Q:
What do you feel about the current operates from the premise that education is primarily
state of educational criticism across the a sub–sector of the economy.
w o r l d ? We h e a r t e r m s s u c h a s
democratic schooling and progressive schooling?
Are they for real? What do these look like? Q: Can you be more specific in terms of what
distinguishes progressive educators from more
conservative ones?
Well in order to answer your question adequately, I
will have to specify the context in which such The challenge of progressive educators is vigorous and
‘democratic’ and ‘progressive’ education takes place. varied and difficult to itemize. Unhesitatingly embraced
The educational left is finding itself without a viable by most liberals is, of course, a concern to bring about
critical agenda for challenging (in the classrooms and social justice. This is certainly to be applauded.
schools across the world) the effects and consequences
of the new capitalism. For years now we have been Mainly, I would say that liberal or progressive education
helplessly witnessing the progressive and unchecked has attempted with varying degrees of success to create
merging of pedagogy with the productive processes ‘communities of learners’ in classrooms, to bridge the
within advanced capitalism. Capitalism has been gap between student culture and the culture of the
naturalized as commonsense reality – even as a part school, to engage in cross-cultural understandings, to
of nature itself – while the term ‘democratic education’ integrate multicultural content and teaching across the
has, in my mind, come to mean adjusting students to curriculum, to develop techniques for reducing racial
the logic of the capitalist marketplace. Today capital prejudice; they create conflict resolution strategies,
is in command of the world order as never before. challenge Eurocentric teaching and learning; they
What we are facing is educational neoliberalism. challenge the meritocratic foundation of public policy.
Further, they strive to create teacher-generated
Q: What does this term i.e. ‘neoliberalism’ mean
in the context of the critical educational
narratives as a way of analyzing teaching from a
‘transformative’ perspective, to improve academic
tradition? achievement in culturally diverse schools, to affirm and
utilize multiple perspectives and ways of teaching and
As my colleagues, Dave Hill and Mike Cole, have l e a r n i n g, a n d t o d e - c o n s t r u c t t h e c u r r i c u l u m .
noted, neoliberalism advocates a number of pro-capitalist
positions: that the state should privatize ownership (of
the means) of production, including private sector Q: Your own work has been identified with the
tradition of critical pedagogy. What is critical
involvement in welfare, social, educational and other pedagogy?
state services (such as the prison industry); sell
labor–power for the purposes of creating a ‘flexible’ and Well, there is no unitary conception of critical
poorly regulated labor market; advance a corporate pedagogy. There are as many critical pedagogies as
managerialist model for state services; allow the needs there are critical educators, although there are certainly
of the economy to dictate the principal aims of school major points of intersection and commonality. There
education; suppress the teaching of oppositional and are the writings about critical pedagogy that occur in
critical thought that would challenge the rule of the academy, which are many and varied. And there
capital; support a curriculum and pedagogy that is the dimension of critical pedagogy that is most
produces compliant, pro–capitalist workers; and make important – that which emerges organically from the
sure that schooling and education ensure the ideological daily interactions between teachers and students. In
and economic reproduction that benefits the ruling short, critical pedagogy is designed to serve the purpose
class. of both empowering teachers and teaching for
empowerment. Within this perspective, pedagogy and
The business agenda for schools can be seen in culture are seen as intersecting fields of struggle, and
growing public–private partnerships, the burgeoning the contradictory
business sponsorships for schools, business ‘mentoring’ character of teaching The challenge of progressive
and corporatization of the curriculum, and calls for as it currently defines educators is vigorous and
national standards, regular national tests, voucher the nature of teacher varied and difficult to
systems, accountability schemes, financial incentives for work. Thus the itemize. Unhesitatingly
high performance schools, and ‘quality control’ of purpose of schooling embraced by most liberals
teaching. Schools are encouraged to provide better and everyday classroom is, of course, a concern to
‘value for money’ and must seek to learn from the life is subjected to bring about social justice.
entrepreneurial world of business or risk going into more critical forms of This is certainly to be
receivership. In short, neoliberal educational policy analysis. applauded.

20 UR O n . . .
 working-class movements
As I recall, the term critical pedagogy evolved from worldwide, as well as with We talk in our classrooms
the term radical pedagogy, and I came to associate national liberation struggles about the values of
openness, fairness, social
both terms with the work of my dear friend, Henry against imperialism (and I
justice, compassion, respect
Giroux, whose efforts brought me from Canada to the d o n ’ t m e a n h e r e
for otherness, critical
United States in 1985. I have attempted in recent homogeneous nationalisms but
reasoning, political activism,
years (with varying degrees of success) to introduce the rather those that uphold the
but look at how the
term ‘revolutionary pedagogy’ or ‘revolutionary critical principles of what Aijaz
university treats it
pedagogy’ (after Paula Allman) as a means of redressing Ahmad calls multilingual,
employees, the service
recent attempts to domesticate its practice in school multidenominational,
workers, and the graduate
classrooms and in teacher education programs multiracial political
students who are exploited
throughout. solidarities).
as assistants to the
professors.
Q: Hpedagogy
ow would you define revolutionary
then?
Transformative intellectuals
should be opposed to policies imposed by the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on
A revolutionary critical pedagogy – actively involves ‘undeveloped’ countries because such measures are the
students in the construction of working-class social actual cause of economic underdevelopment.
movements. Because we acknowledge that building Transformative intellectuals should set themselves against
cross-ethnic/racial alliances among the working-class has imperialism and corruption brought about by capitalist
not been an easy task to undertake in recent years, globalization. In my opinion, critical intellectuals, as
critical educators encourage the practice of community insurgent intellectuals, should do more than appeal to
activism and grassroots organization among students, the power elite; in James Petras words they should take
teachers, and workers. They are committed to the idea a stronger stand against the State.
that the task of overcoming existing social antagonisms
can only be accomplished through class struggle, the
road map out of the messy gridlock of historical Q: Can the existing form of schooling system
lead us to a struggle for social justice?
amnesia.
Well, Mashhood schooling, in any shape or form, could

Q: Is critical pedagogy or revolutionary

pedagogy the same as radical education or
only be a means to an end not an end. In so far as
our goal is to create a society where real equality exists
does there exist a significant difference? on an everyday basis, it is impossible to achieve this
within existing capitalist social relations. A challenge
Radical education is wide net term that refers to to the causes of racism, class oppression, and sexism
everything from liberal progressive approaches to (and their association with the exploitation of living
curriculum design, policy analysis, educational leadership labor), demands that critical teachers and cultural
and classroom pedagogical approaches to more radical workers re-examine capitalist schooling in the contextual
approaches. You will find many approaches to critical specificity of global capitalist relations. Here the
education that are anti-corporate, anti-privatization, but development of a critical consciousness should enable
you won’t find many people positioning their work as students to theorize and critically reflect upon their
anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist. It is incoherent to social experiences, and also to translate critical
conceptualize critical pedagogy, as do many of its knowledge into political activism.
current exponents, without an enmeshment with the
political and anti-capitalist struggle.
Q: Another challenge that I have been faced
with is the immediate rejection by teachers

Q: Can you share your views on teachers as

transformative intellectuals? What needs to
who claim that these concepts look good and
work well only on paper or that these only work
be done in this regard? in theory but in real life situations there is no
classroom application for such intellectual jargon?
This is an important question. I admire Giroux’s What would you say to that?
important call for teachers to develop themselves into
transformative intellectuals. To the question of what is Well, that is a fair question. In most public schools,
to be done, I follow Gramsci in his concept of and in most private schools for that matter, there are
developing organic intellectuals. I see the challenge of no provisions for classroom applications of these
transformative (organic) intellectuals today as developing concepts. There are some courageous alternative schools
strategic international alliances with anti-capitalist and that are trying to employ revolutionary critical

UR O n . . . 21
 pedagogical imperatives into need to make the university mirror the social justice
We need to educate the curriculum, to be sure. that many professors talk about in their classrooms.
political workers to create
But the public schools could
sites for critical
consciousness both within
the schools and outside of
not function within capitalism
if revolutionary critical Q: That would require a great deal of tolerance
and courage?
educators were to challenge
them in urban and rural
the very foundations upon Absolutely! I want to give you an interesting example.
spaces where people are
which they rest. Recently, in a talk I gave at a university in the
suffering and struggling to
survive, and we need to Midwest, when I talked about trying to establish more
discover ways of creating a
sustainable environment.
Q: Can
this?
you expand on links between the university and social movements for
justice that operate outside of the university there was
a lot of opposition from the professors in the audience.
O.K. What I am trying to When I called for socialist principles and practices to
say is that revolutionary critical pedagogy is a dialectical resist corporate principles and practices, I was called
approach that works with both the concepts of reform ‘totalitarian’ by one well-known professor. When I talked
and transformation. Reform efforts are important so about the problems with capitalism, and the relationship
that resources are distributed equally among schools in between the university and the corporate state, many
every neighborhood, so that curricula include the voices professors became very offended. They did not like me
of ethnic minorities, so that there is equality of access using the word ‘state’ because, to them, it sounded too
and outcome in education. But we also look towards ‘oppressive’. They told me that they preferred to think
the transformation of capitalist social relations – at of universities as places of hope. When I replied that
least keep that goal in sight – and keep working in “hope does not retreat from the world, but radiates
whatever capacity we can towards its realization. While outwards into the world and gives us the strength for
such a transformation is unlikely in our lifetime, or a principled opposition to the imperialist practices that
even in our children’s lifetime, it is important to keep surround us”, there were some very angry statements
the dream of another world – a better world. And, we from the professors.
need to believe that a better world is possible.
Q: That is where the role of teachers as
Q: So what you are saying is that schools
suffer heavily from moral, intellectual and
transformative intellectuals becomes even
more critical?
ethical contradiction and to a great extent
hypocrisy? Yes. Under these circumstances, I see the role of
teachers as that of transforming the world, not just
Yes, Mashhood absolutely. The problem is that while describing or interpreting the world and this means
schools should serve as the moral witness for the social understanding the ideological dimension of teacher work
world in which they are housed, they are today little and the class-based nature of exploitation within the
more than functional sites for business and higher capitalist economy and its educational and legal
education partnerships. The corporate world basically apparatuses. For me, the most immediate challenge is
controls the range and scope of the programs, and, of to discover ways of feeding the hungry, and providing
course, military research is being conducted on shelter to the homeless and bringing literacy to those
campuses. As Ramin Farahmandpur and I have argued, who can’t read or write.
universities are now becoming corporations. They
embrace the corporate model. We need to educate political workers to create sites
for critical consciousness both within the schools and
We talk in our classrooms about the values of outside of them in urban and rural spaces where
openness, fairness, social justice, compassion, respect for people are suffering and struggling to survive, and we
otherness, critical reasoning, political activism, but look need to discover ways of creating a sustainable
at how the university treats it employees, the service environment. My work in critical pedagogy is really the
workers, and the graduate students who are exploited performative register for class struggle. It sets as its
as assistants to the professors. Many of the campus goal the decolonization of subjectivity; the reclamation
workers in the cafeterias and in the warehouses and of public life under the relentless assault of the
in the offices are paid wages on which they can barely corporatization, privatization and bussinessification of
subsist, and they have few, if any, health benefits and the lifeworld (which includes the corporate-academic-
little job security. Graduate students assistants often complex).
teach most of the classes but are paid very small
wages, while the professors earn robust salaries. We

22 UR O n . . .
 In the terminology of Paulo
Freire, the productive
ground for the operation of
liberatory praxis will be
found in the ‘generative
themes’ that are truly lived
in the ‘limit-situations’ of
the people.

Q: How would you sum up the challenges and

possibilities?
beneficiaries of the favors of the magnanimous and
‘advanced’. We know this to be a lie. From the belly
of this lie, the effects of imperialism worldwide are
Well, the challenge is to create an authentic socialist recycled and re-presented as proof of the need for
movement that is egalitarian and participatory – not intervention by transnational corporate elites.
merely a different form of class rule. This means Dismantling imperialism means destroying this unholy
struggling against the forces of imperial-induced marriage of capitalist accumulation and neocolonial
privatization, not just in education, but in all of social violence. This is only a vision at this particular
life. In this imperially dominated world, I can say that historical moment, but it is one that we must continue
I live in the ‘belly of the beast’. The challenge is to to defend.
support collective struggles for social change, to support
civil society in breaking away from the chains of the Q: A n ymessage you would like to
economic superpowers, and to support a positive role communicate to the readers of EDucate!
for the national state to play – all of this requires
steadfastness and focus. Yes. I would like to say that in regards to our
discussions, no impatient ultimatums can be delivered
The struggle for co-operation, sustainable development, to the masses from the sidelines. Critique is essential,
and social justice is a struggle that we should not leave but it must arise from the popular ‘common sense’. In
solely to social movements outside the sphere of the terminology of Paulo Freire, the productive ground
education. Educators need to be at the heart of this for the operation of liberatory praxis will be found in
struggle. This is a very difficult proposition to make the ‘generative themes’ that are truly lived in the ‘limit-
here in the United States. In my travels around the situations’ of the people. In the face of such an
country, professors in schools of education are inclined intensification of global capitalist relations, rather than
to support the status quo because of the benefits that a shift in the nature of capital itself, we need to
it has provided for them. Yet currently, the top one- develop a critical pedagogy capable of engaging
half of one percent of the population of the United everyday life as lived in the midst of global capital’s
States hold about one-third of all wealth in the United tendency towards empire. The idea here is not to
States. We have 31 million poor people, which is adapt students to globalization, but make them critically
approximately the entire population of Canada. We maladaptive, so that they can become change agents
have 3 million people who live on the streets. And I in struggles for social justice.
live in the richest country in the world. This is the
belly of the beast, a beast that in the process of Mashhood: Thank you Peter.
maintaining its great wealth for a few and misery for Peter: Anything for EDucate! As I have stated over
t h e v a s t m a j o r i t y, i s d e s t r o y i n g t h e g l o b e . and over again, it is emerging as a strong tool for
liberation. EDucate! is doing an outstanding job in
As I have argued with Noah de Lissovoy and Ramin advancing the cause of social justice and human dignity
Farahmandpur, struggling against imperialist exploitation and setting the groundwork for the development of
means dismantling a Eurocentric system of cultural what Paulo Freire called conscientization (being critically
valuations that rationalizes globalization as ‘development’ reflective about the self in relation to the social). Your
and ‘progress’, and portrays those who suffer its publication is an inspiration to many who are struggling
violence especially the masses of the South – as the to bring about a better world.

UR O n . . . 23
 Education
in
Pakistan
From Numbers to Learning
WASIF RIZVI

T
he issues of educational access like the rural schools or girls fresh and powerful concepts of
education, have been the focus of a fairly extensive public diversified approaches towards
debate in Pakistan. Since the issues of access are essentially learning is presented in this
quantitative, so the bulk of the discourse is on the statistical analyses paper. These concepts are built
of the situation with politicians and policy-makers gasping in horror on a thought provoking
on the appallingly low numbers of enrolment and literacy. knowledge of the limitation of
traditional schooling in the face
Surprisingly though this debate rarely alludes to the content, of the challenge of an
methodology, or examining the conceptual bases of schooling. Any increasingly complex global
serious thinker in education would know that, these ‘gasps of horror’ society.
could be louder if the condition of education is examined on the
qualitative grounds. Almost the entire system of schooling in Pakistan I d e n t i f y i n g t h e ‘ Re a l
(with the exception of few bold Problem’
innovations) is based on discredited
theories of learning and teaching. With the unique features of high
The indelible damaging effects of level of mismanagement and
practicing these theories on the corruption, the crises faced by
mental and the emotional Pakistani schools is a microcosm
(sometimes even the physical) of a global problem of seemingly
growth of little children are well a paralyzing inability to create,
documented in powerful research introduce, interact around and
studies. Classrooms dominated by utilize new ideas in the fields of
obsessive rote memorization and educational development.
confined to utilizing very few or just Powerful research from fields
WASIF RIZVI one learning tool, the textbook, is such as cognitive sciences,
a familiar suffocating spectacle in our applied linguistics, psychology,
Wasif Rizvi is General Manager Aga schools.
Khan Education Service Pakistan. He has neurological sciences, ecological
also worked as a social-policy sciences, biological sciences,
development consultant. He has two In order to launch a meaningful and social anthropology and semiotics,
post-graduate degrees: a masters degree sustainable challenge to these
in Education from Harvard University and indicates that the way schools
an M.A. in English Literature from Punjab problems, a framework to introduce are configured goes against much
University, Lahore, Pakistan.

24 R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION
of we know about learning — about the diversity The Certificate Syndrome:
of learners, learning styles and learning processes, Schooling has been organized around final results
learning relationships, learning cultures and the and products rather than continuous processes. This
spaces where and conditions under which learning orientation has tended to lead towards approaches
takes place. In the following pages, a broad tied to memorization of a large repertoire of facts
rationale for change in the light of the paramount and routines without necessarily understanding
research and the arguments of the leading experts them. There has been little link between learning
in the field of education is presented. These and the wider context of life and development.
theories and arguments are shaping a fundamental Schooling has been conceived of as taking place
shift in the approaches of school development only in the early years in one’s life, and learning
/improvement. is thought to be complete when one graduates and
receives a diploma i.e., signifying that one is now
The Increasing Inadequacy and ‘educated’.
Inappropriateness of ‘ Yesterday’s
Solutions’: Fostering Control and Indoctrination:
Conclusively discredited theories of Skinnerian
“Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solution.” behaviorism, Piagetian developmental psychology
(Peter Senge) and Darwinistic individualism, still underlie
dominant structure and practice in conventional
Before constructing a sound critique on formal education systems. Schools and the processes of
schooling, it should be clarified that I recognize teaching and learning are predicated on the
the tremendous value and need for organized institutional desire to foster control and discipline.
learning spaces where adults and The effect, as Papert (1993, p.
children can come together but Education systems have 5 5 ) d e s c r i b e s , i s t h a t t h e
argues that such spaces need to
be radically different in terms of
tended to be rigid and institution of School, with its
isolated. Schools have daily lesson plans, fixed
their ideological and philosophical curriculum, standardized tests,
goals and assumptions, structures been conceived of as and other such paraphernalia,
and mechanisms, processes and closed systems, de-linked t e n d s c o n s t a n t l y t o r e d u c e
practice. Some learning spaces from their outside learning to a series of technical
have managed to undertake this
process of transformation,
environments. acts and the teacher to the role
of a technician. In the
however, constituted as such, it framework of this highly
would be both imprecise and inappropriate to use formalized and mechanical environment, Schank
the same term i.e., ‘schooling’, to describe the (1995) argues that the very nature of schooling
experiences linked to these new spaces. Several opposes natural learning.
generalizations can be made concerning how the
institution of schooling has been developed and, in Inflexible and Rigid Learning
many cases, continues to be reproduced around the
world:
Structures:
Education systems have tended to be rigid and
isolated. Schools have been conceived of as closed
Challenging the Basis of Schooling: systems, de-linked from their outside environments.
Schools have been shaped by ideological and The validity of other spaces for learning, other
philosophical traditions of development, which are knowledge systems, and other partners in the
increasingly being challenged. The inter-linked logic learning/teaching process has often been denied.
[s] of colonialism (civil servants, conversion and Most schools have refused to acknowledge that
racial superiority), industrialization and human learners spend more time in the informal
capital theory (workers managers and jobs), environment than they do in schools. The validity
modernization (modern/Western), nation-building of other spaces for learning, other channels of
(national identity and allegiance to the state) and learning (media and environment) other knowledge
globalization (consumerism and competition) have systems, and other partners in the learning/teaching
played significant roles at different points in history, process have often been neglected, and even,
in shaping the values, goals, structure, timing, devalued. Furthermore, there has been very little
processes, and activities of schools. flexibility within the system. It has been organized

R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION 25
 along strict linear levels of education i.e, the stages Promoting Individualism:
approach, with artificial separations such as primary, Learning in the classroom has been seen as a
secondary and tertiary. Schooling takes place within predominantly individualistic activity (Resnick, 1987;
inflexible blocks of time. Abbot, 1995). Competition has been viewed as a
far more powerful motivator than cooperation
Knowledge as Commodity: (Marshall, 1996). Sharing with, assisting and
Schooling has been framed in terms of knowledge collaborating with fellow learners is primarily done
and value transmission. Gardner (1993) describes in a mechanistic, superficial way, with the ultimate
that, “In the outmoded view of learning that goal still competing with a set of individuals. The
dominates our institutions, knowledge is regarded learner has been seen to be sub-ordinate to the
as an objective substance that can be deposited teacher, who is viewed as the omnipotent expert,
directly into people’s minds. Education is seen as with classroom roles largely fixed. The potential of
the process by which knowledge is transferred into learners to learn from other learners, their parents
the learner’s mind, and teaching is seen as the and communities, and in other environments is
packaging of knowledge for efficient transfer.” The rarely explored.
focus has been on teaching rather than supporting
learning and understanding. Learners have been Causing Psychological Impotence:
regarded as ‘empty vessels’ and the range of Schooling is supposed to be the ‘equalizing’ and
knowledge and central experiences that they come empowering force. However, schooling and its
with is hardly acknowledged. claims of meritocracy has been strongly critiqued
and questioned on the basis of
Schooling as a ‘Factory reproducing hierarchical socio-
o f M a s s Pr o d u c t i o n’ : Education is seen as the economic relations (Bowles and
There is no sensitivity for the process by which Gintis, 1976) and reinforcing
diversity of learners. The system knowledge is transferred existing notions around the
has been constructed along the into the learner’s minds, distribution the
of power. Most of
developing countries today,
lines of factory in the tradition
of Fordism (a term coined to
and teaching is seen as have educational systems that
describe the industrial mass the packaging of feature socio-economically-biased
production process of knowledge for efficient different tracks of learning, which
automobiles)(Gardner 1991). transfer. lead to different roles,
Within this framework, learning opportunities and power in
interventions are typically society. Illich has described the
designed for the ‘mean’ learner. There is little feelings of ‘psychological impotence’ in relation to
flexibility for the catering to the specific differences the dominant socio-economic institutions that are
of learners — their individual personalities, culture, cultivated in students. Those who drop-out or are
linguistic, learning styles, family background, forced out of the system are labeled failures and
motivational levels, interests and special needs. leave feeling humiliated, bitter, frustrated, and
Furthermore, the system fails to acknowledge the demoralized. J.P. Naik (1975, p171) has commented
physical, emotional, social and cognitive abilities of on this process at work in India (very applicable
each learner. to us), “The main achievement of this system,
therefore, is to condemn the bulk of children of
C u l t u r a l l y I r r e l e v a n t C u r r i c u l a : common people as dropouts and failures and to
Curricula have been framed in tightly consign them to a life of drudgery and poverty
compartmentalized and fragmented disciplines, with which has hardly any parallel in the contemporary
content and materials that tend to be irrelevant world or even in our own earlier history.”
to most learners. Several critiques have been raised
about the propensity of schooling to alienate These critiques are by no means exhaustive and
individuals from their ethnic and linguistic serve to highlight only certain concerns about the
communities. The focus of curricula has been on limitations of schooling. The extent to which these
developing abstract, academic, and generalized critiques apply to any particular context can, of
learning, with little attention to contexualized, course, be extensively debated. Positive examples
reflective, emotional learning (Resnik, 1987; Perkins, can be found in the education system, but these
1996; Goleman, 1995). occur in spite of the system rather than because

26 R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION
 of it. What should emerge from this discussion is must support the long and painful efforts to
that most educational systems today still remain rethink the structure, organization, content,
insensitive to the widely diverse needs of learners instructional processes, and evaluation mechanisms
of all age groups and ignorant to the complexity that conspire to uphold the dominant learning-
of learning processes. Furthermore, the oppressive system of factory-schooling. Efforts
institutionalized intervention of schooling has towards radical transformation should focus on
provided little space and empowerment for both creating lifelong learning environments (in schools
individual learners and learner groups to engage in and out of schools) that seek to enable and
the construction of alternative visions of empower the huge wealth of diverse human
development. Such critique extends far beyond the potential that exists in our people and cultures.
school as being elitist, classist, racist or sexist. It
raises fundamental questions around the school as In the short term, this must involve steps to:
being a dehumanizing and socially destructive force
in society. n Shift our policy focus from a ‘Ministry
Committed to Expanding Schooling/Human
What must be viewed as particularly disturbing, Capital’ to a ‘Ministry Committed to Expanded
however, as we look towards the future, is our Learning/Human Potential’.
continued obsession with the institution of n Conduct indigenous research on different
‘schooling’ as the central reference point for frameworks and understandings of contextual
learning; the increasing demands we place on it as analysis of powerful examples of innovative
a panacea for solving society’s problems; and our learning and pedogogical practices around the
inability to ‘see’ and stimulate other dynamic world in the light of new understanding
learning spaces. Formal schooling, whether in regarding the concepts of life long learning;
person or at a distance, is an inappropriate solution n Challenge the legitimacy of existing schooling
by itself for dealing with the development frameworks and evaluation mechanisms. Work
challenges and opportunities of the future. Fullan to develop a dynamic ‘learning to learn’
(1993), after extensive review of change initiatives, curricular environment and new mechanisms
argues that introducing new innovations and for assessment.
reforms into current educational systems is “an n Develop teacher training efforts with a greater
ultimately fruitless uphill battle” as these systems emphasis on ‘teachers as transformative
have been designed to be resistant to change. He intellectuals’.
calls for “a new mindset about educational change”. n Develop programs for parents and larger
communities to understand the conceptual and
So what can we do? theoratical understanding of schooling vis-à-vis
Those of us committed to nurturing each human power structures, social stratification, and social
being and each community’s inherent potential change.

IDSP
Institute for Development
Studies & Practices Quetta,
Pakistan
aksulamal@yahoo.com - idsp@qta.paknet.com.pk - www.idsp.sdnpk.org

R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION 27
 Reconceptualizing
Good Schools
DR. SHAHID SIDDIQUI

S
chools are supposed to play a pivotal part in the educational parents, but also within the
system of any country. They provide the basis to erect the t e a c h i n g c o m m u n i t y. S o m e
building of higher education on it. The stronger is the base aspects are crucial to making a
the higher are the chances of an effective and meaningful educational school a good school, but these
system. In the past, there have been some sporadic efforts to improve are either ignored or underplayed
schools but somehow these efforts by the head teachers, teachers,
could not bring the desired change and parents.
in our school milieu. Apart from
other genuine reasons one main There are three popular notions
cause was the conflicting views on of a good school, as viewed by
the question of what makes a good the majority of the people in
school? This question may look very Pakistan. The first and foremost
simple at first glance but when is the notion of ‘best results’. A
different people try to answer this, school that shows 100 percent
it no more remains a straightforward result, with maximum A1 and A
query. grades is always considered a
DR. SHAHID SIDDIQUI best school. It is interesting to
The central source of complexity is note that this notion is
Dr. Shahid Siddiqui has done his Ph.D.
in Language Education from University of
the relativity of the notion of considered as the top most
Toronto, Canada, M.Ed. TESOL from the ‘goodness’. One’s notions of factor by parents, teachers and
University of Manchester, U.K.; and MA education, teaching, learning and decision makers alike.
English from University of Punjab.
Currently, Dr. Siddiqui is working at the development contribute to the
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of concept of a good school. There are Another popular notion of a
Engineering Sciences and Technology
where he heads the Management
some common misconceptions about ‘good school’ is its ‘Englishness’.
Sciences and Humanities Programme. a good school, not only among the Parents would always look for an

28 R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION
English medium school where spoken English is the intellectual growth of the child and this can
mandatory for students and teachers and the be achieved through developing critical thinking
students could speak English language with great skills. For that, a good school ensures that the
facility and fluency. The contents and the teaching- classroom environment is non-threatening and
learning process becomes, of secondary importance. children are encouraged to voice their viewpoints
freely. The self-image of children is built in such
A third notion of a good school hinges around the a way that they develop a sense of self-respect. A
‘posh look’ of a school where parents mainly look good school focuses on quality of learning rather
for a good building with carpeted classrooms. The than quantity of books, as academic/intellectual
above stated notions of a good school are so development cannot be facilitated merely by
powerful that they have influenced a number of bending the backs of children with the load of
aspects of our educational system. For instance, to heavy bags and homework.
be called a good school there is a rat race of
bagging A1 and A grades and for that there is no Most of the efforts in Pakistani schools, however,
discrimination between fair and unfair means. are directed towards so called ‘academic-minus-
Similarly, to cash on the notion of ‘Englishness’ all intellectual’ development of the child. The view of
kinds of schools declare themselves as English academic development is narrow and confined only
medium schools. The result is that majority of the to prepare students to get good grades. Critical
privately owned schools erect the signboards of thinking and independent learning skills are set
‘English medium schools’. Yet aside as they are considered to
another view of a good school, A good school lays a lot be a waste of time. On the
‘posh look’ is exploited by the of emphasis on contrary, learning by rote is
owners by ‘special interior developing the social skills e n c o u r a g e d d u r i n g t h e
decorating techniques’ of large of a child, example, how assessment of children. A heavy
bungalows turned into ‘schools’. school bag has become
to work in collaborative
mandatory even in the early
These notions of a good school
groups, how to ask a classes. Most of the teaching
are narrow and defective. A question in a polite input is highly theoretical in
more comprehensive view of manner, how to present nature. Physical punishment, in
school is a place that provides one’s viewpoint, and how some form, is still prevalent
opportunities for holistic to disagree in an even in the most fashionable
development of children. This agreeable manner. schools. Loads of homework is
view takes care of major considered to be an effective
aspects of education including academic device to keep students busy at home as well, thus
development, physical development, social taking away the joys of childhood and turning
development, and moral development. It is them into robots.
important to note that these aspects of
d e v e l o p m e n t c o u l d r e i n f o r c e o n e a n o t h e r. Physical development is equally important for
children as it is closely, linked with academic
Let us start with the academic development of a development. A good school is sensitive to this
child. One of the aims of a good school is to need and provides opportunities for physical
prepare its students as independent learners and to development of children. Physical facilities, including
develop their concepts, skills and attitudes to the size of classroom, passages of air and light,
enable them to face the various situations of life cooling and heating, furniture, clean drinking water,
with confidence. To achieve this goal, the availability of canteen etc are also of great
curriculum, the teacher, the head teacher, the significance. The balance between physical
school policy and the school culture should be development and academic performance is of prime
geared in such a way that equal emphasis is laid importance. Physical facilities are central to a
on concepts, skills, and attitudes. healthy body and mind. A good school caters for
the physical comfort and development of a child
One important aspect of academic development is as well.

R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION 29
 Ironically, a number of our good schools ignore this teachers, and who in turn socially stand on a
obvious link. We may see some so called English higher pedestal than the rest of the students.
medium schools housed in big kothis (villas), and Similarly, when a teacher snubs a child in an
charging heavy tuition fees, without any playground indignant manner, without caring for the latter’s
to provide an opportunity to the students to play self-esteem and self image, it could shatter the
and develop their limbs. For example, there is no confidence of the child. It sends a message to the
proper arrangement for cooling in the scorching other children that this could be an approved
heat and no heating arrangement in the biting cold manner of discourse in society.
weather.
An important aim of education is to inculcate
One of the objectives of education is to prepare certain values among students, which should act
the child to develop into a good human being and for them as a code of conduct. These may include
a useful thinking citizen of the society. This means some basic ethics like truthfulness, punctuality,
proper social development of a child at school to keeping a promise, caring and sharing, politeness,
facilitate him to be able to work in a friendly patience, tolerance, equality, love for peace and
manner with classmates, family members, and respect for others. A good school works for the
society at large. How can we prepare the children moral development of students through curricula,
for that role? Not through sermons, but by acting pedagogy and, above all, through real life examples
as role models for them. Lecturing the students of the teachers and other working staff of the
about punctuality will perhaps be not that effective school.
if the teacher does not set a
p e r s o n a l ex a m p l e . A g o o d This aspect of child
school lays a lot of emphasis The present scenario development also gets minimum
on developing the social skills necessitates a need to attention as far as practical
of a child, example, how to reconceptualize our view examples are concerned. In
work in collaborative groups, of a good school by going some English medium schools,
how to ask a question in a beyond the common teachers shout at students and
polite manner, how to present notions of good grades, in some cases beat them as
one’s viewpoint, and how to ‘Englishness’ and posh well. Psychological punishment
disagree in an agreeable also goes along with the
m a n n e r. T h e t a s k s a n d
façades. p h y s i c a l p u n i s h m e n t . Fo r
assignment, in a good school, instance, a student is asked to
are designed in such a manner that there is no stand on his table before the whole class. Some of
negative competition among students, rather they these incidents in the class leave indelible
work in harmony for mutual learning and impressions on the students’ minds and leads to a
exploration. Other factors that may make or mar negative outlook, such as lack of confidence, lack
the impact is the nature of the relationship of sharing, fear and timidity, which may last
between the teachers themselves. A friendly and throughout their lives.
democratic relationship leaves a positive impact on
the students. A good school promotes equality of The present scenario necessitates a need to
opportunities to all students, irrespective of gender reconceptualize our view of a good school by going
or other criteria. All students are considered equal, beyond the common notions of good grades,
and there is no one who is ‘moral equal’. ‘Englishness’ and posh façades. A useful way of
assessing a school is from the perspective of holistic
In reality, the social development aspect is not development of the child. This implies equal
given much importance. The social development is emphasis being laid on academic, physical, social
exhibited through occasionally heroic hanging of and moral development. A good school then looks
attractive posters on the walls of the classrooms. for human, physical and financial resources to
The essence of social development is, however, create an enabling, non-threatening, and friendly
rarely reflected in actions. There may be two or environment for the development of a complete
three ‘bright’ students who get all the attention of personality in children.

30 R E T H I N K I N G EDUCATION
 IN P A S S I N G

Noam Chomsky On
Schooling
I was sent to an experimental It wasn’t that they were a highly false beliefs. But more importantly,
progressive school from infancy, select group of students. In fact, it I think, is the manner and style of
before I was two, until about twelve was the usual mixture in such a preventing and blocking independent
years old, until high school, at school, with some gifted students and creative thinking and imposing
which point I went into the and some problem children who hierarchies and competitiveness and
academic, college-oriented school had dropped out of the public the need to excel, not in the sense
in Philadelphia. That experience, schools. But nevertheless, at least of doing as well as you can, but
both the early experience in the as a child, that was the sense that doing better than the next person.
progressive school and the later one had — that, if competing at Schools vary, of course, but I think
experience in the academically all, you were competing with that those features are
oriented high school, elite high yourself. What can I do? But no commonplace. I know that they’re
school, was very instructive. For sense of strain about it and not necessary, because, for example,
example, it wasn’t until I was in certainly no sense of relative the school that I went to as a
high school that I knew I was a ranking. Very different from what I child wasn’t like that at all.
good student. The question had notice with my own children, who
never arisen. I was very surprised as far back as the second grade I think schools could be run quite
when I got into high school and knew who was ‘smart’ and who differently. That would be very
discovered that I was getting all As was ‘dumb’, who was high-tracked important, but I really don’t think
and that was supposed to be a and who was low-tracked. This was that any society based on
big deal. That question had simply a big issue. authoritarian hierarchic institutions
never arisen in my entire education. would tolerate such a school system
In fact, every student in the school Well, then I got to high school, the for very long. As Sam Bowles and
I had previously attended was academic high school in the public Herb Gintis have pointed out, it
regarded as somehow being a very school system, which was supposed might be tolerated for the elite,
successful student. There was no to be a very good high school, because they would have to learn
sense of competition, no ranking of and it was a real shocker. For one how to think and create and so
students. It was never anything even thing, as I said, there was the on, but not for the mass of the
to think about. It just never came shock of discovering that I was a population. There are roles that the
up that there was a question of good student, which had never public schools play in society that
how you were ranked relative to occurred to me before. And then can be
other students. there was the whole system of v e r y
prestige and value that went along
Well, anyway, at this particular with that. And the intense
school, which was essentially a competitiveness and the
Deweyite school and I think a very regimentation. In fact, I can
good one, judging from my remember a lot about elementary
experience, there was a tremendous school, the work I did, what I
premium on individual creativity, not studied and so on. I remember
in the sense of slapping paints on virtually nothing about high school. NOAM CHOMSKY
paper, but doing the kind of work It’s almost an absolute blank in my Noam Chomsky is one of the
and thinking that you were memory apart from the emotional leading intellectuals and social critic
interested in. Interests were tone, which was quite negative. of modern times. He is Institute
encouraged and children were Professor in the Department of
Linguistics and Philosophy at the
encouraged to pursue their interests. If I think back about my Massachusetts Institute of
They worked jointly with others or experience, there’s a dark spot Technology. He has had a major
by themselves. It was a lively there. That’s what schooling influence on linguistics, psychology,
atmosphere, and the sense was that generally is, I suppose. It’s a period and philosophy, and a significant
everybody was doing something of regimentation and control, part effect on a range of other
disciplines from anthropology to
important. of which involves direct mathematics, education to literary
indoctrination, providing a system of criticism.

31
 RETHINKING
MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY

Computers and the

Deskilling of
Teachers Michael W. Apple

W
e are repeatedly told and redefined by management to enhance profit levels, efficiency, and
that unless we have control. In the process, the employee’s control over timing, over
a ‘technologically defining the most important way to do a task, and over the criteria
literate’ work force we will that establish acceptable performance, are slowly taken over as the
ultimately become outmoded prerogatives of management personnel who are usually divorced from
economically. This has created the place where the actual labor is carried out. Loss of control on
immense pressure on schools to the part of the employee is almost always the result. Pay is often
quickly, and often relatively lowered. And the Job itself increasingly becomes exactly that — just
unreflectively, get large numbers a job as it becomes routinized, boring, and alienating as conception
of computers in schools and to is separated from execution and more and more aspects of jobs are
institute ‘computer literacy’ rationalized to bring them into line with management’s ‘need’ for
classes for their students. Yet, as increased ‘accountability’, ‘control’ and ‘cost effectiveness’.
I have shown in both ‘Teachers
a n d Te x t s ’ a n d ‘ O f f i c i a l These processes are not limited to what have been called working
Knowledge’, not only are these class positions. The separation of conception from execution, for
economic claims more than a example, has expanded rapidly into professional labor as well. Let us
little inaccurate, the proposals for take as a prime instance the
a technological future in schools aforementioned pressure to
have little understanding of some bring the unbridled benefits of
of the most major negative the new technology into the
consequences of such a classrooms of public and
technological fix, especially on private schools. Given these
the lives of teachers. kinds of pressures, what may
happen to teachers if the
A helpful way of thinking about new technology continues to
these consequences is to employ be pushed into schools in an
the concepts of deskilling and uncritical way?
intensification These concepts
signify a complex historical One of the major effects of
process in which the control of the current (over) emphasis MICHAEL APPLE
labor has altered, one in which on technologizing classrooms Michael Apple is John Bascom Professor
the skills that workers have may be the deskilling and of Education in The University of
developed over many years are disempowering of a Wisconsin, Madison. Professor Apple has
written extensively on the politics of
broken down and reduced to considerable number of educational reform and on the
their atomistic units, automated, teachers. Given the already relationship between culture and power.

32
heavy workload of planning, teaching, meetings,
and paperwork for most teachers, it is probably This reliance on prepackaged software — without
wise to assume that very few teachers will actually either the time or resources to sufficiently evaluate
be given more than a tiny amount of training in its real educational worth — can have a number
computers, programming, their positive and negative of long-term effects:
social effects, and so on. This will be especially
the case in elementary schools where teachers are n It can cause a decided loss of important
already teaching a wide array of subjects. Research skills and dispositions on the part of teachers.
indicates that only a handful of teachers are When the skills of local curriculum planning, on
actually given substantial information before which so much of progressive, community based,
computer curricula are implemented. Because of and culturally responsive pedagogy is based, are not
this, most teachers have to rely on pre-packaged used they can tend to wither and weaken.
sets of material, existing software, and specifically n The tendency to constantly look to one’s
purchased material from the scores of software own or one’s colleagues’ historical experience about
manufacturing firms that aggressively market their curriculum and pedagogy is considerably lessened
products, the vast majority of which have quite as most major parts of the curriculum, and the
questionable educational merit. teaching and evaluative practices that surround it,
are viewed as something one purchases.
All of this is happening in a time when teachers’ n Substantive skills, including the ability to
labor has become ‘intensified’. There is ever more design relevant experiences for those students who
to do as widespread economic and social problems are least likely to find a culturally responsive
are given over to the school to supposedly solve. curriculum in schools, are lost through lack of use
Thus, time is at a premium. Time to evaluate over time.
these purchased computer programs and even to n Very importantly, the school itself is
learn how to use them is nearly nonexistent. transformed even more into a lucrative market as
all manner of material is introduced.
The impact of this can be striking. What is
happening is the exacerbation of trends we have My point in these brief comments is not to take
begun to see in a number of nations. Instead of a neo-luddite position. There are many interesting,
teachers having the time and the skill to do their socially critical, and pedagogically creative uses to
own curriculum planning and deliberation, they which computers can be put in schools throughout
become the isolated executors of someone else’s the world. Rather, I want to argue in the strongest
plans, procedures, and evaluative mechanisms. In possible terms that unless we situate the
industrial teens (and we need to remember that introduction of this technology back into the social
like many other professionals. teachers are workers reorganization of the labor processes that many
employed by the state), this is an aspect of the professional employees are now experiencing, we
transformations of the paid labor process I noted may be reproducing some of its most deleterious
earlier — the separation of conception from and harmful effects into schools. Teachers and
execution. students are too important to let this go on

S H I K S H A N TA R Shikshantar is a non–profit movement, founded

The People’s Institute for Rethinking Education and Development
to challenge the monopoly of factory schooling.

We are committed to creating spaces where

individuals and organizations can together engage
in meaningful dialogues to transform existing
models of education and development.

www.swaraj.org/shikshantar To learn more or to find out how to join our efforts, please
contact:

SHIKSHANTAR The People’s Institute for Rethinking Education and

Development SHIKSHANTAR ANDOLAN
21 Fatehpura, Udaipur, Rajasthan 313004 India
VIMUKT Vimukt Shiksha, a bulletin of Shikshantar was created to
liberate the vision and understanding of learning–sharing–doing Tel: (91) 294451303;
SHIKSHA from the walls of factory–schooling; and to develop opportunities Fax: (91) 294451941
that liberate the full potential of human beings. Email: Shikshantar@yahoo.com
 IN P A S S I N G

How Factory Schools

Are Also Like Big Dams
SHILPA JAIN

In The Greater Common Good, Arundhati Roy makes the comparison between Big Dams and Nuclear Bombs. She says, “They’re both
weapons of mass destruction weapons the Government uses to control its own people both malignant indications of a civilization turning
upon itself. They represent the severing of the link the understanding – between human beings and the planet they live on.” The analogy
can be extended to factory schools, by building upon Roy’s criticisms of development and applying them to the education system of the
Subcontinent:

g Both dams and schools are g Simultaneously, when inadequacies tools for irrigation, mechanisms for
propagated as ‘symbols of or detrimental failures are flood-control, and reservoirs of
progress’, such that increasing their acknowledged, the beneficiaries of drinking water, and schools as
quantity receive praise from those both attempt piecemeal solutions places for authentic learning, for
seeking a so-called modern to ‘mend’ the problems, rather preparing for examinations, for
Subcontinent. than undertaking a serious, developing cultivating creativity and
g Both are heavily financed and systemic, and systematic evaluation civic participation, etc.
advocated by international donor of the project. g Finally, both try to posit a ‘take
institutions, like the World Bank or g Those who benefit from each it-or-leave it’ stance. That is, they
other multilateral and bilateral project also manage to look away claim that despite the problems
development agencies. and both implicitly and explicitly with dams and schools, we have
g Both are supported by huge condone the sufferings of those to take them as they are;
industries with seriously vested harmed by them, thus reinforcing otherwise, our only other choice
interests – politicians, bureaucrats, the 20-80 divide (20% of the will be to revert backwards to
and corporations – each has its population benefiting on the backs some romanticized, traditional
own manifestation of what Roy of the other 80%). lifestyle, which is unfeasible in our
labels the ‘Iron Triangle’. g Both are commanded and quest for progress and
g Both dams and schools are said controlled by Government development. Never are any third,
to benefit all affected by them, authorities, from their design and fourth, or fifth options presented
and in fact, both rely on a type planning to the details of their in this dichotomy.
of social engineering (the belief implementation. Rarely are the
that we can control others’ voices of the ‘served’ heard in
behaviors to conform to particular any stage of the process; in fact,
ends). only a few experts are said to be
g Very few (if any) evaluations are able to manage and understand
conducted to assess the short – or the systems. For example,
long-term impact of either dams contractors/builders can be
or schools. compared to teachers (the expert
g Neither value the lifestyles, facilitators of the project),
knowledges, or cultures of the sophisticated, engineering plans to
traditional/rural-affected as worth Government curriculum, and
preserving or protecting or growing displaced tribal communities to SHILPA JAIN
or contributing to the quest for a enrolled children (since neither Shilpa Jain is a learning activist for
so-called modern Subcontinent. have much say in their Shikshantar in Udaipur, India. She
g The negative effects of both dams participation/compliance with the hopes to continue researching and
activating the link between learning
and schools, when even project). and social-political-economic
acknowledged, disproportionately g Both dams and schools try to transformation, and the role of
affect the poor and marginalized operate in an inherently confusing children and youth in these learning
and create new kinds of structures and contradictory system of processes. Shilpa has a B.A. magna
o f o p p r e s s i o n a n d conflicting interests and purposes cum laude in Political Science and
Women’s Studies from Harvard
disempowerment. – i.e. dams as sources of power,
University.

34
 RETHINKING
G l o b a l i z a t i o n

Some Of The Instruments Might Be New,

But The Song Remains The Same
Aziz Choudry

“Zamane ke andaz budley gaey, naya raag hai, saaz budley gaey”
Allama Iqbal, Saqi nama.

L
ooking at the free market exploit cheap slave labour that is available from the natives of the
fundamentalism sweeping colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the
the world, one must ask surplus goods produced in our factories.” (Rhodes)
how much the raag and saaz
have really changed since Iqbal’s “I would define globalisation as the freedom for my group of
poem was published in 1935. companies to invest where it wants when it wants, to produce what
it wants, to buy and sell where it wants, and support the fewest
restrictions possible coming from labour laws and social conventions”.
(Barnevik)

Pakistan’s most popular music The modern transnational

bands, the beat, instruments and corporations are the true heirs to
intensity with which today’s t h e E a s t I n d i a C o m p a n y, t h e
neoliberal policies manifest Hudson’s Bay Company, the New
themselves might sound different Zealand Company – major players in
from ‘old style’ colonial rule – earlier waves of colonisation,
but the song remains the same. dispossession and the
commodification of peoples, lands
Now compare these two and nature itself. The drive to
statements, made almost a reduce everything and everyone to
century apart. The first comes a commodity to be bought and sold
from Cecil Rhodes, the British in the market place has been a Aziz Choudry
colonialist and business magnate defining characteristic of the
who died in 1902. The second colonisation process the world over. Aziz has written on GATT/WTO, APEC,
the MAI, colonization and the rights of
was uttered by Percy Barnevik, Indigenous Peoples to self-determination
President of the ABB Industrial To fully understand the worldview etc. His articles have been published in
Group, in 1997. that informs this process it is helpful around 20 countries in Australasia, Asia
and the Pacific, North America, and
to realise that the idea of corporate Europe, and translated into several
“We must find new lands from globalisation as another form of languages. Based in Aotearoa (New
which we can easily obtain raw colonisation, also resonates outside Zealand) he has organized and
participated in a wide range of local,
materials and at the same time of the Third World. national, and international solidarity
campaigns and initiatives.

35
 It is no coincidence that the governments of affected by transnational corporate plunder but are
countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and also on the frontlines of resistance.
New Zealand – all of them cheerleaders for the
neoliberal agenda – are themselves built on legacies Like earlier jockeying for imperial spheres of
of genocide and dispossession of Indigenous Peoples influence modern corporations compete for higher
within (and beyond) the territories that they now profits, new markets and new sources for cheaper
occupy. labour and raw materials. Transnational corporations
account for two-thirds of world trade in goods and
Sharon Venne, an indigenous lawyer and scholar services. Free trade is merely a euphemism for
from the Cree Nation in Canada writes: freedom from governmental restrictions for
“Colonizers believe that they can use our lands and transnational corporations. Of the world’s top 100
resources without acknowledging those resources economies, based on a comparison of annual
and lands belong to others. Now the colonizers are corporate sales and a nation’s GDP, 51 were
being used and consumed by their own companies and only 49 were countries. According
corporations and companies. Their governments to the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies
cannot protect them. There is an assumption that report, The Top 200: the Rise of Global Corporate
this is a new process. Rather, it is colonization Power (2000), by 1999, Sony, Philip Morris and
continued. It is a beast who knows no limits. AT & T were all bigger than Pakistan, just as
When it cannot consume the Indigenous Peoples’ IBM was bigger than Singapore.
lands and resources, it has turned on its own
people. In an attempt to understand, the colonizers Just as the imperial powers which built their
have called it ‘globalization’. For wealth, industry, political and
Indigenous Peoples, it is not a economic might on colonisation,
new concept. It is just the The drive to reduce slavery and theft passed
continuation of the colonization everything and everyone themselves off as civilisers of
that began in 1492.” to a commodity to be the savages, so too modern day
defenders of the ‘free world’
Maori educationalist Graham
bought and sold in the frequently resort to
Hingangaroa Smith points out market place has been a manipulation and bullying to
that the same processes of defining characteristic of achieve the kinds of goals that
commodification that we now the colonisation process Rhodes and Barnevik share.
see as a central tenet of global the world over.
free market ideology were used Many stories of arm twisting
by British settlers to access have emerged from last
Maori land in Aotearoa New Zealand in the 19th November’s WTO Ministerial Meeting in Qatar as
c e n t u r y. “ T h i s w a s a c h i e v e d t h r o u g h t h e industrialized countries, led by the USA and the
individualization of Maori land titles; i.e. to European Union coerced developing countries
commodify or ‘package up’ what were collective or towards opening up their markets and new
group held titles into individual holdings in order economic sectors. It was, as one non-governmental
to facilitate their sale to Pakeha [British settlers] observer put it, a meeting characterised by the
under Pakeha rules and customs.” This was a “high-handed unethical negotiating practices of the
common tool of the old-style colonizer. Nowadays developed countries – linking aid budgets and trade
it is the Asian Development Bank, the World preferences to the trade positions of developing
Bank and the international ‘investment community’ countries and targeting individual developing
which views communal ownership of land, country negotiators”. Such divide and rule tactics
communitarian values and subsistence economies are hardly new. But the cynical linkage of the so-
as impediments to be swept out of the way in the called war against terror with support for free trade
name of economic growth and ‘development’ greatly increased the pressure on many Third World
through attracting foreign investment. countries which had wanted to stand together
against the rich countries at the WTO even more
Although their names may not feature prominently firmly than they had at Seattle.
among the individuals and organisations that have
high international profiles for their critiques of One of the promises of the globalisation gang in
globalisation, many Indigenous communities in the the West was that under the WTO agreements,
‘First World’ have not only been among the most all countries would play by the same rules. But the

36 R E T H I N K I N G GLOBALIZATION
USA and other industrialized nations are expert in supremacy of the coloniser’s worldview. So too, we
match-fixing and ball-tampering on the not so level are now told that corporate globalisation is like the
playing field of the global economy. September 11 moon’s pull on the tide. A natural, organic,
was seized upon in a desperate attempt to stave unstoppable process. As Mike Moore, Director-
off growing disillusionment with both free market General of the WTO said while still a New
policies and the multilateral trading system. Zealand parliamentarian: “We evolved from families,
Without it, who knows what shape the neoliberal to tribes to the city state, to the Nation state and
agenda would now be in? Perhaps the Doha now to global and regional economic and political
Ministerial would have been a repeat of Seattle’s arrangements.”
failure to come to agreement on international
trade, only without the mass protests outside? Had We can dissect and denounce the privatisation,
that happened, what credibility could the WTO deregulation and liberalisation policies promoted by
have maintained? the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank,
US and European foreign policy and locked in by
Colonialism has always thrived on double standards. international free trade and investment agreements
From the systematic destruction of South Asia’s all we like. But unless we are prepared to take a
rich textile industries in the 1800s so that the clear position against imperialism in all its forms,
Britain’s highly protected factories and economy then all of our talk will remain just that – talk.
might flourish, to the recent 64% increase in US
farm subsidies even as the Bush administration It is one thing for us to agree that corporate
demands that poor countries open their markets globalisation is another form of colonisation. It is
yet further, under the guise of another to develop strategies
concern for human rights. US locally and internationally which
politicians have turned the The most dynamic and are consistent with this
situation of child workers in robust resistance to understanding.
the Sialkot football stitching corporate globalisation is
industry and China’s prison coming from peoples’ Colonization and globalisation
labour into arguments to have thrived on making us
protect and ensure a
movements... fight one another. Any genuine
competitive advantage for their struggle to counter the latest
own businesses. Yet they remain noticeably silent forms that imperialism is taking must urgently learn
about the massive privatized prison-industrial to deal with such divisions among peoples.
complex in the USA which produces goods for
domestic consumption. American scholar Richard There is real potential to build strong, vibrant
Falk writes about the USA’s “perpetual rediscovery connections between struggles of Indigenous Peoples
of its own perceived innocence Despite the – and others, especially among the politically-
dispossession of the Indigenous Peoples of North conscious desi diaspora – in the so-called First
America, despite slavery and its aftermath, despite World with movements and communities in the
Hiroshima and Vietnam, this self-proclaimed Third World struggling for economic and social
innocence remains untarnished”. justice. Some of those links have already been
made.
Meanwhile the Australian government, one of the
Asia-Pacific region’s most ardent advocates of the The most dynamic and robust resistance to
free flow of goods and services through trade corporate globalisation is coming from peoples’
liberalization is going to extraordinary lengths to movements which have grown out of older
keep people – asylum seekers – out. John Howard’s struggles against imperialism. It is through such
government is continuing the colonial tradition of movements, and the unglamorous work of
using the Pacific Islands like Nauru and Papua community level organizing, not NGO talk fests or
New Guinea as a dumping ground – this time for arcane and elitist academic discussions, that we can
the desperate people who have fled from build genuine solidarity among peoples and develop
Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries. real alternatives to a fundamentalist economic and
political agenda that is fuelling desperation and
Colonized peoples have long been subjected to communalism and fragmenting communities across
arguments regarding the inevitability of their the planet.
subjugation and colonial rule, and the inherent

R E T H I N K I N G GLOBALIZATION 37
 R E T H I N K I N G
DEVELOPMENT

What is Sustainable
Development?
TED TRAINER

M
o s t o f t h e institutions or the general public is willing to face up to this.
pronouncements made
about ‘Ecologically What ‘Ecologically Sustainable Development’ really has to mean
S u s t a i n a b l e cannot be grasped unless we begin with the ‘limits to growth’ analysis
Development’ are nonsensical, of the global situation. Rich countries like Australia are already far
because they are based on the beyond levels of production and consumption that are sustainable,
mistaken assumption that the or that could be shared by all the world’s people. Yet our supreme
task is to find ways that will goal is to increase levels of production and consumption all the time
enable us to continue with and without any limit.
affluent industrial-consumer
lifestyles and to continue Consider the following lines of argument from the large ‘limits’
pursuing economic growth, literature:
without depleting resources or
damaging the environment. 1. If the 9 billion people expected to be living on earth soon after
2070 were each to consume
But, this is not remotely minerals and energy at the
possible. A sustainable society present rich world per capita
can only be achieved if there is rate, world annual output of
enormous reduction in the these items would have to
aggregate amount of producing increase to about 8 times their
and consuming going on in the present levels. For about 1/3 of
world i.e., the present volumes the basic list of 35 mineral
of trade, business turnover, items, all potentially recoverable
exports, investment, purchasing, resources would probably be
work etc., must be cut to a exhausted in under 40 years
small proportion of their current (Trainer 1995). All potentially
levels. This means phasing out recoverable oil, gas, shale oil,
vast quantities of production and and coal (assuming 2000 billion
e c o n o m i c a c t i v i t y, a n d tonnes) and uranium (via burner
implementing a zero-growth or reactors) would be exhausted in Ted Trainer teaches
T E D T R AatI Nthe
E R University of
steady state economy. Hardly about the same time span. To N e w S o u t h Wa l e s . H e i s o n e o f
anyone within government, produce the required amount of A ustralia’s foremost environmental
campaigners. Trainer has called for a
academia, the media, educational energy from nuclear sources new movement toward ‘eco-villages’ as
a way to teach the public about
sustainable alternatives.
38
If all the world’s people were to have the present rich world ‘living standard’,
resource demand would be at least 5 times as great. If global population rises
to 9 billion as expected the multiple becomes 7.5.

would require approximately 700 times the with economic growth. Nothing is more important
world’s present nuclear capacity, all in the form in consumer society than increasing the volume of
of breeder reactors, given that fusion power is producing and consumption, i.e., economic activity,
not likely to be available on the necessary all the time, rapidly and without limit. If we have
scale for many decades, if ever. This would a mere 3% p.a. growth in economic activity and
mean that at any one time approximately three by 2070 the expected 9 billion people will all have
quarters of a million tonnes of plutonium risen to the per capita living standards we in rich
would be in use. countries would then have, total world economic
2. Although a sustainable society must eventually output would be 60 times as great as it is now.
be based on renewable energy sources, it is not The present levels of production and consumption
plausible that these could meet present world and resource use and environmental impact are
energy demand for electricity and liquid fuels, grossly unsustainable, but we are committed to an
let alone any multiple of it. economic system that will multiply the present
3. To produce the average North American diet impacts by 60 in 70 years and if 3% growth
requires .5 ha of crop land per person. If 9 continued they would double every 23 years
billion people were to have such a diet 4.5 thereafter.
billion ha would be needed, but that is about
3.5 times all the crop land on the planet. The conventional assumption is that these multiples
4. It takes about 12 ha of productive land to will be avoided through technical advance. It is
provide one person in North America with assumed that better technologies will make it
their current ‘living standard’. If 9 billion were possible for us to go on pursuing ever rising ‘living
to live that way we would require 108 billion standards’ and economic growth while actually
ha of productive land, but that is about 15 getting the resource and ecological impacts down
times all the productive land on the planet! to sustainable levels. But the multiples are far too
5. Since the early1990s the UN’s Inter- great for this to be remotely plausible. The best
governmental Panel on Climate Control has known tech-fix advocate is Amory Lovins. He
been telling us that if we are to prevent the argues that resource and environmental costs per
amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere unit of production could be cut to one-quarter, and
from increasing we must reduce carbon release maybe less, or present amounts. But, this is far
by 60-80%. If we reduced it by 60% and from sufficient.
shared the available fossil fuels equally among
all 9 billion people, you and I would have to If all the world’s people were to have the present
get by on one-eighteenth of the quantity we rich world ‘living standard’, resource demand would
now use. be at least 5 times as great. If global population
6. One of the most worrying resource scarcities rises to 9 billion as expected the multiple becomes
looming is to do with water. We are using 7.5. If we in rich countries have 3% p.a. growth
water much faster than it falls as rain; i.e., we in ‘living standards’ then the volume of production
are reducing the water stored in the ground. and consumption in 2070 will be 8 times as great
The difference is huge; in fact if we reduced as it is today, so if 9 billion were to live as we
water use in agriculture to the rate at which would, total world production would be 60 times
we can get it from rainfall we could feed 480 as great as it is today. But, right now it is
m i l l i o n p e o p l e l e s s t h a n w e d o n o w. probably two to three times a sustainable volume;
remember carbon emissions should be cut by at
Most people have little idea of the magnitude of least two-thirds. So, to enable us to go on with
t h e s e f i g u r e s . We a r e n o t j u s t a l i t t l e b i t the pursuit of affluence and growth, by 2070
unsustainable; we are far beyond levels of resource technical advance would have to enable 60 times
use, production and consumption that are as much producing and consuming while generating
sustainable. only one half to one third of the present resource
and environ mental cost. This is far beyond what
N o w, a d d t h e a b s u r d i m p l i c a t i o n s o f o u r could be achieved.
fundamental, fierce and never-questioned obsession

R E T H I N K I N G DEVELOPMENT 39
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40 R E T H I N K I N G DEVELOPMENT
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Inspirations & Reflections...
WAKEUP
CALLS!!!

Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, Aid to developing countries for education
in someone’s knowing how to bring about a from bilateral sources has decreased, e.g. aid
better condition of things than existed earlier. from the World Bank has dropped from
John Dewey 1,487 to 880 million.

Education has produced a vast population The E-9 – the world’s nine high population
able to read but unable to distinguish what countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India,
is worth reading. Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan
G. M. Trevelyan
– continue to account for more than three-
quarters of the world’s illiterate population.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are
made stupid by education.
Bertrand Russell Progress in primary education masks
considerable disparities: 60% of the out-of-
It is little short of a miracle that modern school children are girls; and the gender gap
methods of instruction have not already in countries where this is a major problem
completely strangled the holy curiosity of has not appreciably narrowed. Children of
inquiry I believe that one could even rural areas, urban slums, ethnic minorities
deprive a healthy beast of prey of its and geographically remote communities also
voraciousness if one could force it with a in general, registered slower or no progress
whip to eat continuously whether, it were in access to schooling.
hungry or not
Albert Einstein Of the children involved in exploitative
domestic labour worldwide, 90% are girls.
The only real education comes from what
goes counter to you. If pay for production workers had grown as
Andre Gide fast as pay for chief executives, factory
workers would be making an average of
You cannot teach a man anything; you can $114,035 a year (instead of $23,753) and
o n l y h e l p h i m f i n d i t w i t h i n h i m s e l f.
the minimum wages would be $24.13
Galileo Galilei
(instead of $5.15).
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the
There are 42 million fewer girls than boys
amount of ignorance it accumulates in the
enrolled in primary schools across the world.
form of inert facts.
Henry Brooks Adams South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have the
widest gender gaps.
When asked how much educated men were
superior to those uneducated, Aristotle To purchase a computer would cost the
answered, “As much as the living are to the average Bangladeshi more than eight years’
dead.” income, the average American, just one
Diogenes Laertius month’s wage.

41
 C R I T I C A L
educators

Neo-liberalism,
Global Capitalism
& Educational Change
DAVE HILL

T h e C o n t e x t s o f in Education. The former centres on socially producing labour-power

Educational Change (people’s capacity to labour) for capitalist enterprises, the latter focuses
on setting business ‘free’ in education for profit-making. Thus, business
The current anti-egalitarian wants to make profits from education, and to make education fit for
education system needs to be business – to make schooling and further and higher education subordinate
contextualised in two ways. Firstly, to the personality, ideological and economic requirements of capital.
the policy context – the
restructuring of the schooling and The Current Project of Global Capitalism
education systems across the world
– needs to be placed within the The fundamental principle of capitalism is the sanctification of private (or,
ideological and policy context of corporate) profit based on the extraction of surplus labour (unpaid labour-
the links between Capital, Neo- time) as surplus value from the labour-power of workers. This is a creed
liberalism (with its combination of of competition, not co-operation, between humans. It is a creed and
privatization, competitive markets in practice of racialized and gendered class exploitation, exploitation by the
education characterised by selection capitalist class of those who provide the profits through their labour, the
and exclusion) and the rampant working class.
growth of the national and
international inequalities. John McMurtry ’s The Cancer Stage of
Capitalism (1999) describes ‘the Pathologization
It is important to look at the big of the Market Model’. He suggests that to
picture. Markets in education, so- argue for a ‘free market’ in anything these
called ‘parental choice’ of a diverse days is a delusion: the ‘market model’ that
range of schools, privatization of we have today is really the system that
schools, cutting state subsidies to benefits the ‘global corporate market’ – a
education and other public services system where the rules are rigged to favour
are only a part of the educational huge multinational and transnational
strategy of the capitalist class. corporations that take over, destroy or
National and global capitalism incorporate (hence the ‘cancer’ stage of
wishes to, and has succeeded in capitalism) small businesses, innovators, etc. DAVE HILL
cutting public expenditure. It does that are potential competitors. Thus, opening
Dave Hill teaches at University
this because public services are education to the market, in the long run, will College Northampton. Prior to
expensive. Cuts serve to reduce open it to the corporate giants – who will that he taught in schools and
taxes on profits. In addition, the run it in their own interests. Glenn Rikowski colleges in inner-city London. His
capitalist class has a Business Plan (The Battle in Seattle: Its significance for most recent book, written with
Mike Cole, Peter McLaren and
for Education and a Business Plan education, 2001) and others argue that the Glenn Rikowski, is Red Chalk: on
World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other Schooling, Capitalism and Politics.

42 C R I T I C A L EDUCATIORS
global clubs for the mega-capitalists) are setting this 1. Privatization/Private ownership of the means of
agenda up in education across the globe. production, distribution and exchange.
2. The provision of a Market in goods and services
Globalisation Inequality and Economic – including private sector involvement in welfare,
and Social Justice social, educational and other state services (such
as air traffic control, prisons, policing).
Global inequalities have been well described with the 3. Within education the creation of ‘opportunity’ to
IMF/World Trade Organisation/World Bank inspired cuts acquire the means of education (though not
in health and welfare budgets throughout the Third necessarily education itself, as McMurtry notes) and
World. additional cultural capital, through selection.
4. Relatively untrammelled selling and buying of
In Britain the increasing inequalities, the labour power, for a ‘flexible’, poorly regulated labour
impoverishment and creation of a substantial underclass market.
has also been well documented (for example in Dave 5. The restructuring of the management of the
Hill and Mike Cole, Schooling and Equality: Fact, welfare state on the basis of a corporate
Concept and Policy, 2001). For example, in Britain the managerialist model imported from the world of
ratio of chief executives’ pay to average worker’s pay business. As well as the needs of the economy
stands at 35 to one. In the USA it has climbed to dictating the principal aims of school education,
450 to one (from around 35 to one in the mid-1980s). the world of business is also to supply a model of
Inequalities both between states and within states have how it is to be provided and managed.
increased dramatically during the 6. Suppression of oppositional
era of global neo-liberalism. In the critical thought and of autonomous
USA, for example, the economic Inequalities both between thought and education.
apartheid nature of capitalism has states and within states 7. Within a regime of cuts in
been widely exposed in the work of have increased the post–war Welfare State and low
Peter McLaren (e.g. Che Guevara, public expenditure.
dramatically during the
Paulo Freire and the pedagogy of
Revolution, 2000). To give one era of global neo- Privatization, Business and
example, in the USA, the top 1 liberalism. In the USA, for Education
percent of the richest people have example, the top 1
wealth – financial wealth – equal percent of the richest How, in more detail, do education
to the bottom 95 percent. markets fit into the grand plan for
people have wealth – schooling and education? What is
To take another example, Chile, financial wealth – equal capitalism’s ‘Business Plan for
hailed as a beacon of neo-liberal to the bottom 95 percent. Education’? McMurtry is one among
policies ‘boasts one of the most many who note that education as
unequal economies in the world in a social institution has been subordinated to
which only 10 percent of the Chilean population earns international market goals including the language and
almost half the wealth and in which the richest 100 self-conceptualisation of educators themselves.
people earn more than the state spends on social
services. Real salaries have declined 10 percent since Richard Hatcher in his article “Getting down to the
1986 and they are still 18 percent lower than when business: schooling in the globalised economy”, in the
Allende was in power’. British education journal Education and Social Justice
(2001), shows how Capital/Business has two major aims
The Effects of Neo-Liberal Capitalism for schools. The first aim is to make sure schools
produce compliant, ideologically indoctrinated, pro
In discussing the Market, as a part of neo-liberal capitalist, effective workers. That is, to ensure that
ideology and policy, it is important to see how this schooling and education engage in ideological and
impacts on people’s lives, life chances and deaths, to economic reproduction. National state education and
become aware of the effects of what John McMurtry training policies in the business agenda FOR education
calls the The Cancer Stage of Capitalism (1999), and are of increasing importance for national capital. In an
of market ideology in fiscal, social and educational era of global capital, this is one of the few remaining
provision. areas for national state intervention – it is the site,
suggests Hatcher, where a state can make a difference
Neo-liberalism requires that the state establishes and The second aim is for private enterprise, private
extends: capitalists, to make money out of it, to make private

C R I T I C A L EDUCATIORS 43
profit out of it, to control it: this is the business to market exchanges, educational changes flourish most
agenda IN schools. with the unpaid gifts of others and develop the more
they are not mediated by private possession or profit’.
The effects of neo-liberalism in education
and society Secondly, opposing motivations. McMurtry notes that
‘the determining motivation of the market is to satisfy
Neo-liberal policies globally have resulted in a loss of the wants of whoever has the money to purchase the
n Equity, Inequalities and Economic and Social Justice goods that are provided. The determining motivation
n Democracy – as business values and interests are of education is to develop sound understanding whether
increasingly substituted for democratic accountability it is wanted or not. ‘The market by definition can only
and the collective voice. satisfy the motivations of those who have the money
to buy the product it sells. The place of education, on
The Growth of Educational Inequality the other hand, remains a place of education insofar
as it educates those whose motivation is to learn,
independent of the money – demand they exercise in
There is considerable data on how poor schools have,
t h e i r l e a r n i n g ’ . I n a d d i t i o n , ‘d e v e l o p m e n t o f
by and large, got poorer (in terms of relative education
understanding is necessarily growth of cognitive capacity;
results and in terms of total income) and how rich
wherein satisfaction of consumer wants involves neither,
schools (in the same terms) have got richer. Markets
and typically impedes both’.
exacerbate existing inequalities.
Thirdly, opposing methods. ‘The method of the market
A Critique of Neo-Liberal Theory: Neo- is to buy or sell the goods it has
Liberalism and Education Education is not a to offer to anyone for whatever
commodity, to be bought price one can get The method of
I now want to look at one
theoretical and academic aspect of and sold. In analysing the education is never to buy or sell
the item it has to offer, but to
some neo-liberal arguments and relationship between neo- require of all who would have it
suggest where they fall down. Neo- liberalism and education, that they fulfil its requirements
liberals make a number of
unwarranted implications or
the last critical theoretical autonomously’... Everything that is
to be had on the market is
conclusions about the role of the point I wish to make acquired by the money paid for it.
state in education and about the here is that the Market Nothing that is learned in
role of the market in education. suppresses Critical Thought education is acquired by the money
These relate to their assumption paid for it.
that the market/privatization is
and Education itself.
compatible with education. Fourthly, opposing Standards of
Excellence. ‘The measures of excellence in the market
Education is not a commodity, to be bought and sold. are (i) how well the product is made to sell; and (ii)
One can buy the means to an education, but not the how problem – free the product is and remains for its
hard graft of autonomous learning itself. John buyers. The measures of excellence in education are
McMurtry, among others, has noted that education and (i) how disinterested and impartial its representations
the capitalist market in terms of their opposing goals, are; and (ii) how deep and broad the problems it poses
opposing motivations, opposing methods, and opposing are to one who has it’ .the first works through ‘one
standards of excellence. sided sales pitches...which work precisely because they
are not understood’, the second ‘must rule out one –
Firstly, the goals of education. ‘Private profit is acquired sided presentation appetitive compulsion and
by a structure of appropriation, which excludes others manipulative conditioning’.
from its possession. The greater its accumulation by
any private corporation, the more wealth others are In analysing the relationship between neo-liberalism and
excluded from in this kind of possession. This is what education, the last critical theoretical point I wish to
makes such ownership ‘private’. Education, in contrast, make here is that the Market suppresses Critical
is acquired by a structure of appropriation that does Thought and Education itself.
not exclude others from its possession. On the contrary,
education is furthered the more it is shared, and the McMurtry concludes, powerfully, ‘this fundamental
more there is free and open access to its circulation. contradiction in standards of excellence leads, in turn,
That is why learning which is not conveyed to others to opposite standards of freedom. Freedom in the
is deemed ‘lost’, ‘wasted’ or ‘dead’. In direct opposition market is the enjoyment of whatever one is able to

44 C R I T I C A L EDUCATIORS
buy from others with no questions asked, and profit recognized the limitations, though, and having
from whatever one is able to sell to others with no recognized that there is some potential for
requirement to answer to anyone else. Freedom in the transformative change, whatever space does exist should
place of education, on the other hand, is precisely the be exploited. Whatever we can do, we must do,
freedom to question, and to seek answers, whether it however fertile the soil at any given moment in any
offends people’s self-gratification or not’. particular place. But schools and colleges are not the
only place.
McMurtry succinctly relates his arguments above to the
‘systematic reduction of the historically hard won social Working Outside of the Classroom! Local
institution of education to a commodity for private Action
purchase and sale’. The commodification of education
rules out the very critical freedom and academic rigour Unless critical educators’ actions, within schools and
which education requires to be more than education, are linked to a grammar of resistance, such
indoctrination. Much of my own work calls for critical resistant and counter-hegemonic activity is likely to fall
education and for the development of teachers as on relatively stony ground. Hence, using schools and
critical transformative intellectuals. educational sites as arenas of cultural struggle and
education in general as a vehicle for social
The Role of Critical Transformative transformation needs to premise upon a clear
Intellectuals in Education and other commitment to work with communities, parents and
Cultural Sites students. When I say working ‘with’, I do not mean
simply ‘leading’ or ‘talking at’; working with means
The first is that critical educators can indeed attempt ‘learning’ from the daily existence of the exploited
to provide a spark that can ignite the desire for classes. Ideally it means fulfilling the role of the organic
revolutionary democratic social transformation intellectual, organically linked to and part of these
throughout the world. To carry the metaphor even groups. This means also working with communities –
further, it does so at a time when critical/radical and their own despair and anger – in developing the
education, almost everywhere, is in danger of terminal perception that schools and education themselves are
‘burn-out’. However, the question of how far this sites of social and economic and ideological
transformative potential can be realized is the subject contestation, not ‘neutral’ or ‘fair’ or ‘inevitable’, but
of considerable debate, for contemporary theory as well sites of economic, cultural and ideological domination,
as practice. The autonomy and agency available to of class domination. It is thereby important to be aware
individual teachers, teacher educators, schools and of the role of education in capital reproduction and in
departments of education is particularly challenged when the reproduction of class relations.
faced with the structures of capital and its current neo-
liberal project for education. M a s s A c t i o n a s Pa r t o f a B r o a d e r
Movement for Economic and Social
I recognize and do not underestimate the limitations Justice
on the agency and autonomy of teachers, teacher
educators, cultural workers and their sites, and indeed,
Globally and nationally societies are developing and
the very limited autonomy of the education
have always developed, to a greater or lesser degree,
policy/political region of the state from the economic.
critical educators, community activists, organic
There are, in many states, greater and greater
intellectuals, students and teachers whose feelings of
restrictions on the ability of teachers to use their
outrage at economic and social class and racial and
pedagogical spaces for emancipatory purposes.
gender oppression lead them/us into activism. It is
being part of action, part of networks, part of mini –
The repressive cards within the ideological state
and of mass action. Ideological intervention in
apparatuses are stacked against the possibilities of
classrooms and in other cultural sites can have
transformative change through Initial Teacher Education
dramatic effect. However, actualising that ideology, that
a n d t h r o u g h s c h o o l i n g. B u t h i s t o r i c a l l y a n d
opposition to oppressive law or state or capitalist action,
internationally, this often has been the case. Spaces do
the effect of taking part in, feeling the solidarity, feeling
exist for counter-hegemonic struggle – sometimes (as
the blood stir, feeling the pride in action, the joint
now) narrower, sometimes (as in Western Europe and
learning that comes from that experience, can develop
North America, the 1960s and 1970s) broader. Having
c o n f i d e n c e , u n d e r s t a n d i n g, a n d c o m m i t m e n t .

C R I T I C A L EDUCATIORS 45
 Teachers As
T ransformatory
Intellectuals
HENRY GIROUX

Unlike many past educational engage in a much needed self-critique regarding the nature and purpose
reforms movements, the present call of teacher preparation, in-service teacher programs and the dominant forms
for educational change presents of classroom teaching. Similarly, the debate provides teachers with the
both a threat and a challenge to opportunity to organize collectively to improve the conditions under which
public school teachers that appear they work and to demonstrate to the public the central role that teachers
unprecedented. The threat comes must play to any viable attempt to reform the public schools.
in the form of a series of
educational reforms that display In order for teachers and others to engage in such a debate, it is necessary
little confidence in the ability of that theoretical perspective be developed that redefines the nature of the
public school teachers to provide educational crisis across the world while simultaneously providing the basis
intellectual and moral leadership for for an alternative view of teacher training and work. In short, recognizing
our youth. For instance, many that the current crisis in education largely has to do with the developing
recommendations that have trend towards the disempowerment of teachers as all levels of education
emerged in the current debate is a necessary theoretical precondition for teachers to organize effectively
across the world either ignore the and establish a collective voice in the current debate. Moreover, such a
role teacher’s play in preparing recognition will have to come to grips with a growing loss of power among
learners to be active and critical teachers around the basic conditions of their work, but also with a
citizens or they suggest reforms that changing public perception of their role as reflective practitioners.
ignore the intelligence, judgment
and experience that teachers might I want to make a small theoretical
offer in such a debate. Where contribution to this debate and the
teachers do enter the debate, they challenge it calls forth by examining two
are object of educational reforms major problems that need to be addressed
that reduce them to the status of in the interest of improving the quality
high-level technicians carrying out of ‘teacher work’, which includes all the
dictates and objectives decided by clerical tasks and extra assignment as well
experts far removed from the as classroom instruction. First, I think it
everyday realities of classroom life. is imperative to examine the ideological
The message appears to be that and material forces that have contributed
teachers do not count when it to what I want to call the
comes to critically examining the proletarianization of teacher work; that is, HENRY GIROUX
nature and process of educational the tendency to reduce teachers to the Henry A. Giroux is currently teaching at
reform. status of specialized technicians within the Pennsylvania State University. Professor
school bureaucracy, whose function then Giroux has published extensively in a
wide-ranging number of scholarly journals
The political and ideological climate becomes one of the managing and and books. His most recent books
does not look favorable for the implementing curricular programs rather include: Fugitive Cultures: Race, Violence,
teachers at the moment. But it than developing or critically appropriating and Youth, Channel Surfing: Racism, the
does offer them the challenge to curricula to fit specific pedagogical Media and the Destruction of Today’s
Youth etc. He lectures widely on a
join a public debate with their concerns. Second, there is a need to variety of cultural, social and educational
critics as well as the opportunity to defend schools as institutions essential to issues in the United States and abroad.

46 C R I T I C A L EDUCATIORS
maintaining and developing a populations. The deskilling that
critical democracy and also to It is imperative to teachers experience across the world
defending teachers as transformative examine the ideological is further exacerbated by World
intellectuals who combine scholarly and material forces that Bank pedagogies that impose on
reflection and practice in the countries forms of privatization and
service of educating students to be have contributed to reduce standardized curricula that
thoughtful, active citizens. In the teachers to the status of undermine the potential for critical
remainder of this essay, I will specialized technicians inquiry and engaged citizenship.
develop these points and conclude within the school Learning in this instance is
by examining their implications for depoliticized and often reduced to
providing an alternative view of bureaucracy. teaching to the test.
teacher work.
managing and controlling classroom What is clear in this approach is
Devaluing and Deskilling discipline, organizing a day’s that it organizes school life around
Teacher Work activities, and learning how to work c u r r i c u l a r, i n s t r u c t i o n a l , a n d
within specific time tables. evaluation express who do the
One of the major threats facing thinking while teachers are reduced
prospective and existing teachers Technocratic and instrumental to doing the implementing. The
within the public schools is the rationalities are also at work within effect is not only to deskill
increasing development of the teaching field itself, and they teachers, to remove them from the
instrumental ideologies that play an increasing role in reducing processes of deliberation and
emphasize a technocratic approach teacher autonomy with respect to reflection, but also to routinize the
to both teacher preparation and the development and planning of nature of learning and classroom
classroom pedagogy. At the core of curricula and the judging and pedagogy. Needless to say, the
the current emphasis on the implementation of classroom principles underlying management
instrumental and pragmatic factors instruction. This is most evident in pedagogies are at odds with the
in school life are a number of the proliferation of what has been premise that teachers should be
important pedagogical assumptions. called ‘teacher-proof ’ curriculum actively involved in producing
These include: a call for the packages. The underlying rationale curricula materials suited to the
separation of conception from in many of these packages reserves cultural and social contexts in
execution; the standardization of for teachers the role of simply which they teach. More specifically,
school knowledge in the interest of carrying out predetermined content the narrowing of curricula choices
managing and controlling it; the and instructional procedures. The to a back-to-basics format and the
increased call for standardized method and aim of such packages introduction of lock-step, time-on-
testing, and the devaluation of is to legitimate what I call task pedagogies operate from the
critical, intellectual work on the management pedagogies. That is theoretically erroneous assumption
part of teachers and students for knowledge is broken down into that all students can learn from
the primacy of practical discrete parts, standardized for easier the same materials, classroom
c o n s i d e r a t i o n s . I n t h i s v i e w, management and consumption, and instructional techniques and modes
teaching is reduced to training and measured through predefined forms of evaluation. The notion that
concepts are substituted by of assessment. Curricula approaches students come from different
methods. of this sort are management histories and embody different
pedagogies because the central experiences, linguistic practices,
Instead of learning to raise questions regarding learning are cultures, and talents is strategically
questions about the principles reduced to the problem of ignored within the logic and
underlying different classroom management, i.e., “how to allocate accountability of management
methods, research techniques and resources (teachers, students and pedagogy theory.
theories of education, students are materials) to produce the maximum
often preoccupied with learning the number of certified students within Teachers as Transformative
‘how to’, with what works, or with a designated time. Intellectuals
mastering the best way to teach a
given body of knowledge. For The underlying theoretical In what follows, I want to argue
example the mandatory field-practice assumption that guides this type of that one way to rethink and
seminars often consist of students pedagogy is that the behavior of restructure the nature of teacher
sharing with each other the teachers needs to be controlled and work is to view teachers as
techniques they have used in made consistent and predictable transformative intellectuals. The
across different schools and student

C R I T I C A L EDUCATIORS 47
category of intellectual is helpful in are striving. This means that they contextualize in political and
a number of ways. First, it provides must take a responsible role in normative terms the concrete social
a theoretical basis for examining shaping the purposes and conditions functions that teachers have both
teacher work as a form of of schooling. Such a task is to their work and to the dominant
intellectual labor, as opposed to impossible within a division of labor society.
defining it in purely instrumental or in which teachers have little
technical terms. Second, it clarifies influence over the ideological and A starting point for interrogating
the kinds of ideological and economic conditions of their work. the social function of teachers as
practical conditions necessary for This point has a normative and intellectuals is to view schools as
teachers to function as intellectuals. political dimension that seems economic, cultural and social sites
Third, it helps to make clear the especially relevant for teachers. If that are inextricably tied to the
role teachers play in producing and we believe that the role of issues of politics, power and
legitimating various political, teaching cannot be reduced to control. This means that schools do
economic and social interests merely training in the practical more than pass on in an objective
through the pedagogies they skills, but involves, instead, the fashion a common set of values
endorse and utilize. education of a class of engaged and knowledge. On the contrary,
and public intellectuals vital to the schools are places that represent
By viewing teachers as intellectuals, development of a free society, then forms of knowledge, language
we can illuminate the important the category of intellectual becomes practices, social relations and values
idea that all human activity a way of linking the purpose of that are particular selections and
involves some form of thinking. No teacher education, public schooling exclusions from the wider culture.
activity, regardless of how routinized and in-service training to the very As such, schools serve to introduce
it might become, can be abstracted and legitimate particular forms of
from the functioning of the mind It is important to stress social life. Rather than being
in some capacity. This is a crucial that teachers must take objective institutions removed from
issue, because by arguing that the the dynamics of politics and power,
use of the mind is a general part active responsibility for schools actually are contested
of all human activity we dignify raising serious questions spheres that embody and express
the human capacity for integrating about what they teach, struggle over what forms of
thinking and practice, and in doing how they are to teach, authority, types of knowledge, forms
so highlight the core of what it of moral regulation and versions of
means to view teachers as reflective and what the larger goals the past and future should be
practitioners. Within this discourse, are for which they are legitimated and transmitted to
teachers can be seen not merely as striving. students. The struggle is most
“performers professionally equipped visible in the demands, for
to realize effectively any goals that principles necessary for developing example, of right-wing religious
may be set for them. Rather [they a democratic order and society. groups currently trying to institute
should] be viewed as free men and Recognizing teachers as engaged school prayer, remove certain books
women with a special dedication to and public intellectuals means that from school libraries, and include
the values of the intellect and the educators should never be reduced certain forms of religious teachings
enhancement of the critical powers to technicians just as education in the science curricula. Of course,
of the young.” should never be reduced to different demands are made by
training. Instead, pedagogy should feminists, ecologists, minorities, and
Viewing teachers as intellectuals be rooted in the practice of ethical other interest groups who believe
also provides a strong theoretical and political formation of both the that the schools should teach
critique of technocratic and self and the broader social order. women’s studies, courses on the
instrumental ideologies underlying environment, or black history. In
an educational theory that separates I have argued that by viewing short, schools are not neutral sites,
the conceptualization, planning and teachers as intellectuals we can and teachers cannot assume the
design of curricula from the begin to rethink and reform the posture of being neutral either.
processes of implementation and traditions and conditions that have
execution. It is important to stress prevented teachers from assuming In the broadest sense, teachers as
that teachers must take active their full potential as active, intellectuals have to be seen in
responsibility for raising serious reflective scholars and practitioners. terms of the ideological and
questions about what they teach, I believe that it is important not political interests that structure the
how they are to teach, and what only to view teachers as nature of the discourse, classroom
the larger goals are for which they intellectuals, but also to social relations, and values that

48 C R I T I C A L EDUCATIORS
they legitimate in their teaching. with the particularity of their
With this perspective in mind, I Transformative intellectuals diverse problems, hopes, and
want to conclude that teachers need to develop a dreams.
should become transformative
intellectuals if they are to educate
discourse that unites the Transformative intellectuals need to
students to be active, critical language of critique with develop a discourse that unites the
citizens. the language of language of critique with the
possibility, so that social language of possibility, so that social
Central to the category of educators recognize that they can
transformative intellectual is the
educators recognize that make changes. In doing so, they
necessity of making the pedagogical they can make changes. must speak out against economic,
more political and the political political and social injustices both
more pedagogical. Making the connection between the human within and outside of schools. At
pedagogical more political means condition and the ethical basis of the same time, they must work to
inserting schooling directly into the our existence. The key here is to create the conditions that give
political sphere by arguing that recognize that being a students the opportunity to become
schooling represents both a struggle transformative intellectual is no citizens who have the knowledge
to define meaning and a struggle excuse for being dogmatic. While it and courage to struggle in order to
over power relations. Within this is crucial to recognize that make despair unconvincing and
perspective, critical reflection and education has a critical function, hope practical. Hope in this case is
action become part of a the teachers task is not to mold not a call to social engineering nor
fundamental social project to help students but to encourage human an excuse to overlook the difficult
students develop a deep and agency, to provide the conditions conditions that shape both schools
abiding faith in the struggle to for students to be self-determining and the larger social order. On the
overcome economic, political and and to struggle for a society that contrary, it is the precondition for
social injustices, and to further is both autonomous and offering up those languages and
humanize themselves as part of this democratic. values that can help point the way
struggle. In this case, knowledge to a more democratic and just
and power are inextricably linked Making the political more world.
to the presupposition that to pedagogical means utilizing forms of
choose life, to recognize the pedagogy that embody political As Judith Butler has argued, there
necessity of improving its interest that are emancipatory in is more hope in the world when
democratic and qualitative character nature; that is, using forms of we can question common sense
for all people, is to understand the pedagogy that treat students as assumptions and believe that what
preconditions necessary to struggle critical agents; make knowledge we know is directly related to our
for it. Teaching must be seen as problematic; utilize critical and ability to help change the world
political precisely because it is affirming dialogue; and make the around us, though it is far from
directive, that is, an intervention case for struggling for a qualitatively the only condition necessary for
that takes up the ethical better world for all people. In part, such change. Hope provides the
responsibility of recognizing, as this suggests that transformative basis for dignifying our labor as
Paulo Freire points out, that human intellectuals take seriously the need intellectuals, offering up critical
life is conditioned but not to give students an active voice in knowledge linked to democratic
determined. their learning experiences. It also social change, and allowing both
means developing a critical students and teachers to recognize
A critical pedagogical practice does vernacular that is attentive to ambivalence and uncertainty as a
not transfer knowledge but create problems experienced at the level fundamental dimension of learning
the possibilities for its production, of everyday life, particularly as they to engage in critique, dialogue, and
a n a l y s i s , a n d u s e . Wi t h o u t are related to pedagogical an open ended struggle for justice.
succumbing to a kind of rigid experiences connected to classroom As difficult as this task may seem
dogmatism, teachers must provide practice. As such, the pedagogical to social educators, it is a struggle
the conditions for students to bear starting point for such intellectuals worth waging. To do otherwise is
w i t n e s s t o h i s t o r y, t h e i r o w n is not the isolated student but to deny educators the opportunity
actions, and the mechanisms that individuals and groups in their to assume the role of
drive the larger social order so that various cultural, class, racial, transformative intellectuals.
they can imagine the inseparable historical and gender settings, along

C R I T I C A L EDUCATIORS
49
 VOICE of the
VOICELESS MUHAMMAD KHAN (DRIVER)

Muhammad Khan is an integral member of our team. Although not ‘literate’ in the
conventional sense of the word or ‘educated’ by the standards of the privileged few,
he has the brilliance and motivation to handle perhaps the most radical section of our
magazine: ‘Opinions of the Oppressed’.

For this issue we gathered opinions of people regarding

school going and non-school going children:

What is the difference between a child who goes to school and a

child who does not go to school?

Results . . .
“In today’s time, there is a clear difference between the quality of school they are attending is good
a child who goes to school and a child who does and it is providing them proper up bringing. Those
not. Those who go to school are extremely ill who do not go to school cannot even tell the
mannered and ill disciplined as compared to those location of their country so how can they progress
who do not go to school. The latter do not in the world?”
possess these weaknesses because school teachers Mukheeb – Fruit seller
cannot offer the kind of upbringing, which the
parents give to their children.” “A child who does not go to school is like a blind
Gul Samad – Clerk person while a child who goes to school is like a
person who is able to see. Thus, children must go
“School going children learn whatever the to school.”
environment of the school teaches them. Instead Fazal Wahab – Student
of going to sub-standard schools it is better that
children stay at home and are taught and trained “The difference between the children who go to
by their parents and siblings.” school and those who do not is that the former
Sher Bahadur – Shopkeeper acquire knowledge and become able to read and
write, which would subsequently help them in their
“Yes! There is a difference between children who lives.”
go to school and those who do not. Those who Munawar Shah – Labourer
go to school are highly ill mannered. If the
children, not attending school, are given proper “The difference between the children who go to
education and up bringing, they can comparatively school and those who do not is like the difference
become better.” between sky and earth. Those who go to school
Inamur Rehman – Peon acquire education and become doctors and
engineers while those who do not go to school do
“I think there is a big difference between a child not progress.”
who goes to school and a child who does not. Naik Mohammed – Cold Drink Seller
Knowledge is illumination. Those children who go
to school are like light and those who do not
remain in darkness.” “School going children are arrogant and do not
Aftab – Waiter respect their elders while illiterate children who do
not go to school are very respectful and decent.”
“The school going children can make a name for Habib-ur-Rehman – Warehouse keeper
their country and become bright stars given that

50
VOICE of the VOICELESS

“Those who go to school are initially well-mannered are literate tend to look after their parents more.”
but as they grow up they lose respect and Nawab Sher – Site purchaser
mannerisms while those who do not go to school
are respectable and have regard for their elders.” “In today’s age, the future of school going children
Khaksar Ali – Candy Seller is much brighter than of those who do not go to
school. School going children after receiving
“Those children who go to madrasahs are better education become responsible citizens of the
than those who go to school. The latter only country and their thinking and actions are better
waste time and money as schools focus more on than those of illiterate children who lose their way
fees rather than children.” in darkness. School going children, therefore, make
Anonymous better citizens.”
Ali Haider – Student
“Boys and girls who go to school don’t have any
manners and insight. On the other hand those “Those children who go to school are naughty and
who do not attend school possess ethics and self- ill-mannered. On the other hand, they are neat
respect.” and clean, they are respected both at home and
Ishtiaq Ali – Student outside and they will be successful in the future.
Those children who do not go to school are
“The difference between school-going children and neither respected by their family nor by outsiders.
non-school going is that of intellect and awareness. They remain deprived of the advances of the
Those who go to school can differentiate between modern age. They sit at home and commit and
good and bad while those children who do not create evil actions and problems for their parents.
attend schools are neither literate nor reflect any If parents provide proper upbringing to their
civility and manners. Moreover, school going children they would be successful and happy. They
children become better citizens after becoming will also be neat and clean and well mannered.
literate.” Everyone will value such a child. It is the
Nasir Mohammed Khan – Student responsibility of the parents to raise their children
properly.”
“The difference between children who go to school Ibrar Ahmed – Student
and the children who don’t is that school going
children are neat and clean and they have more “Those children who go to school are neat and
awareness than illiterate children. As far as clean and well mannered while those who do not
manners are concerned they come from upbringing go to school have no such attributes.”
at home and mischief is a part of every child’s Zarshan – Labourer
nature. Those who attend school are equally
mischievous as those who don’t. The children who

On a final note
In our society education means schooling and we do not consider any other form of
learning, outside the school, as education. These responses, coming from people who
represent the masses, make evident the fact that whoever does not attend a formal
school is considered illiterate and ignorant. And all those who go to schools are assumed
to have a certified bright future ahead and are considered the most ethical and responsible
human beings. It is sad to note that we either dismiss or are unaware of the alternative
resources of education, which lie outside the curriculum of schools and which are an
equally (or doubally) enriching source of knowledge for our children. Learning from family,
elders and community is one example. Some responses (very few) suggested the opposite
i.e. the children who do not go to school are better off than school-going ones because
the latter are devoid of the moral and ethical attributes of a good citizen due to the
destructive environment of schools. We should learn to appreciate and look for alternative
means of education for our children and not restrict their process of education to
schooling only. We should also learn to regard those children who do not attend a formal
school instead of labeling them as ‘illiterate’ or ‘ignorant’. It is most important to
understand the fact that one can learn his/her morals and ethics and be educated without
going to school.

51
Development They call it the Poverty Trap. For once they
are right. Once you are into it, its hard to get
Diary out. Not the poverty, the trap. Am I confusing
some people? Well let me clarify. Observe the
By KT conversation below:

A. I need your advice. A. Gosh yes, my wife keeps badgering me to get some
B. On what? conference there too, but I suppose she will either
A. I need to make a decision. I have been invited to have to settle for Geneva or Paris. I haven’t been
two conferences on the same subject at the same to Paris yet either. And they are putting us up in
time. Which one should I go to? this fancy hotel on the Champs Elyeese.
B. Where are the two conferences? B. Very nice. My Singapore one is in a five star right
A. Well, one is in Geneva, the other is in Paris on the waterfront. Look that still doesn’t solve our
B. Hmmm... that is a tough choice. And they are problem. Which one should we choose?
both at the same time you say? A. I don’t know, tough choice. Sometimes I feel these
A. Yes, and then there is a workshop in Islamabad donors are trying to trap us by giving us such
around then too tough choices.
B. Oh please! Why would you even consider going B. I agree. I mean its as if they want to make life
there over Geneva and Paris? difficult for us. By the way, what’s the topic for
A. Well, because its at the new Serena Hotel. They your conference?
say its the most expensive hotel in the country. A. Understanding poverty in the 21st century. Yours?
B. Oh! that’s alright then, but listen, even I needed B. How to eradicate poverty in the 21st century.
your advice. There is a training course I have been A. Ok, I have an idea, lets see which one gives us
invited to in New York and another seminar in the higher daily allowance otherwise, we will flip
Singapore. Even I’m confused about which one to a coin.
choose. B. Sounds good, but lets do it over coffee and
A. Well you said you had to go do some shopping in Cheesecake at the Marriot. I have to prepare for
NYC didn’t you? this round table discussion on malnutrition or
B. Yes, but Singapore is so much cheaper and I something somewhere in the Western Sahara
haven’t been there yet.
Right dears, if this isn’t a trap, I don’t know what is. I can tell you one thing though. Sightseeing has never
been so cost efficient and convenient. If nothing else, its great business for the airline and hotel industry, wouldn’t
you say so? I must say the attack on Afghanistan (sorry, did I say ‘attack’? I meant ‘war’) has done much to
improve the waning ties in development with our dear friends – the donors. I mean, where else would be better
to decide the future of a war-torn and starving country than in Germany or Japan. I have heard many say that
going to deprived and poverty-ridden areas is an ‘experience’, but only if it is compensated by a room at the
near-by Sheraton after. I mean, one does need a good nights rest, to head out on the next ‘excursion’ you know.

So, what is it that provokes the powers that be to constantly skirt over the issues? Exactly, how much are they
willing to cut back on luxuries in order to meet the ‘needs of the poor’ they so diligently want kept on the
agenda? Do they and even we for that matter, know who the ‘poor’ are? It seems that poverty is no longer
the cause, it is now the effect of such mis-spent agendas. What is a greater cause for concern, is that it is our
very own people who often pander to these agendas wholeheartedly. I mean who wouldn’t want to get a free
trip to Paris or Geneva, right? But admittedly, it is a difficult trap to get out of, especially for those who want
to have a taste of the ‘good’ life. But juxtaposing poverty against these desires is probably taking the issue too
far. I mean, just join a multi-national then for God’s sake! I hope some may agree with me (I hear the NGOers
shaking their heads).

The aim of this comment is not to trivialize or even mock the issue of poverty. It is far too serious an issue
to be viewed in such a manner. The aim more rather, is to divert the attention of practitioners and policy
makers to the more pressing issues at hand. Why is poverty on the increase despite the (relatively) enormous
amount of funds being poured into poverty reduction and alleviation programmes (that’s another thing, we need
to decide what to do with poverty, reduce it or get rid of it!). Why don’t initiatives work? What is being done
wrong? Somehow I can hear the poverty pundits saying they will need a few more conferences and workshops
(in exotic locations no less) to get these issues sorted out! And the drama continues

52
 SOCIETAL LEARNING
B O O K S F O R A B E T T E R W O R L D

Paradoxically, the belief that universal schooling is

absolutely necessary is most firmly held in those
countries where the fewest people have been and
will be served by schools. All over the world the
school has an anti-educational effect on the society:
school is recognized as the institution, which
specializes in education. The failures of school are
taken by most people as a proof that education
is very costly, very complex, always arcane and
frequently almost impossible task.

School appropriates the money, men and good will

available for education and in addition discourages
other institutions from assuming educational tasks.
DESCHOOLING SOCIETY Obligatory schooling inevitably polarizes a society;
IVAN ILLICH it also grades the nations of the world according
to an international caste system. Countries are rated
Many students, especially those who are poor, like castes whose educational dignity is determined
intuitively know what schools do for them. They by the average years of schooling of its citizens,
school them to confuse process and substance. a rating, which is closely related to per capita
Once these become blurred, a new logic is gross national product and much more painful.
assumed. The pupil thereby is ‘Schooled’ to confuse School has become the world religion of a
teaching and learning, grade advancement with modernized proleriat and makes futile promises of
education, a diploma with competence and fluency salvation to the poor of the technological age. The
w i t h t h e a b i l i t y t o s a y s o m e t h i n g n e w. H i s escalation of schools as destructive as the escalation
imagination is ‘schooled’ to accept service in place of weapons but less visibly so. Everywhere in the
of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health world, school costs have risen faster than
care, social work for the improvement of community enrolments and faster than the GNP.
life, police protection for safety and the rat race
for productive work. Neither learning nor justice is promoted by
schooling because educators insist on packaging
Welfare bureaucracies claim a professional, political instruction with certification. Learning and the
and financial monopoly over the social imagination, assignment of social roles are melted into
setting standards of what is valuable and what is schooling. Yet to learn means to acquire a new
feasible. This monopoly is at the root of the skill or insight, while promotion depends on an
modernization of poverty. Every simple need to opinion, which others have formed. Learning
which an institutional answer is found permits the frequently is the result of instruction, but selection
invention of a new class of poor and a new for a role or category in the job market
definition of poverty. Modernized poverty combines increasingly depends on mere length of attendance.
the lack of power over circumstances with a loss
of personal potency. This modernization of poverty Curriculum has always been used to assign social
is a world-wide phenomenon and lies at the root rank. An illusion regarding schools is that most
of contemporary under development. learning is the result of teaching. Teaching may
contribute to certain kinds of learning under certain
It is obvious that even with schools of equal quality circumstances. But most people acquire most of
a poor child can seldom catch up with a rich their knowledge outside school, and in school in
one. Even if they attend equal schools and begin so far as school, in a few rich countries, has
at the same age, poor children lack most of the become their place of confinement during an
educational opportunities, which are casually increasing part of their lives.
available to the middle class child. These
advantages range from conversation and books in The deschooling of society implies a recognition of
the home to a vacation travel and a different the two-faced nature of learning. An insistence on
sense of oneself. So the poorer student will skill alone could be disaster; equal emphasis must
generally fall behind as long as he depends on be placed on other kinds of learning. But if
the school for his learning and advancement. schools are the wrong places for learning a skill,

53
 they are even worse places for getting an with a change of consciousness about institutions
education. School does both tasks badly, partly and to explain why the dimension of a viable
because it does not distinguish between them. future turns on the rejuvenation of institutional style.
School is inefficient in skill instruction especially
because it is curricular. Schools are even less Schools are fundamentally alike in all countries, be
efficient in the arrangement of the circumstances, they fascist, democratic or socialist, big or small,
which encourage the open-ended, exploratory use rich or poor. This identity of the school system
of acquired skills, for which the term ‘liberal forces us to recognize the profound world-identity
education’ is used. The main reason for this is that of myth, mode of production and method of social
school is obligatory and becomes schooling for control, despite the great variety of mythologies in
schooling’s sake: en enforced stay in the company which the myth finds expression.
of teachers.
A good educational system should have three
In schools, including universities, most resources are purposes: it should provide all who want to learn
spent to purchase the time and motivation of a with access to available resources at any time in
limited number of people to take up pre- their lives; empower all who want to share what
determined problems in a ritually defined setting. they know to find those who want to learn it from
The most radical alternative to school would be a them and finally, furnish all who want to present
network or service, which gave each man the same an issue to the public with the opportunity to make
opportunity to share his current concern with others their challenge known. Learners should not be
motivated by the same concern. Some schools forced to submit to an obligatory curriculum or to
become so flexible that they cease to be useful. discrimination based on whether they possess a
‘School’ and ‘teaching’ are such terms. Like an certificate or a diploma. Nor should the public be
amoeba they fit into almost any interstice of the forced to support, through a regressive taxation a
language. ABM will teach the Russians, IBM will huge professional apparatus of educators and
teach Negro children and the army can become buildings which infact restricts the public’s chances
the school of a nation. for learning to the services the profession is willing
to put on the market. The planning of new
A degree always leaves its indelible price tag on educational institutions ought not to begin with the
the curriculum of its consumer. Certified college administrative goals of a principal or president or
graduates fit only into a world, which puts a price with the teaching goals of a professional educators
tag on their heads, thereby giving them the power or with the learning goals of any hypothetical class
to define the level of expectations in their society. of people. It must not start with the questions,
In schools, including universities, most resources are “What should someone learn?” but with the
spent to purchase the time and motivation of a questions, “What kinds of things and people might
limited number of people to take up pre learners want to be in contact with in order to
determined problems in a ritually defined setting. learn?”
The most radical alternative to school would be a
network or service, which gave each man the same In a world, which is controlled and owned by
opportunity to share his current concern with others nations and corporations, only limited access to
motivated by the same concern. educational objects will ever be possible. But
increased access to those objects which can be
I believe that a desirable future depends on our shared for educational purposes may enlighten us
deliberately choosing a life of action over a life enough to help us to break through these ultimate
of consumption, on our engendering a life style, political barriers. Public schools transfer control over
which will enable us to be spontaneous, the educational use of objects from private to
independent, yet related to each other, rather than professional hands. The institutional inversion of
maintaining a lifestyle which only allows us to make schools could empower the individual to reclaim
and unmake, produce and consume – a style of the right to use them for education. Local
life which is merely a way station on the road to communities are valuable. They are also a
the depletion and pollution of the environment. vanishing reality as men progressively let service
institutions define their circles of social relationship.
‘Modern’ technology transferred to poor countries
falls into three large categories: goods, factories, School has become the advertising agency, which
which make them and serviced institutions – makes you believe that you need the society as it
principally schools – which make men into modern is. In such a society, marginal value has become
producers and consumers. Most countries by far constantly self-transcendent. The ethos of non-satiety
spend the largest proportion of their budget on is thus at the root of physical depredation, social
schools. Fundamental social change must begin p o l a r i z a t i o n a n d p s y c h o l o g i c a l p a s s i v i t y.

54
 opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of
the things they store. But in the last analysis, it is
men themselves who are filed away through the
lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in
this (at best) misguided system. For apart from
inquiry, apart from the praxis, men cannot be truly
human. Knowledge emerges only through invention
and re-invention, through the restless, impatient,
continuing, hopeful inquiry men pursue in the
world, with the world, and with each other.

The raison d’etre of libertarian education, on the

other hand, lies in its drive towards reconciliation.
Education must begin with the solution of the
Pedagogy Of The teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the
poles of the contradiction so that both are
Oppressed simultaneously teachers and students. This solution
is not (nor can it be) found in the banking
PAULO FREIRE concept. On the contrary, banking education
maintains and even stimulates the contradiction
through the following attitudes and practices, which
A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship mirror oppressive society as a whole:
at any level, inside or outside the school, reveals
its fundamentally narrative character. This relationship a. the teacher teaches and the students are
involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and taught;
patient, listening objects (the students). The contents, b. the teacher knows everything and the students
whether values or empirical dimensions of reality, know nothing;
tend in the process of being narrated to become c. the teacher thinks and the students are thought
lifeless and petrified. Education is suffering from about;
narration sickness. d. the teacher talks and the students listen –
meekly;
The outstanding characteristic of this narrative e. the teacher disciplines and the students are
education, then, is the sonority of words, not their disciplined:
transforming power. “Four times four is sixteen; the f. the teacher chooses and enforces his choice,
capital of Para is Belem.” The student records, and the students comply;
memorizes, and repeats these phrases without g. the teacher acts and the students have the
perceiving what four times four really means, or illusion of acting through the action of the
realizing the true significance of ‘capital’ in the teacher;
affirmation “the capital of Para is Belem”, that is h. the teacher chooses the program content, and
what Belem means for Para and what Para means the students (who were not consulted) adapt
for Brazil. Narration (with the teacher as narrator) to it;
leads the students to memorize mechanically the i. the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge
narrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into with his own professional authority, which he
‘containers’, into ‘receptacles’ to be ‘filled’ by the sets in opposition to the freedom of the
t e a c h e r. T h e m o r e c o m p l e t e l y h e f i l l s t h e students;
receptacles, the better a teacher he is. The more j. the teacher is the Subject of the learning
meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be process, while the pupils are mere objects.
filled, the better students they are.
It is not surprising that the banking concept of
Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in education regards men as adaptable, manageable
which the students are the depositories and the beings. The more students work at storing the
teacher is the depositer. Instead of communicating, deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop
the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits the critical consciousness, which would result from
which the students patiently receive, memorize, and their intervention in the world as transformers of
repeat. This is the ‘banking’ concept of education, that world. The more completely they accept the
in which the scope of action allowed to the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend
students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the
storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.

55
 The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for
‘marginals’, are not men living ‘outside’ society. the emergence of consciousness and critical
They have always been ‘inside’ – inside the intervention in reality.
structure, which made them ‘beings for others’. The
solution is not to ‘integrate’ them into the structure Students, as they are increasingly posed with
of oppression, but to transform that structure so problems relating to themselves in the world and
that they can become ‘beings for themselves’. Such with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and
transformation, of course, would undermine the obliged to respond to that challenge. Because they
oppressors’ purposes; hence their utilization of the apprehend the challenge as interrelated to other
banking concept of education to avoid the threat problems within a total context, not as a theoretical
of student conscientizacao. question, the resulting comprehension tends to be
increasingly critical and thus constantly less
The banking approach to adult education, for alienated. Their response to the challenge evokes
example, will never propose to students that they new challenges, followed by new understandings;
critically consider reality. It will deal instead with and gradually the students come to regard
such vital questions as whether Roger gave green themselves as committed.
grass to the goat, and insist upon the importance
of learning that, on the contrary, Roger gave green In problem-posing education, men develop their
grass to the rabbit. The ‘humanism’ of the banking power to perceive critically the way they exist in
approach masks the effort to turn women and men the world with which and in which they find
into automatons – the very negation of their themselves; they come to see the world not as a
ontological vocation to be more fully human. static reality, but as a reality in process, in
Solidarity requires true communication, and the transformation. Although the dialectical relations of
concept by which such an educator is guided fears men with the world exist independently of how
and proscribes communication. these relations are perceived (or whether or not
they are perceived at all), it is also true that the
Yet, only through communication can human life form of action men adopt is to a large extent a
hold meaning. The teacher’s thinking is function of how they perceive themselves in the
authenticated only by the authenticity of the world. Hence, the teacher-student and the students-
students’ thinking. The teacher cannot think for his teachers reflect simultaneously on themselves and
students, nor can he impose his thought on them. the world without dichotomizing this reflection from
Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about action, and thus establish an authentic form of
reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, thought and action.
but only in communication. Those truly committed
to liberation must reject the banking concept in its Banking education resists dialogue; problem-posing
entirety, adopting instead a concept of men as education regards dialogue as indispensable to the
conscious beings, and consciousness as act of cognition, which unveils reality. Banking
consciousness intent upon the world. They must education treats students as objects of assistance;
abandon the educational goal of deposit-making problem-posing education makes them critical
and replace it with the posing of the problems of thinkers. Education is thus constantly remade in the
men in their relations with the world. ‘Problem- praxis. In order to be, it must become. Problem-
posing’ education, responding to the essence of posing education does not and cannot serve the
consciousness – intentionality – rejects communiqués interests of the oppressor. No oppressive order
and embodies communication. It epitomizes the could permit the oppressed to begin to question:
special characteristic of consciousness: being Why? While only a revolutionary society can carry
conscious of, not only as intent on objects but as out this education in systematic terms, the
turned in upon itself in a Jasperian ‘split’ – revolutionary leaders need not take full power
consciousness as consciousness of consciousness. before they can employ the method. In the
revolutionary process, the leaders cannot utilize the
Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, banking method as an interim measure, justified
not transferrals of information. It is a learning on grounds of expediency, with the intention of
situation in which the cognizable object (far from later behaving in a genuinely revolutionary fashion.
being the end of the cognitive act) intermediates They must be revolutionary – that is to say,
the cognitive actors-teacher on the one hand and dialogical from the outset.
students on the other. Whereas banking education
anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-
posing education involves a constant unveiling of
reality. The former attempts to maintain the

56
 SOCIETAL LEARNING
W E B S I T E S F O R A B E T T E R W O R L D

Informal Education in Schools

In recent years there has been a significant growth
in the number of informal educators working in
formal educational settings like schools and colleges.
This section explores the phenomenon – and some
of the possibilities and problems involved.

Globalization and Education

These sets of articles examine some key questions
surrounding globalization – and its significance for
educators. It contains four topical sections regarding
globalization: The theory and experience of
globalization, definitions of globalization, globalization
and the incorporation of education, informal and
non–formal education, development and colonialism.

Yo u n g p e o p l e a n d C o n n e x i o n s
This feature examines youth strategy and the roles
of personal advisers and learning mentors, as is the
future for youth work. Though the connexion
www.infed.org service is aimed at the English government’s youth
HOME OF INFORMAL EDUCATION strategy, we can read some interesting concepts
such as social exclusion, joined–up thinking and
FARWA individualization.
Infed is “the home of informal education”. It aims
to provide a space for people to explore the theory Using Informal Education
and practice of informal education. In particular, This section contains excerpts of the book, Using
Infed wants to encourage educators to develop Informal Education, edited by Tony Jeffs and Mark
ways of working and being that foster associations, Smith. Here we can read about a variety of helpful
conversations and relationships. Dr Mark K. Smith topics such as personality and curriculum, informal
who specializes in the field of informal education education with young women in the community,
and lifelong learning is the editor of Infed. informal education in residential care with adults
and neighborhood, crime and informal education
This web site which has been operative since 1996, etc.
creating the informal education homepage
(www.infed.org), has been a major priority. Between Developing Youth Work
4000 and 7000 people visit the site each week. This piece spotlights the book written by Infed’s
This site serves as reservoir of knowledge own editor Mark K. Smith. Not only does this
containing article archives by various authors, book highlight informal education but also mutual
specialized features on informal education, search aid and popular practice. It attempts to construct
facilities and lastly a comprehensive encyclopedia a coherent and distinctive understanding of youth
of informal education. In order to navigate this work to the reader.
informative site more conducive to the user’s needs
we have created a list of some core features of
Infed and a concise synopsis of these components: Encyclopedia of Informal Education
The encyclopedia has over 300 articles that explore
Introductory Guides key ideas, thinkers and practices within informal
This sector features articles, commentaries and links education and lifelong learning. The articles range
on what is informal education and the concepts from history of Maria Montessori to Karl Marx’s
underlying the subject. Additionally, it introduces theories to the beginning times of education.
the development of theory and practice of
community development, community organization
and community participation.

57
 Final
Analysis
THE DAY WE SEALED OUR FATE:
Analyzing today’s educational system through
Iqbal’s eyes
MASHHOOD RIZVI
ADVICE

A Frankish Lord advised his son to

seek,

I
Such aim that is always pleasant ne’er
bleak. qbal describes the Eurocentric or modern education in
his poem ‘Advice’ (see left & right). If you are wondering
If lion’s temper is to lamb revealed, what the above has to do with the plight of our
It will entirely make its blood congealed.
education system today I am afraid you will have to read
Much good, if regal point remains in through the entire piece and even then I leave it to you to
heart, decide if there actually exists a strong connection between
In dominating men sword plays no part. what Iqbal wrote years ago and where we are right now. I
Pour the Self in culture’s acid strong,
hope to persuade you that it not only has a great deal to
When it becomes soft, mould it as you do with our present educational disaster but also reminds us
long. of our collective failure to understand and encounter the
nefarious basis of the Eurocentric model of schooling and
On this Elexir’s efficacy you can count,
To heap of dust can change a mighty education. At the very outset of what we call the Final
mount! Analysis, I want to make several confessions:

g I do not claim to be an expert on schools, politics, or economics. What I am about to present is a personal
statement of my views and interpretations of Iqbal’s ‘warnings’ against the detrimental impact of
Eurocentric/modern education.
g I do not pretend to speak from an unbiased or neutral viewpoint. Opposing views are presented to us
constantly – if not explicitly then by implication – and if I have been less than generous or fair, it is because
I do not feel obligated to give another hearing to what we’ve all heard before and will certainly hear again.
More importantly, the ‘state of art’ our education system is in today also restricts me from being a fair
observer of whimsical arguments from the ‘other side’.

EDUCATION AND ITS I believe that Iqbal and his teachings/warnings have certainly
CONSEQUENCES been in the public eye long enough for all of us to have an
opinion regarding their relevance to our existing educational
Though we also are happy with the
progress of the young, and social situation. Those of you, who are genuinely interested
But some complaint from the happy lips in the issues I am about to raise, will find a more complete
also comes with it explication of them in many of the verses of Iqbal I have
We had thought education would bring
included in the essay. This is a partial list; Iqbal, on numerous
economic freedom, occasions identifies the importance of an indigenous educational
We did not know that atheism would system. He repeatedly highlights the power of our culture and
also come with it social values and has also warned us of the consequences of
Bang-i-dara
undermining our traditional values. I think Iqbal’s powerful
analysis of the colonial model of education system was crucial
then and to develop an understanding of his teachings is even more crucial now. I feel his works on education
could be re-published today and be just as relevant. Not much has changed. As a matter of fact, Iqbal still
provides us with directions that we could still follow in attacking many of today’s educational issues. Back to
basics is not the key. I don’t want to go back to anything. Forward to basics is a much more positive statement.

I do not wish to be a doomsayer. The trends are clear and the issues are serious. The ultimate outcomes however,
are uncertain rather than inevitable. If I believed otherwise, I would not be in the ‘business’ of education. It

58
 is not my intention to condemn present teachers or administrators as a group. There are those who have no
business in education, and there are those who are exceptionally well suited for it. Most fall somewhere in-
between. This is true of any profession. A majority of those I have met take their responsibilities extremely
seriously, seem to be genuinely interested in providing quality education to the young people, and seem to be
frustrated at the difficulty in doing so. If they have collective failures and shortcomings, most of them can be
ascribed to their own faulty education and to the nature of the institutional structure, which they feel compelled
to change. This, of course, is the whole point of what I am about to share: you cannot fix a system that is
already fixed.

THE STUDENT The process of studying Iqbal was like a voyage where I
discovered answers to questions for which I always wanted
May God acquaint you with some gale,
answers: What is worth knowing is the truth – the truth
Yo u r t i d e s n o s t i r a t a l l e x h a l e .
about our society, the world, and ourselves. Ultimate truth,
Respite from books you do not get, of course, will always be debatable, but there can be no serious
But Book Revealed too soon forget. debate that schools presently teach much that is not true as
RELIGION AND EDUCATION
if it were, and omit or suppress most of those uncomfortable
truths that might incite us to challenge the status quo: What
The teaching that the English have is important is to be able to think critically and independently,
devised, to be able to find information and use it to those purposes,
‘Gainst Faith and ties has great intrigue
contrived.
and to be able to distinguish between fact and fiction, myth
and reality; the values and attitudes that should be encouraged
and any that help to get an individual out of his/her isolated
socio-economic class and into the common humanity, i.e.., those
that promote peace, freedom, justice and all that they imply.

Iqbal unveils the authoritative and indoctrinating nature of Eurocentric education i.e. to manufacture students
who are submissive and eventually ‘enslaved’ and ‘colonized’ by the pressures of modern society. I find in his
writings a strong sense of resentment of mindless respect for authority that was and still is, an important part
of the hidden curriculum of the schools. I refer to the authority of the school to determine what is worth
knowing; the authority of the administrators to establish and enforce the rules under which learning may take
place; the authority of the teachers and the book publishers to determine the form and content of what will
be learned. The student, for far too many teachers and administrators, is a blank slate, an empty bucket, a
garden to be weeded and shaped, i.e., raw material to be patterned, molded and processed as mandated by the
‘masters’.

This is still as relevant as it was when he wrote Zarbe Kalim.

THE VOICE OF KARL MARX With a few notable exceptions, no one encourages our students
to think for themselves, to trust their own thoughts and
The world does not like tricks and,
Of science and wit nor, their contests
feelings, to raise questions and investigate issues and
This age does not like ancient thoughts, relationships, to examine what might or might not be
From core of hearts their show detests. important to them. The curriculum and the rules have
implicitly defined, on the contrary, “what is important”.
O wise economist, the books you write
Are quite devoid of useful aim: Questions and investigations have been constrained to pre-
They have twisted lines with orders defined channels leading to answers already known. Issues have
strange been limited to historical conflicts long since resolved and
No warmth for labour, though they originality and creativity have been attacked or at best confined
claim.
to art classes. When a rare teacher does try to create an open-
The idol houses of the West, ended situation, it is so novel and threatening that the
T h e i r s c h o o l s a n d c h u rc h e s w i d e opportunity it presents is invariably lost in the frantic effort
The ravage caused for, greed of wealth
to find out just exactly what he or she wanted. As a result
Their wily wit attempts to hide.
of all this, many students still don’t always feel comfortable
expressing their own thoughts and opinions, which goes to
show just how well the lesson was learned.

The end result of the education our students receive – and it seems much more received than actively
comprehended – is predictable and, I think now, almost exactly what it was intended to be and exactly what
Iqbal thought it would do to us. Just as Iqbal suggested that students are able to take in, store and retrieve

59
 MODERN AGE information on demand, quickly and accurately, and in the
Where from a man can find
form in which it has been presented, and able, with some
Ripe thoughts in present age? facility, to paraphrase the theories, ideas, and conclusions of
The weather of this park the experts. In short, they are fully ‘schooled’. That their
No ripeness can presage. communication skills are virtually limited to the written word
The seats of learning give
is of no consequence. Neither is the fact that they have never
The mind of pupils scope investigated a controversial issue and reached their own
B u t l e a v e t h e t h o u g h t s o f y o u t h conclusions. Nor does it seem important that many are unable
Unlinked by thread or rope. to think on their feet, are lacking common sense and are
The love of God is dead almost totally ignorant of what is going on in the world. Many
By unbelief ‘mong Franks students that I have met after launching EDucate! have shared
Through lack of link in thoughts, that they have never had a truly original thought, have no
E a s t S h a c k l e s w e a r s o n s h a n k s . convictions of their own, and would have been petrified, even had they had any, at
the prospect of expressing or defending them. But none of that really matters. It is
enough to have passed the exams. Nothing else is required. Nothing else is encouraged.

Not being able to learn anything from intellectual powerhouses like Iqbal comes at
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT a price. The price we have paid is becoming increasingly
evident. There is presently a crisis in Pakistan’s education
Free thinking can bring ‘bout the ruin
Of those whose thoughts are low and
system at all levels. More money is being spent on education
mean than ever before. Innovative curricula (albeit called ‘back to
They don’t possess the mode and style basics’) abound. More and more tests and requirements are
Of though (that may be chaste and being required of teachers. Test scores in our schools, however,
clean.
keep declining; violence and vandalism keep increasing; young
If thoughts are raw and immature adults are graduating from high school unable to act as
No good accrues to man in least: responsible citizens. Beyond all this there is the certain
The utmost. that such thoughts can do knowledge that what happens in school today will ultimately
Is change of wan to state of beast.
affect our society in a profound way tomorrow. For all these
reasons, and others, it seems necessary to re-question the assumptions on which modern
education rests.

INDIAN SCHOOL The most basic assumption of all, of course, is that education
is essential, or at least beneficial, to both the individual and
About the Self here have no talk, O society. This is so obvious that to question it might seem
bard, Because with schools such sermons
don’t accord.
absurd. But is it true? The answer seems to depend largely
on how you define education. Again a stark distinction can
Much good that birds that chirp may be found in the definition of education amongst the
not descry, The modes of hawk, its state Eurocentric and the progressive schools of thought. According
and rank so high.
to Webster, it is “the things one learns by being taught:
A free man’s breath can match a schooling or training.” (Websters, 1965). The Brazilian educator
subject year, How slowly moves the time Paulo Freire, however, defines education as “the process of
of serfs, is clear! becoming critically aware of one’s reality in a manner that
The free perform such deeds in span of leads to effective action upon it.” (Freire, 1968). Most of us
breath, But slaves are every instant will immediately recognize that there is a world of difference
prone to sudden death. between the two definitions, that the one does not necessarily
imply the other. That difference, however, has actually
The thoughts of persons free with truth
are lit, But thoughts of slaves do not developed only over the past hundred years or so. In simpler
own sense a bit. times, the correlation between schooling and the ability to
operate in the world effectively was much greater than it is
A slave has craze for marvels wrought
today. A hundred years ago, the content of education was
by Guides, Himself a wonder’live, his
memory fresh abides. virtually the same as it had been for generations. This was
not a problem because the world itself remained much the
This is the training that befits them same from one generation to the next. Children learned what
well, Painting, music and science of
plants as well.
their parents had learned because it was useful when dealing
with essentially the same world.

60
 But no more! The world – the physical, political, economic, social and psychological environments to which
we must adapt, or have it adapt to us if we are to survive – has changed. In fact, it has changed more drastically
in this century alone than in all the centuries of recorded history before it. We are beset by problems that were
unknown and even unimaginable in the past, such as overpopulation and mass starvation, the threat of sudden
and complete nuclear destruction, environmental waste and pollution, racial and economic confrontation, dwindling
resources, increasing bureaucratic regimentation and impersonality in our human relations, and growing dependence
on others for the very means of existence. The list goes on and on, and we are all familiar with it. We are
the most schooled generation in the history of humankind but how effectively are we dealing with these realities
of life? How well has our education equipped us to deal with these problems? How well is our present educational
system equipping our children to deal effectively with the world of the future, a world that by all indications
will be even more complex? I think one answer will cover all three questions: Not very well.

MAN OF PRESENT AGE The reason for the failure of schools lies in the definition of
their purpose, and therefore in the definition of education itself.
In heart of man of present age,
No Love of God is found at all
Are the educated people those who have had a certain
Wit stings him like a furious snake, amount of ‘schooling or training’, or those who know
His’glance cannot his mind enthrall. themselves, can develop and communicate ideas, are adaptable
to change, aware of realities, and able to identify problems,
Though man aspires to find the track
Of stars that roam in sky and tread
propose solutions, and implement them, i.e., able to deal
Alas! man has completely failed effectively with life? Put in those terms I’m willing to wager
To map the world of mind or head. that all of us view Webster’s definition – ‘schooling or training’
– as woefully inadequate to describe what education should
In intricacies of his thought
He is embroiled; is clear and plain, be about. Yet the reality of our schools is such that this is
So he is not as yet aware precisely the message that students get: education is what
Of what is loss and what is gain. happens in schools, and conversely, that school is where
Man has harnessed rays of the Sun,
education occurs. It is implicit in the structure of the
Much gain from them he has drawn, institution...the medium is once again the message.
But he can not transform the dark
And dismal night of life to dawn.The crisis in education springs largely from the conflict between what schools are,
and the definition of education that they imply, and what they need to become if rational and lasting solutions
to our problems are to be found and implemented. This is only part of the story. Attempts to reform the
educational system as if it existed in a vacuum are bound to fail, because the educational crisis is only one
aspect of the larger crisis facing our society: the largely unrecognized but very real conflict between science and
economics, between the possible and the actual. Technologically, we are living in the Space Age; economically,
we are still tied to the good old system of 19th Century industrial capitalism. It is my belief that many of the
problems we face could be solved with existing resources and technologies. They are not being solved because
the resources and technologies are not being applied to their solution. They are, instead, being applied, for the
most part, to the continuing and increasing production of consumer goods, the continuing and increasing
production – through mass-media advertising – of markets for those goods, and the continuing and increasing
production of service industries to keep it all rolling smoothly along. It is an unhappy fact of life – it is a tragic
fact of life – that the normal operations of the basic economic units of capitalism consistently sacrifice the
healthy development of community, work, environment, education, and social equality, to the accumulation of
capital and the growth of marketable goods and services. As has been said many times, corporations are inherently
disinterested in anything but profits. It is the nature of the beast.

LENIN BEFORE GOD In the meantime, as the old saying goes, the rich get richer
A blaze of art and science lights the and the poor get poorer; the rest of us find ways to make
West, With darkness that no Fountain ends meet and pray we don’t get sick. The issue is one of
of Life dispels. values. Humane solutions to our human problems continue
In high-rcared grace, in glory and in to elude us because we have been, and continue to be,
grandeur, The towering Bank out-tops educated to embrace the exploitive, manipulative values of a
the cathedral roof
century ago. They are no longer acceptable. If they ever were,
What they call commerce is a game of they reflect an extremely immature vision of the world, socially,
dice, For one, profit, for millions economically, and scientifically, a vision that was a logical
swooping death.
product of its time but has no rightful place in ours. But we
continue to educate our children for a world that no longer

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There science, philosophy, scholarship, exists. Why? It is primarily because public education, like most
government, Preach man’s equality and
drink men’s blood. other institutions in our society, has been gradually diverted
from its true purpose in order to serve the powerful and the
Death to the heart, machines stand privileged. Universal education and compulsory schooling have
sovereign, Engines that crush all sense
of human kindness. flourished because they were instituted at the beginning of a
period of extremely rapid economic growth, when new
When shall this galley of gold’s dominion
founder?, Thy world Thy day of wrath,
machines, new sources of power, new kinds of social
Lord, stands and waits. organization and control, and vast quantities of rich and easily
Bal-i-Jibril available raw materials made most people in Western countries
rich beyond the wildest dreams of earlier times. For the past
hundred years, schools have been useful to almost everyone. They have been useful to the rulers of society
because they have taught most people how to live and work like machines, and to want what only machines
could produce. They have been useful to the ordinary people of our society because they have held out the
promise that their children could rise in the world, might even be rich and powerful themselves one day. And
for a while, this was the case. But now the sources of rich and cheap raw materials that made the boom possible
are nearly used up. What is left is scarcer, of poorer quality, and harder to get at...and thus more expensive.
The ‘endless’ boom is over. Even in the richest countries, people are starting to realize that they can no longer
expect what they only recently took for granted that they and their children would be richer in the future than
they are now; in fact in poor countries most people face famine and disaster.

Those with vested interests in the old order of things are, not surprisingly, concerned with keeping them that
way. Their interest in change is limited to preventing it, or, if change is unavoidable, with minimizing, delaying,
controlling, and capitalizing on it to the maximum extent possible. School, inasmuch as it is inflicted on virtually
everybody, is an ideal instrument for inculcating the values, attitudes and myths that make possible the
maintenance of the privileged elite: like a high-priced hit-man, it is neat, systematic, and terribly effective. As
Jonathan Kozol once observed, the problem is not that public schools do not work well, but that they do. (Kozol,
1972). It is clear that schools play a central role in maintaining and justifying an anachronistic social order.
They are not educating to the realities of the present, let alone the future because school has come to serve
the interest of those who want to preserve the arrangements of the past. We are ‘educated’ to accept, fit into,
and promote a dying system because that system has not yet been completely milked dry. There is still some
money to be made from it. (Reimer, 1972).

THE MEDITATIONS OF Where does education (not mere schooling) fit into this dismal
MIHRAB GULAGHAN picture? It seems that instead of multiplying the sources of
In school the noise of games, debates,
citizenry initiative, schools now serve to limit them; instead
Great stir and animation prevail, of encouraging prompt and energetic efforts to protect and
This abundant joy e’ery moment breeds extend our freedoms, school acts to disinherit us by
New griefs and naught else can avail. encouraging and rewarding docility, conformity, and acceptance
Fo r m e n o f f re e a n d n o b l e b i r t h of the present order as right and even inevitable, though it
Such knowledge is a venom dread, is neither; instead of encouraging examination of and
Which makes them earn some barley confrontation with the problems of institutionalized greed and
corn, To fill their bellies with its bread. concentrated power, schools actually encourage the consumer
O fool, great wisdom and book lore orientation on which these depend, train (at public expense)
Have not much worth nor carry weight the future economic elite, and have themselves become ‘Big
To l e a r n a U s e f u l a r t o n e m u s t Business’, one of the biggest, in fact. In short, public education
Put in much strife and struggle great.
now serves as one of the most effective instruments of those
If such a craftsman likes, with ease, it was intended to protect us from. It does so in many ways.
By dint of skill and magic art, Perhaps the most obvious is the linking of social roles with
Like dew, can make from mass of Sun, school achievement. Today, of course, a high school diploma
The rays of light proceed and dart.
is prerequisite for almost any job; you can’t even collect
garbage from the streets of Karachi without one!

Progress through school depends on one’s willingness to play the game and to play by the rules. The game, in
all but a few schools and with all but a few exceptional teachers, might be called ‘Let’s Pretend’, and it goes
something like this: Let’s pretend that you are not who you are and that this work makes a difference to you;
let’s pretend that what bores you is important, and that the more it bores you the more important it is; let’s
pretend that there are certain things that everyone must know; let’s pretend that your competence can be judged

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 (and judged objectively) on the basis of how well you can play. The rules of the game are simple and
straightforward. You must follow directions, stay in your seat, raise your hand, be quiet, stay in line, control
yourself, must not question the authority of the book, the teacher, or the principal to determine what is best
for you. In short, you are to shut up and toe the line. The final rule, of course, is that you must play by the
rules, and the ultimate rule is that you must, in fact, play at least until you’re sixteen. Those who don’t play
very well, or won’t play by the rules – and of course those who refuse, for one reason or another, to play at
all drop out of the education picture at some point, and the point at which they drop out determines whether
they will subsequently be paid for their bodies, their hands, or their brains, and how much they will be paid.
Those who play well are allowed to keep playing, at increasingly difficult levels of competition, through high
school and into their twenties in college and graduate school, after which they are finally rewarded by installation
as a sort of ‘apprentice-elite’ at McDonalds or perhaps some university.

THE SCHOOL It should now be clear how right Iqbal was and how relevant
his teachings are even today. He made it clear then and it
Tile present age, your constant foe,
Like Ezrail has snatched your soul has become crystal clear now that obligatory mass education
You have imbibed much care and grief plays a central role in justifying and maintaining a continuing
Pursuit of wealth your only goal. hierarchy of privilege. The career and therefore the life of
the individual depend more and more on the success in
When faced by rivals strong and brave.
Your heart beats fast and shakes with school. The illusion is maintained that all have an equal
fear, Such life is naught but Death, in opportunity to achieve that success, but the facts fail to
fact, When blows of life you can not. support it. The graded curriculum, by its very nature, depends
on the relative failure of some, and it is the poor who fail
The knowledge that this age imparts
Has made forget you craze and zest, most consistently. They begin the game at a disadvantage,
Which bade the mind to keep away almost certainly finding that what happens in school is less
From pretexts that on truth didn’t rest. relevant to their real needs than it is to their more advantaged
With free hand Nature has bestowed
peers; they tend to experience one failure after another. They
On you the eyes of hawk so keen, drop out, most of them, and refill the ranks of the poor.
But bondage has replaced them with
The eyes, of bat, devoid of sheen. Even beyond the issues of democracy and social justice is the issue of human survival,
The things on which schools throw no for those who stay in school – rich, poor, and in-between are initiated alike into the
light, And keep them from your eyes myths of limitless production and consumption by the production methods through
concealed, Go to retreats of mount and which they are inculturated. They are prepared for specialized roles in specialized
waste, And get them by some Guide institutions, selected and shaped in terms of both skills and values. By its own
revealed.
bureaucratic, hierarchical, and authoritarian structure, school accustoms people to accept
t h e s i n g l e , i n t e g r a t e d h i e r a r c h y o f p o w e r a n d p r i v i l e g e t h a t p r e v a i l s i n t h e l a r g e r s o c i e t y.

It is important to recognize that the structure of school has not evolved because of any organizational prerequisites
for imparting cognitive skills; on the contrary, there is an overwhelming amount of research indicating that such
skills are more efficiently learned in democratic, non-repressive atmospheres. The structure of school – its hidden
curriculum, its message – is designed to produce and reinforce those values, attitudes, and affective capacities
w h i c h a l l o w i n d i v i d u a l s t o m o v e s m o o t h l y i n t o a n a l i e n a t e d a n d c l a s s - s t r a t i f i e d s o c i e t y.

The hidden curriculum of school is dangerous because it bolsters belief in a sick society – a society dedicated
to competitive consumption of everything that can be produced. It assumes that people want principally to
consume and that in order to do so, they must be bound to the wheel of endless production. The whole theory
of contemporary schooling is based on a similar assumption: that production methods applied to learning will
result in learning. They do result in learning to produce and consume, but at what price? As a means of learning
to adapt to a changing world they are absurd.

TEACHERS This brings us back to the two definitions of education:

If you desire to breed such ruby which
‘schooling or training,’ or the ‘ability to deal effectively with
is red, Don’t beg light of sun that from life’. We need to decide very soon to change our priorities,
course has fled. and change our schools to meet them. It will not be easy.
It is discouraging in the extreme to note that some of the
The world is trapped by traditions old
and hoar, Preceptors helpless quite, can most able spokespersons for reform (the late John Holt, for
do no more. one) (Holt, 1976) have reached the point of writing off the

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 (public) schools as unreformable, and see no solution but to
Those who deserved to lead the modern
age, Have worn out brains and others
hold the stage.
‘deschool’ society. (Illich, 1976). That is a hard choice, but
we are perhaps, at the point where there is nothing else but
hard choices. Unfortunately, our own education has done little to prepare us to accept that challenge. What
most of us received, from kindergarten to high school, was preparation for college. What we’ve had from schools
of education is mostly HOW to teach. Virtually nowhere in those sixteen years of schooling have we been
confronted with anything vaguely resembling a hard choice involving values, moral dilemmas, real problems of
the real world, or the truth about power and privilege in our society. On the contrary, school has done an
outstanding job of shielding us from the truth, insulating us against moral outrage, deadening our ability to think
critically and independently, and silencing the voice within that insists we do something more than just believe
in ideals.
UPBRINGING
Education reflects society. The crisis in our education reflects
Existence and knowledge both are poles
apart, Life burns the soul, whereas lore
the larger crisis of our civilization. Our system of education
makes it smart. is still chained to the mechanistic, exploitive, and profit-oriented
values that gained ascendancy in our society a century or
Joy; wealth and power all, to lore are more, ago. That view of the world cannot survive much
due, How irksome that to Self it yields
no clue. longer. Even if the earth’s resources would permit it, those
who have been systematically exploited over the years will
No dearth of lettered men, ah few! not. The crisis facing this country centers on the necessity
provide The bowl with wine of gnosis of redesigning our economy and life styles along the lines of
like True Guide.
human and planetary realities. The crisis in education centers
The ways of teachers don’t expand the on the fact that it is still preparing people to accept, fit into
heart, Match stick can’t light to electric and promote the old colonial values. We face the very real
lamp impart.
possibility of having an entire generation trained and
indoctrinated to serve a system that in all likelihood would
no longer exist when the students come of age. Where would that leave them, and us? Iqbal could have well
re-issued his works with up-dated publishing dates. Little has changed since his scathing analysis of the colonial
schooling system.
AWAKENING
What can you and I do about it? For me to suggest what I
A man with true belief, Whose Self
attentive grows Like Sturdy sword of
think we should do would be just a little too much like...
steel, Can cut and sheen it shows. school. I feel we have all had enough of being told what the
answers are. If you accept the problem, you must accept the
The urge to shine and grow, Within the responsibility of finding your own answers. However, I am
mote concealed ‘Fore his eyes sharp and
keen Is with much haste revealed. presumptuous enough to suggest the first step. That is to
recognize our past, present and future realities. No matter what
You have no link or bond With men of ideals we may hold, ‘schooling or training’ is the operant
godly brand You are a slave to world, definition of modern education. No matter what clichés and
On world he holds command.
patriotic catch-words we may hear from the rich and powerful,
So far you have not formed For coast the politicians, and the media, the actual power of the
a love or taste: He knows the depths ordinary person to direct the course of his or her own life
full well, By dint of nature chaste.
is declining. No matter what rhetoric we may hear about
conservation, ecology, human rights or social justice, we live
in a culture whose dominant ethic is materialistic and essentially exploitive of both physical and human resources.
Inasmuch as our own schooling has failed to educate us to these fundamental realities, we must assume – if
we are serious about our lives and our profession – the burden of educating ourselves. This in itself will be
difficult – few of us have learned how to learn. We have no choice, however, but to start from where we are.
The first decision, then, is whether or not to make the effort to find out just what the reality of the situation
is. I believe that Iqbal with his phenomenal vision and incisive identification of the truth about colonial and
modern schooling, if nothing else, still gives us a point from where to begin. I hope we can now take a lead
from him.

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 From

Global t o
Resisting Local
Monoculture,
Rebuilding Community
“Globalization is transforming unique individuals into mass consumers, and homgenising diverse
cultural traditions around the world. It is destroying wilderness and biodiversity, and creating
an expanding stream of waste that the biosphere cannot absorb. It is widening the gap between
rich and poor worldwide, and leading to increased levels of crime and violence. In the name
of ‘growth’ and ‘efficiency’, it is dividing us from each other and from the natural world on
which we ultimately depend If globalization is the root of so many problems, localization –
a shift away from the global and towards the local – is an obvious part of the solution.”
Helena Norberg-Hodge, Founder and Director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture

International Society for

Ecology and Culture
www.isec.org.uk