ITSF4010 - Cultural & Social Bases of Education

Short description

The concept of "culture" has become key in many fields of education.  This introductory course explores recent developments in the anthropological take on "culture," with particular emphasis on the United States

Longer description

It has become common sense that "culture" is something to be taken into account when dealing with any aspect of human activity.  Anthropologists have debated extensively about "culture," and have also extensively criticized the use of the concept in the various institutional discourses that control human activity.  This course is an introduction to the debates that will focus on three approaches to "culture" and make it an essential concept in the social sciences and their application on matters of education and beyond:

• Imagination and differentiation that, over time, construct particular worlds (epoch, cultureS) for some population.
• Identity (character, personality, cognition) that is one aspect of the consequences of living at a time when a particular world dominates through its institutions.
• System (social structure) and the tangled web of policies, practices, people that maintain particular worlds.

Final note

This course is particularly intended for students with no prior introduction to academic anthropology.