values behind the practice

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Chapter 1

Values Behind the Practice

Travelling can be a pleasant and profitable occupation for its own sake. One can enjoy and benefit from the experience without being too much concerned with the final destination. Indeed, for some people, the travelling may be the only thing that really matters. The means become the end or purpose of the journey.

Having said that , the travelJing may become much more pleasant and profitable if the tra~e]]er knows where to depart from and has learned something about the places to be visited on the way, and if this travel is placed within an overall framework which sees it as going somewhere - a final destination. The journey would then be enjoyed and the reasons for it understood. An extra dimension would have been added.

Auempling to decide upon the correct relationship between morality and schooling can be rather like this. To make as correct a decision as possible one needs to be aware of how present attitudes within society came to be held. One also needs to know about the values, sets of beliefs and ideologies which motivate people at the present time - and so where they want to go. Added to this, it is very important to be aware of present constraints acting upon society - what forces outside people's control are pushing them in one direction rather than another. Unless such factors are taken into account, the travelling - the day-to-day running of the school - will not be understood , and in the long run "may well be damaging to its recipients.

It is doubtful if any school or teacher is in the worst-cilse posi tion just painted. But it is uncomfortably true that the sheer pressure of the school's day-to-day running can prevent the taking of a measured look at issues like those raised above. Some teachers may even be surprised to find that their practices do not coincide with their avowed aims, or that they are repeating the mistakes of the past through not being aware that these mistakes have been made before.

This and the next chapter, then, will ask the question: where are you going? The present chapter wiU look at the kinds of educational values and ideologies it is possible to hoJd, and the kinds of relationship between morality and the school that are likely to follow . The next chapter will place such beliefs in an historical perspective and show that the problems teachers face today are both the same as and different from those of the past. They are the same · because the same questions recur. But they are different because social , economic and political conditions alter, and so the problems may present other faces.

However, before taking an historical perspective on the relationship between

8 The Morality of the School

morality and schooling, we begin by describing and analysing the major educational ideologies which have generated such relationships in the past, and continue to do so now.

Everyone, in some form or another, has certain basic beliefs about education -about the type of knowledge to be valued, the role of the child, the teacher and society in the process, the type of society to be aimed for and ultimately the preferred relationship between morality and schooling. These normally cohere into particular philosophies of education. It is important, then, to realize and to reHect upon one's own beliefs.

This can be achieved by means of the following simple exercise. Below are three groups of statements. Read the eight statements in group A, and assign fifteen marks between the eight statements in the group. You may give approximately equal weights to each statement, or assign the entire fifteen marks to just one statement, or give the bulk to just one or two about which you feel particularly strongly. Once this is completed, do the same for groups Band C.

Group A

1. All aspects of individual development are important. 2. Children must be given an understanding of the timeless depths and mysteries

of knowledge. 3. Learning should be an active social process which is guided but not dominated

by teachers. 4. Children should make their own choice of topic to study. 5. Schools must produce a well-trained motivated workforce which can compete in

international markets with other industrialized countries. 6. Teachers should help pupils in the process of understanding, appreciating, criti

cizing and, when older, changing society's norms and institutions. 7. Schools must be involved in the selection of elites, for different levels of ability

require different provision. 8. Pupils must be given the kinds of practical skills which will equip them to earn

a living once they leave school.

Group B

1. A school should be democratically run, with rules and punishments negotiated and agreed by all its members.

2. Certain kinds of knowledge have more value and are more important than other kinds.

3. In a rapidly changing world, it makes little sense to transmit bodies of knowledge established in a previous era.

4. The school should be seen as one part of a machine furthering the economic prosperity of this country.

5. Only a minority of people are capable of contributing to the pool of worthwhile knowledge.

Values Behind the Practice 9

6. The school should organize itse lf upon the principle that the interests and needs of the child are paramount.

7. The curriculum should be organized in a rational and democralk way so that current ins titutions and norms may be analysed, criticized, and , if necessary, alternatives suggested.

8. The curriculum should be centrally concerned with those areas of knowledge which contribute to the weahh-producing aspects of socie ty.

Group C

1. Maturity can only come about through the exercise of responsibility and freedom. 2. Public examinations should be used to assess the acquisition of knowledge. 3, Pupils should be seen as active in making sense of their learning, rather than as

passive recipients of transmitted knowledge and values. 4. Discussion, criticism and creativity must be linked with the promotion of econ-

omic goals. 5. The school should be an institution which fosters constructive criticism of society. 6. Schools should be seen as a means of changing society, 7. Disciplinary techniques should be chosen and imposed by those in authority. 8. Schools should be accountable to society for what they produce ; the quali ty of

their output can be assessed by objective criteria.

Marking

Now assign the marks from the statements to these views of education:

Cultural transmission A2 A7 B2 B5 C2 C7

Child-centred Al A4 B1 B6 CI C5

Social reconstruction A3 A6 B3 B7 C3 C6

GNP Code A5 A8 B4 B8 C4 C8

The higher the mark , the more inclined one is to a particular ideology. The four categorizations are developments of an initial typology by Malcolm Skilbeck (1976), and a brief summary of the main points of each can be seen in Table 1.1 on p. 7. It is important. however, to show in more detail how the adoption of anyone of these ideologies will influence the way in which the relationship between morality and schooling is perceived . Each of the educational ideologies. therefore , will be examined in some detail.

The cultural transmission model tends in practice to have two central tenets to its belief system: (a) concentration on a society's cultural heritage; and (b) the association of such a herilage with a small minority, its elite, who will be educated in such culture, whilst the majority of the populace receives a different type of education suited to its lesser intellectual capability. In many cases this less intellectual education


is calculated to 'gen tle' the majority into acceptance of its (inferior) position in society.

Clearly , notions of manners, hard work and obedience to authority will come near the top of any list of values and morals to be transmilled 10 such a majority. However. the two tenets - of a cultural heritage , and of an elite - are not necessary to one another. It is quite possible to believe that a cultural heritage should be passed on 10 all of the population rather than to a select few , just as Ihe existence of an elite does not have to be linked to the transmission of a cultural heritage.

It would seem, however, that the cultural transmission model in its fully developed fonn - the transmission of a cultural heritage to an elite - is antilhelical to Ihe ideals of a democratic society. A more restricted version, concentrating purely upon the transmission of a cultural heritage, is not so. The implementation of a National Curriculum in Great Britain can be seen in this light. Such a core of subjects common to all pupils assumes that there are certain areas of knowledge which should be passed on to all citizens if they are to benefit from a full range of educational insights. It is not, the refore , a code which need be held exclusively by conservative or liberal. It can be seen as the natura l conclusion to a process of the comprehensivization of schools, in that it provides all with fair access to society's past and present wisdom.

In like manner, the part of the cultural transmission model in the relationship between morality and education deserves very serious consideration , for it could be argued very plausibly that human beings would not be tully human without the benefit of the accumulated moral and social wisdom and practice of previous generations.

The cultural transmission model , however, has three major weaknesses. Firstly, by stressing Ihe existence of solid and eternal facts and values which can be transmilted from one age to another, it says little or nothing about the temporality of knowledge and the impermanence of certain beliefs and values. Further, it gives no yardstick by which to decide between the two, about what should be kept and what should be discarded. In terms of values, it may end up at the popular level by saying little more than 'this is what we did in the past, so we should do it now'. At the very least , its proponents need to be critical of their own heritage.

Secondly, the cultural heritage transmitted to the present generation was not consciously selected by previous generations as that which they would like to pass on. Cultural or value transmission is not the clean-cut affair somelimes simplistically painted. What has come down is not just the carefully selected gems of insight into the human condition necessary for the furtherance and development of civilization, but to some extent the product of accident, vested interests, fashion and what fitted in with the prevailing beliefs of the next generation on. Ignoring this dialectical element distorts the truth of the genesis of cultural and moral beliefs , and thereby presents a false model for schools to adopt.

Lastly, each creative act in this cultural transmission was the product of a critical analysis of what had gone before. The crealors took what was on offer, saw things from a slightly different angle and produced something related to but distinctly different from that which had gone before. If they had not done so, culture would have remained stagnant at Stone Age cave paintings or belief in evil spirits. The cultural transmission model makes little or no mention of this . And yet such creativity is not the preserve solely of the l'olstoys, Newtons or Mozarts of this world. It applies in less distinguished form 10 Ihe 'normal' adult and child as well. Those who adopt a transmission model generally picture the child as a receptor, passively accept-

Values Behind Ih e Practice 11

ing those values taught. But even a cursory glance at the finding5 of work of psychol· ogists like Piaget (1932) and Kohlberg (1981a) in the field of moral development suggest that the process is much more two-way. On these accounts , the individual is active and interactive with the values transmitted , each person's understanding of them being subtly different. This diffe rence depends upon what each person selects as important and relevant features of a situation. Such interaction must be recognized in any adequate account of a viable educational - and moral educat ional- viewpoint.

The second ideological standpoint described is the child-centred model. This ideology is strongly at odds with a conception of humanity as being bad by nature. Rather, this badness is seen as the product of being a member of society. Humans, the refore. are seen as basically good, society as corrupting thai nature. So one can see two major strands of the child-centred ideology here, an anti-society , individualist stance and a belief in the inherent goodness of humans.

Unlike the cultural transmission mOdel, with its stress on objective knowledge to be transmitted, the emphasis and attention here is upon children, on their unfolding natures and their subjective interests, This being the case, the material for children's education must come from within their own experience. As this will vary from child to child, so the impressive edifice of a cultural heritage erected by the cultural transmission model is shown to play but a very small part in children's education . Children, moreover , are perceived very differently. Rather than being the passive imbibers of predetermined materials , children are now seen as active and involved , constructing from their own vivid and authentic experiences personal and lndividual realities, very different from the objectivist picture painted by cultural transmission theorists. Each child will have different interests and different experiences, each interpreting them differently. This being the case, each construction of reality must of necessity be unique. The picture of education has moved from one painted at the level of society to one painted at the level of the individual child.

It is sometimes thought that the role of the teacher then becomes fairly peripheral to the educative process , being little more than its facilitator. This, however, need not be the case, for he or she may instead be seen as planner I constructor and developer. The teacher must be aware of each child's developmental possibilities, interests and capabilities. The teacher must then so structure conditions surrounding the child that the best possible use is made of the environment. In this way, the pupil 's interest and spontaneity will be channelled into areas -which will be of most benefit to him or her.

As with the cultural transmission model, so the child-centred one need not be the doctrine of the liberal. David Cooper (1987), for example, has attacked the notion of multicultural education from a child-centred standpoint. He argues that one needs to begin the child's education from where the child is , what he or she understands, and that multicultural education can be nothing more than a 'Cook's tour' which leaves the child bewildered and confused simply because education is not located within the child's Own cultural experience, Whilst there is an enonnous amount to quarrel with in such a view - the assumed lack of understanding by the child, lack of teaching ability by the educator and unbridgeable divisions between materials from different cultures - the point is simply that one must not assume that child centredness is an essentially liberal doctrine. It can be used by either end of the spectrum, and attacked by either end as well!

The relationship which the child~centred educator sees between morality and


schools is to some extent problematic, taking at least two diffe rent possible courses. Firstly , there is the individualist strain, an imprecise blend of individual value development through experience , and the expression of inborn sympathy for other people's needs and difficulties. And secondly, there is also the more twentieth-century communilarian approach seeing a devclopmenl of community values as preparation for the cri ticism and reform of society.

There are at least four major difficulties with the child-centred approach. Firstly, implicit in a lot of child-centred literature is the assumption that children

are 'naturally ' good . This stems largely from the writings of Rousseau. Such a view is a welcome antidote to the belief that children are inherently bad, but it describes the true situation no morc accurately. There is now much psychological evidence to suggest that at the earliest ages child ren are capable of producing both altruistic and egocentric behaviours (see Chapter 7). If this is the case, then leaving children to 'do thei r own thing ' does not make much sense either educationally or morally. Much more sensible is to decide on what one wishes the child to grow into, and then favour behaviours which lead in that direction. Leaving the child to develop 'naturally' is no morc than an abnegation of responsibility.

Secondly, it is surely a very limiting education which focuses only upon the child's interests. Whilst it makes good sense to begin from where the child begins and move out from there, the rea l danger with such a set of beliefs is that it could prevent the child from appreciating others' thoughts, feelings and beliefs. One of the key concepts in Kohlberg's (Kohlberg el aI., 1983) model of the moral development of the child is the notion of individuals being faced by 'optimum cognitive conflict ' - being put in a position where they are challenged to make better sense of moral beliefs than they do at present. Limiting children to their own in terests could leave many withou t this opportunity .

Thirdly, it is not at all clear how child-centred educators are to answer the charges of relativism in the ir approach to morality. How do they arrive at a standpoint where they can evaluate what the chi ld should do , or indeed what society should do? To say that society is inherently bad is no more than invective and helps us not at all. Similarly. to state that the child is inherently good seems to say little more than that whatever the child does of its own accord is good , and there are few who could agree with that , in terms of either the child's own best in terests or the rights of others. A thoroughgoing child-centred educator would have to accept "that each child is a law unto itself, and essentially there is no way of choosing between the values of one and the values of another. In which case, how does onc choose between the child who helps others and the child who kills them? Some of the chi1d-centred insights are undoubtedly valuable, most notably in steering attention back to the rights and needs of the individual, but on its own this approach does not seem to be able to provide a complete answer.

Lastly, it is not at all clear that the educational focus should be upon the individual as such. If the cultural transmission model neglects the importance of the individual in the linkage between morality and education, it could be argued that the child· centred model exaggerates it. Too much emphasis upon the individual can lead one to neglect the needs of the society in which that person lives. No one is an island, and the linkage between morality and schooling, it might be argued, should focus upon the relationships within society which go to improve that socie ty . This leads us directly into the third perspective.

Values Behind lhe Practice 13

The social reconstruction model is an ideological perspective which does not seek to impose society's values upon the individual , nor does the individual have to tread a lonely and sOlitary path towards self~discovery. The individual and society arc seen as being mutual1y beneficial. Society benefits through the focus on, appreciation of and, where needed, change of values by its members for the betterment of its members. By involving all its members in this cultural renewal, the model encourages both stability and growth. The individual benefits through being exposed to and critically appreciating the inherited values of the society, and through being accepted and recognized as having an important contribution to make to the process of renewal. The process and the product of education come together in a way which does violence to neither concept.

S.ocial reconstructionism, then. shares some of the properties of both the cultural transmission and the child~centred models, but is different from both in a number of ways. Firstly, it is an ideology which, much more than the previous two, is seen as a vehicle for the change of society. Whilst the cultural ·transmission model is essentially concerned with preserving the past, and the child~centred model is little concerned with change in society per se, social reconstructionism sees the major task of education as precisely this - the reform of society through education. Its subject maUer, therefore, differs markedly from the other two models. Whereas the cuJtural transmission model will view the transmission of the society'S cultural heritage as education's main function, and the child-centred model look to a curriculum developed from the child's capabilities and interests, the social reconstructionist will see the curriculum as being composed of pressing social issues which need to be resolved, and therefore will probably organize it on a topic-based approach. Like the child-centred educator, the social reconstructionist will view the child as being active and critical in his or her learning, but in a much more social and interactive manner. The social reconstruction teacher will share values of both the child-centred and the cuJturaJ transmission teachers - critical of existing society in many ways, but a1so aware of the fact that there are many things within society worth preserving, and acting as both selector of that which is to be criticized and changed and guardian of that which.is to be valued and retained.

There are a number of possible criticisms of the social reconstruction model. Firstly, there is the problem of the enormous responsibilities that are given to

teachers. Not only are they the selectors of social issues to be discussed (and the definers of them as 'problems') and guardians of that which is to be preserved, but they are also seen as possessing the critical acumen to perform these tasks, as well as facilitators and constructors of relevant teaching materials. There are many -including the teachers themselves - who would question whether teachers have the abilities or the resources to perform such tasks. There is also the mora] question of whether teachers, or anyone particular group, should be given this immensely important, influential and potentially subversive role.

Secondly, there is the fundamental question of whether there is a need for change to quite the degree normally envisaged in the proposals of the social reconstruction model. There is a radicalism here which might seem inappropriate to many in the stable western democracies, and which might also neglect the virtues of both the cultural transmission and the child-centred models. Valuable aspects of the cultural heritage of a country may be neglected in the passion for social reconstruction and renewal, just as the needs and interests of the individual child may be neglected in

-

J4 The Morality of the School

the movement 10 social reform. There is a need for balance between · all three elements.

Finally, there appears to be an unresolved tension within the ideology itself over the issue of leachers as cullural guardians. Whilst Ihe movemenl is profoundly democratic in its aspirations, there is a large element of elitist philosophy encapsulated within it , for the teacher is to be cast as the expert , the guardian, the selector, the transminer . It would seem that this ideology could slip all too easily from democracy into elitism.

Where does the individual school or teacher fit into all th is? It will be apparent that if there is an implicit justification for a particular kind of relationship between morality and the school within these three educational ideologies, then it is vitally important for the teacher and school to realize where they stand and where they want to go.

Moreover, an awareness of the preferred ideological stand will make the teacher and school that much more sensitized to attempts al imposing other ideological definitions upon them. In this context, there is a four th ideology which has become increasingly important in its influence over the last 10 to 15 years in this country, which has had strong repercussions in the linkage between morality and schooling.

For want of a better term , this ideology will be called the GNP (gross national product) 'code'. Its main features will be described here; its influence upon morality and the school is reserved for the next chapter. Its ideology focuses upon producers and consumers, upon technological sophistication and economic viability, and sees the school essentially as being the training ground for the roles which pupils will take up in the market-place once they leave school. In so doing, the school benefits society by providing a well-trained, motivated workforce, which can compete in international markets with other indust rialized countries such as the United States, West Germany and Japan, but it also benefits pupils by providing them with the skills to fit in to such a society, for they will be equipped for work and so able to earn a living and live contented lives. The cuniculum consists of all that is conducive to the furtherance of the nation's economic well-being, and tends to be technological/scientifidpractical in orientation. The pupil is seen as a person to be trained to fit in to the economic machine, and so initiative and active involvement are encouraged as far as these attributes dove tail with ultimate occupational destinations. The teacher is a trainer and transmitter , a constructor of appropriate (effective) teaching techniques for this training and transmitting, but essentially a fairly low-order member of the economic hierarchy. The values seen as worth transmitting are those conducive to fitting the child for his or her future role in society'S hierarchy, and vary with what is required of that particular individual at that lime. Such values as respect, hard work, punctuality and obedience may be prized, but so also may creativity and discovery. It is very likely, though, that values like social criticism and self-expression are seen as e ither undesirable or irreJevant.

The GNP code, then, is essentially technological/industrial in orientation. It has , however , certain features of the other ideologies which confuse it with them. For example, and as just noted, the values il Iransmits may be much like those of the cultural transmission model - emphasizing hierarchy, obedience, respect, punctuality and good manners. On the other hand , it tends to divert the curriculum away from notions of cultural heritage to skills , issues and materials which are seen as more ' relevant'. Relevance, creativity and discovery are values also seen in the child-

Values Behind the Practice 15

centred ideology, though located with the child as ends in themselves, whilst with the GNP code they are seen as a useful tool to the end of economic productivity.

It is possible yet again to see apparent contradictions in political orientations. Thus O'Hear (1987) has criticized the GCSE in Britain precisely because of its relevance - its failure to orient itself to the initiation of children into independent , non-relevant (not ifTelevant) bodies of knowledge - essentially the cultural transmission point of view. Here, then, the GNP code can clearly be seen to be distinct from the cultural transmission mOdel, in many ways its political partner. The GNP code has an orientation very_much its own.

Now whilst it is recognized that parts of the educative process must concentrate upon providing an industrial society with individuals equipped with the requisite skiHs, this cannot be its whole or even its main function. There are then a number of criticisms which must be made of Ihis ideology.

Firstly, in failing to critically transmit the cultural heritage of the past, the GNP code appears to fail to distinguish between means and ends in ideology. for it fails to answer the question 'where are we going?'. We are certainly going somewhere by. means of a healthy industrial base, but it is a culturally impoverished society which sees a healthy economic position as being the principal end to aim for. By failing to ask vital questions about ends, the GNP code does not begin to answer questions about the basis of its own validity.

Moreover, it does not only fail to satisfy the requirements of the cultural transmission model in terms of the denigration of transmitting the society's cultural heritage . It also fails the child-centred and social reconstructionist educators. It fails them by almost completely omitting from discussion the interests and insights of the individual. Both child and teacher as active contributors are ignored, to be included only minimally as functionaries within an overall grand design. Such a course, it wouLd seem, is fertile ground for apathy, alienation and possible violence .

And finally, the GNP code is in total opposition in certain crucial respects to the aspirations of the social reconstructionist, for it assumes that a particular form of economic structure is the desirable state for a society, and thereby leaves no room for the role of teacher or child in social reconstruction as there is essentially to be no criticism, no reconstruction. Not only has the ideal society been defined, but it is in existence - devoted to the pursuit of national weallh as its prime objective. It is an ideology then which, if adopted in a thoroughgoing manner, contradicts the major tenets of the other three ideologies.

Now it must repeated that there is room for all four models within a complete and balanced ideology, and consequently in any theory of a proposed relationship between morality and schooling. Cultural heritage needs to be retained and transmitted. The interests and capabilities of the child need to be taken into account. The school must initiate the pupiJ into rational criticism for the improvemenl of society as a whole. Pupils must be given an education which enables them to gain a job once they leave schOOl, and which helps them contribute to the society's economic health. Danger arises when one ideology gains too much support , and stifles the insights of the others. A large part of the argument of this book will be that the GNP code has gained too preponderant a place in this country, and that its concepts and values are being transmitted into schools in a manner which will ultimat.eJy cause great damage. This has not happened overnight , but has been a gradual infillration which because of its gradualism has gone undetected and unchallenged for too long.


It is part of the argument of this book, then, that there are a number of things which can be done to defend a more balanced relationship between morality and the school. Initial considerations must centre upon an understanding of the various ideologies contending within the school and society. Any person interested in education must be aware of their own ideological stand, as well as the stands of those they may wish to criticize. This chapter has attempted to facilitate this awareness. The kinds of linkages between morality and schooling which have been made in the past, how these previous attempts have affected the present and what might be wished for in the future should also be studied. This is the subject of the next chapter.