Education must move from transfer to transformation, for which we must rethink our definitions of knowledge. This would lead to a more lively and interactive teaching dynamic in which students engage in the co-construction of knowledge. To do this, we need to challenge the ideology of an existing evaluation system that is memory-based and unable to use higher-order thinking skills. In contrast, the ideology of social efficiency is truly an American invention. He gained influence in American education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was popularized in response to growing concerns about utilitarian forms of education such as agricultural education, manual training, industrial education, and vocational training. The central goal of social effectiveness education was to equip students with the ability to acquire useful skills rather than fill their minds with useful information. This ideology is credited with making the American education system more practical over the past century. Notable educators who have strongly supported the ideology of social efficiency in the United States include Franklin Bobbitt, Ralph Taylor, and Thorndike.
Currently, the ideology of social efficiency is the most influential educational ideology in the United States with its focus on improving efficiency and accountability. This ideology forms the basis of federal funding for the Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind mandates (Schiro, 2013). From my point of view, there are 2 types of truth in the educational context: (1) The first type is the truth that students can witness or see; (2) The second type is the truth that students cannot testify to or see. Secularism is the belief in the separation of church and state. Although secularists can join a personal religion, they believe that religion is a private matter and should be completely separated from a public education. The belief that individuals retain inherent human rights that the social order cannot give or take away is a branch of secularism known as individualism. The laity believe in the need for a common social agreement for political and educational decisions. Secularists tend to support progressive and representative political institutions, recognizing that the state needs power to influence the decisions of the majority. Marxism is an ideological and political movement first proposed by Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher.
Marx was of the opinion that the class system was in conflict with the social, political and educational spheres. Questioning logically and intelligently the economic consequences of the class hierarchy gives a better understanding of the world. Marxism calls for an education that creates a critical consciousness among students. She believes that the ruling classes control schools and use them to socially control the oppressed class. Marxism is based on the content and methods that contribute to a person`s intellectual and physical development. Nationalism is a national spirit, love for a country and emotional attachment to the interests of a nation and the symbols they represent. The United States does not have a national education system, but 50 public school systems that work together and use similar methods. Nationalism began to take hold in the 19th century. Its impact on education was studied by Isaac Kandel and Edward Reisner, who identified three main topics reflected in the program. The first is that all nations have a history. The combination of the nation`s history and myths creates a nation`s collective memory.
Collective memory elicits the same reaction throughout the country`s public. For example, when the national anthem is played in the United States, the response that is evoked almost everywhere is that of deep respect, which is indicated by standing, taking off the hat and placing the right hand on the heart. Recently, there have been calls for qualitative improvement in education. The required improvement cannot be caused by cosmetic changes. The problem is much deeper. We need to challenge the ideologies associated with the notions of education, pedagogy, learning, assessment and purpose. Schiro, M. S. (2013). Curriculum Theory: Contradictory Visions and Persistent Concerns (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. Retrieved by: talkcurriculum.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/schiro-m-2013-introduction-to-the-curriculum-ideologies.pdf This process of dominant teaching and passive learning is encouraged and calmed by the ideology of the existing grading system.
Our predominant assessment system focuses on the piecemeal assessment of disjointed elements where students do not need to understand and apply the knowledge they have acquired. This leads us to consider the ideology of a broader goal of the current education system, biased in favor of powerful groups. The type of education that prevails in most educational institutions not only supports existing power structures, but also widens the gap between the haves and have-nots. Ethno-nationalist education not only creates resistance to cultural and pedagogical imposition by other groups; It also uses it in a positive way to preserve and expand the identifying characteristics of each ethnic group. One of the ways ethnonationalism is maintained in education is to use the ethnic “mother tongue” instead of the official national language in the classroom. Another option is to include the literature, history and traditions of the ethnic group in the curriculum. You may be wondering why I`m talking about educational ideologies when I`m talking about the education system in Tanzania? The answer is simple. Human knowledge is socially constructed. In order to create education-related solutions, the context in which these solutions are created is important. Finding solutions to educational problems also requires knowledge of the basic philosophies or ideologies that govern education systems around the world.
Without this understanding, the solution we have created is woven out of nowhere. Therefore, in this chapter I will discuss the four main ideologies of education. I will begin with a brief history of education ideologies in the areas of social effectiveness and centered learning. I will then compare and compare the two educational ideologies. Next, I will talk about the academic ideology of the scholar and the ideology of social reconstruction. For each ideology, I will describe how ideology deals with the nature of the learner, the content of the ideology, how ideology sees the needs of society, and what kind of knowledge ideology considers most important.