George Orwell wrote that in a democracy the press is owned by wealthy people who have an interest in promoting certain values; and our education system, over time, socialises us into promoting these values and reducing the importance or significance of others.
And I believe him!
Because of the esteem that university education is held in education in general, this may be more harmful than it looks on the surface.
Here are a few examples of the growing power of academia:
1. In social or community type programmes, even if everybody knows that something would help society the need almost always has to be researched by academics before anything is initiated and funded by central Government. I will discuss this again in the Chapter on Research and Evaluation and specifically here. This is not always the case but it is common enough to be worthy of note.
2. I notice (in the past 20 years or so in Ireland) that Universities are swallowing up different, smaller educational institutions. The reason for this, is, (I think) to allow the smaller institutions to award degrees. I personally find it very hard to see any real merit in the swallowing up – centralisation of power seems to be the only reason! (I doubt very much that it saves money). In fact, I fear that it will cause diminution of creativity and suppression of healthy individuality and diversity with no corresponding advantage in standards of teaching. Admittedly, it may have some positive impact on research.
3. Over the past few years I see Universities advertising on radio, TV, and billboards to get students to come to their college. I have no recollection of such advertising when I was young. The purpose of this is, of course, to increase the number of students attending and thereby have more status and thus be more financially viable. I’m not sure if this is good or bad, it’s just that I feel a bit uncomfortable about the level of marketing in education these days.
4. There is huge pressure nowadays on school leavers to go to 3rd Level immediately after leaving school. I believe that this is fine for those who are that way inclined, but I believe it is very harmful for those who are not, who take longer to mature, and who would benefit greatly from a few years in the workforce before they decide whether or not they want to go to 3rd Level at all.
5. The International League Tables for Universities says it all! This is a clear example of of corporate values influencing education. And does such inane comparison really enhance education of children and young adults? This plague has now spread to Secondary Schools (in Ireland anyway) and I believe that it is very harmful to education, children and society in general. (Interestingly, it is the so-called quality newspapers – which, I argued in the Chapter on Media, can be just as tawdry as what we call tabloids – that give prominence to such league tables).
6. I am probably in a minority here – but as a psychotherapist I feel a need to mention it. I believe that psychotherapy in Ireland is gaining very little by our training and accreditation bodies insisting on third level education imprimatur – always accompanied by the norms beloved of academia – i.e. grading A – B – C – 1st, 2nd class hons etc. I’m not saying that academia should not be involved – I actually believe that it has an enormous amount to contribute. It’s just that I believe that the recognition of non-academic qualities should be afforded just as high status as the academic, and that the tyranny of comparison will ultimately harm the creative side of psychotherapy training.
7. And I cannot finish without mentioning STEM. This is an initiative by our Department of Education and Skills, supported financially by the corporate and private sector, and strongly encouraged by the academic community. Its purpose is to encourage secondary school students to study courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics so that Ireland can be more attractive to high-tech companies in future decades. The study, in 2016, that sparked the initiative noted that the gender balance of those studying STEM subjects was heavily weighted towards boys so one of the aims of the initiative was to encourage involvement of girls.
Now I have no problem with STEM and I am very supportive of any initiative that will enable us to attract high-tech jobs to Ireland.
But is it not interesting that no-one in the Department feels any concern about the low numbers of boys/young men choosing courses in social work, nursing, social care – or even, nowadays, teaching. Emotionally intelligent young men are vital role models for children and teenagers – male and female. But despite the undoubted benefits of having men involved in caring for vulnerable people it is highly unlikely that there will an equivalent initiative to encourage young people (and particularly boys) to become involved in such work in future decades that (I believe anyway) is so necessary for our nation to thrive.
And is it not also interesting that there is talk of affording lesser status to history and geography, two subjects that contribute so much to a sense of identity (which I will describe later as a root foundation), in favour of more technological subjects.
In the next Chapter I will argue that the influence of the corporate world is very pervasive – and has high-impact – low-noticability. The existence of STEM is, undoubtedly, an example of penetration of the corporate world into the Department of Education and Skills.
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And as a final word, the rise in the power of schools and colleges has resulted in all of us believing that their method of education, rubber-stamped and then accredited by the national bodies that are influenced by them, is superior to all others – whereas I don’t believe it is.