Cross-Cultural Education

This course introduces students to the idea of “education” from an anthropological perspective. This means that we think about education as a process that is shaped by culture and society. As such we explore cross-cultural approaches to teaching, learning, and the nature of schools and education systems in a number of societies around the world. Students will investigate schools as agents of child socialization and enculturation; compare U.S. schools, education systems and school cultures, to learning, schools and educational norms in other societies and examine how educational institutions relate to other aspects of culture and society, including politics, religion and economics. Cross-cultural data include indigenous and contemporary Native North America, Africa and Japan among others. We also explore the methodologies and theoretical approaches anthropologists draw from to study schooling and education. We ask: what does it mean to be an educated person in various parts of the globe, and does it mean something different for girls and boys, men and women and gender-diverse persons?