The Anthropological Study of Education.

Overview & Synopsis

The book presents 21 essays representative of current international anthropological research in education. The categories of this rather broad range of studies are noninstitutional education, institutional education in society, the organization of educational institutions, and language and education. The two essays in the first section examine forms of social mechanisms for the transmission of knowledge outside of educational institutions. The second and third sections comprise the major portion of the book. Subjects addressed in the second section include the relationship of institutional education to national development in Cambodia, the structuring of what is taught in the United States, resistance to Western education in Nigeria, and the relationship of anthropology and education to social planning. The third section focuses on the problem of working out a new relationship between empirical methodology and theory relevant to educational institutions. One essay discusses a comparative study of three American high schools based on the assumption that the school is a completely discrete system, which it is not. Views of members of one ethnic and political group toward educational institutions imposed on them by others, and the role of anthropology in development and change in educational institutions are also considered. The two essays in the final section are concerned with the development of bilingual/bicultural programs for Chicanos and the relationship between the ethnography of communication and the teaching of language. (KC)