A is for Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of culture. Education is the transmission of culture. Simple. But to say what education IS necessarily implies what education is not. And the bulk of thinking and planning regarding schools is based on profound misunderstanding of the enterprise. The Education-Industrial Complex systematically prepares professionals, produces curricula, proposes policies and writes legislation based upon what education is decidedly NOT.
Education is not the process by which one person at a time learns one concept at a time. Educational psychology is an oxymoron, yet the majority of what is taught to pre-service teachers regarding how learning happens is informed by various 'psychologies of learning'. Most recently this has meant a return to the Behaviorism of B.F. Skinner, though it is rarely acknowledged a such. But whether it is Skinner, Piaget, Maslow or Dewey, psychology has little to add to the conversation. And while the adherents of various psychologies of learning continue to produce brilliant tri-fold brochures and intricately-boxed revolutionary reading programs, they have produced nothing of note with regard to student achievement. Still, it's a lucrative living, so don't expect these folks to go away any time soon!
Education is not business. It fascinates me that educators (particularly administrators) all but wag their tails in anticipation of the next volume of Wisdom Literature' due out from one business guru or another. Granted, these are bright guys (they seem all to be guys, but I don't pay that much attention) who write and speak in sweeping certainties regarding problems that have plagued educators for decades. I understand why someone would hope that they carry stone tablets to pass down from the mountain top from which they have only recently descended. But in the end, it's a new, improved Day Planner rather than the hoped-for stone tablet, and in six months it will be made obsolete by the next, brand-new breakthrough in systemic science. The only consolation for the humiliation of having hoped for something useful is that the next conference is to held in Florida in the off season...not to be missed!
Schools are not societies, and social engineering doesn't work. I won't bother offending various folks one at a time by listing the acronyms that represent literally dozens of program the have required expensive trainings, materials, and staffing but have not improved student achievement. The acronyms survive by providing their own measures of 'improvement' that are fully aside from achievement, but their evidence is mostly a matter of re-defining reality so that what was once a discipline referral is now called an intervention and, wonder of wonders, the number of 'discipline referrals' is significantly reduced. But again, if a reduction of 'discipline referrals' doesn't result in increased student achievement, what have the results got to do with education?
Why doesn't social engineering work? Because schools are cultures. Take note that I'm not saying that schools 'have' cultures, as though 'school culture' was an attribute of a school, subject to manipulation. The mountains of literature that address school culture in this manner are simply mistaken, and those who have taken the advice of such authors have the lack of results to prove it. Nope. Schools don't 'have' cultures. They ARE cultures. They are dense accumulations of face-to-face interactions, and their various aspects cannot be manipulated independently of the whole. And while social engineering envisions a system in which changing one sort of input can immediately impact a corresponding output, cultures change very gradually, holistically, and much more thoroughly.
I would guess that the vast majority of educators can't name three anthropologists. Many can, on the other hand, name three prominent business theorists. (I have always suspected that this deference to business gurus is grounded in the apparent desire of educators to dress like bankers and in their tendency to look down on those who prefer to dress more like professionals doing field work.) I would also argue that of all of the social sciences, anthropology is easily the most promising for those seeking insights into schools and schooling.
Anthropologists have one habit that educators can hardly abide. They describe cultures as they are without Utopian intent. Educators want Utopia. They want a Utopia of feeling, a Utopia of consensus, of democratic self-congratulations. But to do the hard work of influencing a culture? That's slow work, with no guarantees, no instant gratification, no strategic plan, no sure-fire, teacher-proof, Title I-approved formula. But that's the work. And Anthropology might provide the best clues regarding where to start. It certainly provides sound reasons to predict with some confidence what won't work...meaning that anthropological understanding could have saved Oregon and dozens of its districts hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few years.
