Diagnosing inequalities in schooling: Ogbu’s orientation and wider implications

Throughout his life, John Ogbu worked untiringly to diagnose the educational problems of minorities, with the goal of remedying them. Although his earliest works propose a comprehensive anthropological approach, his last works seem to settle into exhortations to parents and teachers to put more pressure on (involuntary) minority children whose achievements are low; and to pupils to stop grumbling and get down to taking their schoolwork seriously. In this paper, I claim that Ogbu’s work can be seen to be showing the way to the deployment of more sophisticated theoretical tools in order to attain (1) a more refined analysis of the minority status; and (2) a broader social understanding of the basis for rejecting school standards among different kinds of minorities. By resorting to the broader theoretical approach he pioneered, researchers will be able to propose more effective remedies.

‘The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication …. compels all nations … to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst … In one word, it creates a world after its own image’ (Marx & Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1935 Marx K Engels F (1935/1948) The Communist manifesto in: E. Burns (Ed.) A Handbook of Marxism New York International Publishers  [Google Scholar], p. 27).     

Between ‘homeland’ and ‘diaspora’: multicultural education in Israel and South Korea

The aim of this qualitative case study was to explore multicultural education for ‘newcomers’ in Israel and in South Korea. Despite their differences, the two countries face the same inflow of two types of newcomers – one group that is expected to fully integrate, and the other of newcomers considered temporary. The educational challenge that results is recognition of the cultural groups, and providing equal educational opportunities, for both. Four schools were compared, two in each country, measuring multicultural education according to Bank’s five dimensions. Findings show that the same dimensions could be identified in all schools. The differences were in the school’s interpretation of the cultural identity of the students, congruent with their legal status, and degree of acceptability by the host country. The groups that were expected to fully integrate into the host country (perceived as a ‘homeland’) were given a more assimilatory education, as manifested in the Content Integration dimension; whereas the groups that were considered foreign were given a more multicultural education, with the schools making more references to their national culture, thus enhancing an identity of a ‘diaspora.’     

Same or different? A comparative study of habitus—ultra-orthodox and secular students of teaching

Although the state ideology assumes that by virtue of their affiliation with the “same” religion, Jewish citizens of Israel are a culturally homogeneous population, the school system makes room for institutions with different orientations to the faith. To assess whether teachers in schools that differ in their approach to religion are likely to educate children toward a unified Israeli–Jewish culture, we investigated aspects of the habitus, the configuration of dispositions into which student teachers had been socialized. The inquiry is based on research literature related to choosing teaching as a vocation and to the significance of habitus in education. A closed questionnaire on motives for choosing to teach disclosed that secular students cited intrinsic motives (creativity, individual interest), and ultra-orthodox students placed more emphasis on extrinsic motives (gaining a livelihood, community esteem). Findings from semi-structured interviews highlight conspicuous differences between the groups in their conceptions of habits, their processing of attitudes, their values, and their orientation to the functions of teaching. We conclude that an intensive program of intercultural education is needed to overcome the structural and curricular divisions institutionalized in the Israeli school system.     

The Teacher: Government official or professional with a mission

A contradiction exists in Israeli society between the universalistic ideology that recognizes basic rights for all and the particularistic ethno-national Zionist ideology that grants rights only to citizens. In education, the inconsistency is manifested when the state has to provide education for those who are not regarded as belonging to the ethno-national collective group, among them children of foreign workers, children of Palestinian collaborators from the West Bank, and immigrant children who are not recognized as Jews. Teachers confront situations of threat and challenge in their work. In the face of the ideological contradiction, they can give in to the threat and maintain ethno-national homogeneity in education as civil servants; or they can take up the challenge as professionals and construct a pedagogy that will embrace all national groups in their classroom. A case study of Elementary School "B" examines how a school staff can demonstrate professional autonomy instead of submitting to the threat of bureaucratic functioning. Elementary School "B" has all the populations listed above. Observations in class, in the school yards, in the teachers' lounge during recess, and at staff meetings, as well as interviews with members of the staff, and an analysis of documents, all show that the staff has developed an alternative pedagogy. Its principles are: the image of the educator based on a worldview and not on technical-didactic proficiencies, the perception of the teacher as an active initiator of the curriculum, the elaboration of a curriculum that integrates particularistic and universalistic elements of knowledge and commitment of the educator to involvement in all areas of life that affect the ability of student to learn.