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- Convenor:
-
Dimitrina Spencer
(University of Oxford)
- Discussant:
-
David Mills
(University of Oxford)
- Formats:
- Panels
- Location:
- Sackler B
- Start time:
- 9 June, 2012 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
This panel will explore the process and implications of developing anthropology in pre-university curricula.
Long Abstract:
This panel opens a discussion space on developing the teaching of anthropology in pre-university settings for teachers and students of anthropology, parents, schools, policy makers and academics.
In the first session, the RAI Education Committee members will open a discussion about the design of the GCE A-Level anthropology courses focusing on key challenges and opportunities. We will engage with debates about the potential impact of teaching and learning anthropology in pre-University contexts bridging education research and pedagogical and anthropological experience. The second session will focus on current and potential future student experiences with the A-Level in anthropology. We will close the panel with a discussion of the key issues identified by all participants on the day.
We welcome everyone interested in discussing the teaching of anthropology in schools, its implications for the place of anthropology in and beyond academia and related topics, including but not limited to: policy and practice, designing and leading educational change, engaging multiple stakeholders, student learning experiences, values in teaching anthropology, pedagogy of anthropology - goals, values and strategies, and a dialogue between the anthropology of education and education studies.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Brian Street (King's College, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper sets out the context of the RAI Education Committee’s development of an A Level, drawing on the concepts of anthropology in education and the anthropological study of education.
Paper long abstract:
Brian Street
This paper sets out the context of the RAI Education Committee's development of an A Level, as the background against which some of the other papers in this session will pursue the place of Anthropology in pre-university curricula. In considering the position of anthropology in these new educational contexts, I take account of anthropology in education and the anthropological study of education. The work done by the RAI's Education Committee to design and introduce a new GCE A- level in anthropology, culminating in its successful accreditation by the national regulator, and its current place in a number of UK schools, is described as a case-study of both anthropology in and of education. The implications of the experience so far for future directions will be briefly indicated.
Hilary Callan
Paper short abstract:
Reflections on the anthropology A-level as a case study in engagement with UK public institutions.
Paper long abstract:
The history of the RAI's project to introduce anthropology into pre-University curricula in the UK (and specifically, to establish a new GCE Advanced Level qualification in anthropology) has been recounted and analysed in a number of previous publications; and is addressed elsewhere in this panel. In this paper, I focus on the processes of engagement with multiple audiences at many levels of academic content, practice, and bureaucratic structure. Looking beyond the specificity of anthropology in UK education, I suggest how the discipline might, without compromising the contextuality and respect for complexity that are its lifeblood, connect with many non-specialist audiences and publics - and how such engagement might in turn reflect back onto anthropology as a discipline. I argue that, internationally as well as in the UK, scholarly associations are particularly well-placed to act as platforms for such broader communication and engagement.
Barry Dufour (De Montfort University, Leicester)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will explore school attempts in the UK to introduce pupils to ideas and subject-matter on other cultures, focusing on curriculum content and the structural background to the varying fortunes of these attempts. It will argue that the recent involvement of the Royal Anthropological Institute in the school curriculum provides an important basis for new opportunities.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will explore the uneasy progress of curriculum opportunities for school pupils to encounter concepts and information about different cultures around the world. These teaching programmes have rarely been badged as 'anthropology': more often as geography, multi-cultural and anti-racist education, global education, development education, citizenship education and similar subject names and discourses. There were some successful attempts to explore, more directly, anthropological approaches, in the 1960s and 1970s, in primary and secondary schools, but the most marked breakthrough did not occur until the 21st century with the backing of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI).
The paper will suggest historical and structural reasons why all of the social sciences entered the 14-18 curriculum offer, with the exception of anthropology. It will also suggest that the less direct discourses were nevertheless valid and important routes by which pupils could engage in learning about the diversity and interaction of human groups and cultural practices.
Finally, it will explore the threats and opportunities now present in the second decade of the 21st century to consolidate the new GCE in anthropology and to extend the insights and subject matter of anthropology to younger pupils.
David Bennett (Wolfson College Cambridge)
Paper short abstract:
My paper reports an attempt to assess the value of studying anthropology at pre-university level, through a small scale investigation of the learning experiences of A-level anthropology students.
Paper long abstract:
The value of an anthropological education extends beyond the accumulation of a particular knowledge to the acquisition of discipline-specific values and intellectual skills. The adoption of a disciplinary habitus gives effect to 'becoming an anthropologist'. Previous studies of academic socialisation have focused on undergraduate and, especially, graduate learning experiences. However, the expansion of the discipline into the pre-university curriculum through the introduction of an A-level in anthropology invites study of the learning experiences of younger students including many whose formal contact with anthropology may not proceed further. My paper reports a small scale investigation of anthropology students in the second year of their A-level studies. By seeking qualitative evidence for the acquisition of disciplinary values and skills, it offers a provisional assessment of the value of anthropological study at this curriculum level, including its contribution to a wider public presence for anthropology.
Joy Hendry (Oxford Brookes University)
Paper short abstract:
A paper that examines reasons why pre-university education has a special role to play, both in building an ethic of multi-cultural engagement and in promoting the value of the discipline of anthropology.
Paper long abstract:
This paper aims to show how the school - as an institution of a multi-cultural society - is an important space for the discipline of anthropology far beyond its academic and intellectual potential. I would like to argue that including anthropology at a pre-university level facilitates the development of an interest in, openness toward, and skills for a multi-cultural dialogue built on an understanding of and respect for cultural difference. In schools, students share a relatively equal cultural situation, whatever their backgrounds, and they can investigate each other's family heritage theoretically with less in the way of hierarchical advantage or disadvantage than they may find in the wider society to which they will emerge. Thus, learning anthropology at a pre-university level may not only play an important role in cultivating an ethic of multi-cultural engagement, but also elicit an awareness of the value of anthropology as a discipline geared towards that end.
Dimitrina Spencer (University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the transformative potential of anthropology as a practice of 'relational reflection' where 'informed subjectivity', 'capacity for inclusion' and ontological and epistemological openness matter.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper, I discuss the potential of anthropology for 'transformative learning' through the embodied experience of engaging with 'the Other' where students reassess their own worldview and change. I explore examples of such transformations or obstacles to transformations among university students and draw out implications for teaching and learning anthropology to younger students, in schools. I focus in particular on some key elements of transformative learning discussed in education research such as: engaging individual experience, developing critical reflection, holistic orientation, and awareness of context; and the use of dialogue and authentic practice. If, as I argue, some of the key skills for anthropologists who practice relational reflection, include 'informed subjectivity', a 'capacity for inclusion' and an ontological and epistemological openness, should and could schools facilitate such learning outcomes for their GCE A-Level students? What teaching strategies and learning activities might be prioritized?