The role of educational institutions

Topic 2. The role of educational institutions such as schools and colleges including theological institutions in constructing stereotypical role models of persons and structures to perpetuate the existing unjust social order through curricula, admission and appointment policies, governance, values, norms and the like.

1.     Education

The meaning of the word ‘educate’ is to draw out. It comes from the root ‘educare’ which means to bring out that which is hidden. It is known to be loosely used as meaning ‘to instruct’ as well as ‘to train’. To train may mean that it is to mould the student according to the plan of the teacher so that student does little in the way of exercising individual thinking but on the contrary, it is to enable the student to grow in his own path[1].

Durkheim (1950) argued that:

It is society as a whole and each particular social milieu that determine the ideal that education realizes. Society can survive only if there exists among its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity; education perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity by fixing in the child from the beginning, the essential similarities that collective life demands. But on the other hand, without certain diversity all cooperation would be impossible; education assumes the persistence of this necessary diversity by being itself diversified and specialized[2]

Swift (1969) noted that, Education as ―the process by which the individual acquires the many physical, moral social capacities demanded of him by the group into which he is born and within which he must function[3].

1.1. The Goal of Education[4]

• Education has often been very much so seen as a fundamentally optimistic human endeavour characterized by aspirations for progress and betterment. It is understood by many to be a means of overcoming handicaps, achieving greater equality, and acquiring wealth and social status.
• Education is perceived as a place where children can develop according to their unique needs and potential. It is also perceived as one of the best means of achieving greater social equality. Many would say that the purpose of education should be to develop every individual to their full potential, and give them a chance to achieve as much in life as their natural abilities allow.
• Education does not operate in a vacuum. To have a better society, we should analyse the society to show its strengths and weakness and plan the educational programmes to these effects.
• Education should be based on the needs, demands and aspirations of the society for it to function properly.
• Education should be related to the level of culture, industrial development, and rate of urbanization, political organization, religious climate, family structures, and stratification. It should not only fulfil the individual’s and society’s needs but their future aspirations.

2.     Definition of Institutions/Educational Institutions

Institutions can be formal or informal; formal institutions are normally established and constituted by binding laws, regulations and legal orders which prescribe what may or may not be done.  Informal institutions, on the other hand, are constituted by conventions, norms, values and accepted ways of doing things, whether economic, political or social; these are embedded in traditional social practices and culture which can be equally binding[5].

An educational institution is a place where people of different ages gain an education, including preschools, childcare, primary-elementary schools, secondary-high schools, and universities. They provide a large variety of learning environments and learning spaces.

2.1. Goal of Educational Institutions[6]

• Social control – Schools are responsible for teaching values such as discipline, respect, obedience etc. Schools teach conformity by encouraging young people to be good students, hardworking future workers, and law-abiding citizens.
• Cultural Innovation – Educational institutions create and transmit cultural values. The teacher does not transmit the same knowledge but by adding his experience he transmits updated values.
• Social Integration – Educational institution moulds a diverse population into a unified society. It creates social organization in the society by harmonizing the attitudes, ideas, customs and sentiments of the people which is quite important in nations with social diversity like India.
• Social Placement – Educational institution enhances meritocracy by rewarding ability and effort regardless of social background and provides a path to upward social mobility
• Enforcement mechanism – Schools, being the formal place of socialization have strong enforcement mechanism wherein students are rewarded for pro-moral behaviours and punished strictly for immoral behaviours. For example, cheating in examination is heavily punished by schools and those who top the examination are rewarded in front of everyone.

2.2. Some of the Present Challenges in Educational Institutions

• Lack of value education – Most of the school curriculums aimed towards imparting technical skills while the moral teachings are largely ignored. For example, Focus is more towards teaching applications of Artificial intelligence, genetic editing technologies etc. but moral concerns associated with it, is largely ignored.
• Religious Educational institutions – Such as Madarsa and Right-wing schools are alleged to impart improper values among students. For example, various Madrassa are found to inculcate ‘Jihadist tendencies’ among students.
• Politicization of curriculums – Recent debates surrounding changes of curriculum or alleged attempt of rewriting the history. For example, controversy surrounding accounts on Veer Savarkar and Tipu Sultan in history books are seen as an attempt to communalise school curriculums.
• Methodology of teaching – Learning through observation, activity and experiences are largely ignored. This causes only the cognitive development of students instead of moral and spiritual development.
• Educational institutions as industrial hubs – In the Market society as Michael Sandel points out, even basic necessities are put on scale. Even Education institutions are working as industrial establishments working solely with money mindedness. This is causing decline in the quality of education, in addition, there is rising inequality in terms of accessibility and affordability of quality education.
• Conflicting values – Institutions such as family and society may have an overriding effect what a child learns in school. For example, Children are taught value of secularism in schools but at home their parents may preach them communal values.

3.     Christian education

Christian education, in its right perspective, is the harmonious, all-round development of the individual stressing the means of helping person grow in the pattern of Jesus Christ. It is also education within a social process, and the community is the Christian home on the one hand and the church as a redemptive fellowship on the other[7].

4.     Educational Institutions and Unjust Social Order

4.1. Educational Injustice[8]

• Distributive injustice refers to unfair distribution of school funding and other educationally relevant resources or opportunities. Under this category, educational injustice manifests in unequal educational systems where schools that serve the socioeconomically advantaged are well-endowed, have experienced teachers, and provide a wealth of educational resources to their students while those that serve the socioeconomically disadvantaged are ill-funded, have inexperienced teachers and high rates of teacher attrition, and struggle to provide even the minimal resources required by law.
• Cultural injustice refers to cultural insensitivity in educational settings and lack of recognition of marginalized students’ cultural heritage. Under this category, educational injustice manifests as lack of culturally relevant pedagogy or curricula in schools that serve marginalized students and that disregard student backgrounds and inculcate hegemonic values.
• Political injustice refers to lack of proper student representation and blatant disregard for students’ educational interests and needs. Such injustice, according to progressive educators, manifests in most versions of traditional education which disregard the needs and contributions of students while sustaining an autocratic form of classroom management and knowledge transmission.
• Epistemic injustice refers to discriminatory treatment of students as knowers or to the withholding of epistemically relevant resources from students. Under this category, educational injustice manifests as disregard of students’ contributions by their teachers because of students’ perceived immaturity, as inability of marginalized students to understand the significance of their experiences due to biased epistemic resources, or as refusal to provide students with knowledge that they have a right to know.
• Formative injustice refers to constraints on one’s ability to regulate their self-formation or to the undue foreclosing of one’s educational potential.
• Retributive injustice refers to failure to punish students for rule violations of moral or procedural significance.

4.2. Racism and Racial Problems:

Racism is one of the prominent issues in the Educational Institutions, Principal Hilda regarding the Racism in institutions she said, So, consider being a principal of a school that is exceptionally diverse. What you have is this middle-class white lady who is the principal, and the middle-class white lady who is the vice principal. When you are talking in terms of social justice, regardless of how we perceive ourselves in Ontario, or in Canada, we still have a long way to go in terms of race issues, in terms of equity, and the way that we treat each other and perceive each other[9].

Challenging racism and lessening its effect in educational institutions commences with principals, teachers questioning their own attitudes, beliefs, and actions. It is the first step to reconcile the moral challenges of racial equity with the hierarchical institutions of schooling[10].

Racism can also manifest in the form of racial stereotyping, the false assumption or judgement that distorts how people perceive an entire group based on an individual’s actions. These assumptions induce negativity and misunderstanding that are nothing but harmful and destructive. Social stereotyping impacts the way society views certain groups of people and with enough exposure to a stereotype, society may deem it to be a reality rather than a mistaken representation. Because of social stereotyping, racial minorities are likely to be viewed as related to youth gangs, become more susceptible to unfair treatment, and have lower levels of self-esteem[11].

4.3. Gender discrimination in Curriculum

Curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of a student’s experiences that occur in the educational process. Now let us go through some definitions to understand what exactly is meant by the word ‘curriculum’. According to D. K. Wheeler (1978), curriculum is the planned experiences offered to the learner under the guidance of the school[12].

• Language and Gender, some curricular objectives show that the language used is gender- biased. Language communicates the status of being male or female, and the status of being assertive or submissive. It is very often seen that ‘he’ is used as the universal pronoun. There are several terms used, which are masculine in nature. Some of the common terms used are mankind, policeman, fireman, chairman, waiter, businessman, steward, first batsman, brotherhood, manning, manpower, security man, mailman/postman, brotherly, the story of man, manmade, etc. These terms can be replaced with neutral terms which do not specify any gender.
• Curriculum Structure and Gender, it is more often seen that a curriculum is designed to cater to the cultural beliefs when it comes to gender. The activities and programmes are so structured as to fit into the perceptions of the society. Girls are believed to be delicate and aesthetic, while the boys are considered to be strong and powerful. Hence, activities like singing and dancing are planned for girls, while physically stimulating activities like sports and games are planned for boys. Certain forms of dances are considered to be feminine, while certain forms of sports are considered to be masculine.
• Content of Instructional Material and Gender, in the Indian context, textbooks are important repository of knowledge. Since textbooks try to reflect the culture and traditions of a place, any gender inequality prevalent in the society makes its way into the textbooks too. The visibility of women is low in textbooks compared with men. Underrepresentation of women is clearly evident in almost all textbooks, be it the freedom struggle or history, more men appear than women. Visuals and exercises in the textbooks portray gender stereotypes. Women and men are identified with stereotypical attributes such as brave, heroic, honest, and strong are portrayed as male, while caring, self- sacrificing, love, and kindness as female attributes.

4.4. Developing Curriculum for Gender Equality[13]

Development of the curriculum to address gender inequality cannot happen in isolation from other aspects of schooling, particularly of teaching, learning and interaction within the classroom. Whatever the content of the curriculum, equity will not be achieved if girls are discouraged from speaking, if boys absorb a disproportionate amount of the teacher’s energy, nor if the physical environment does not support equal access to education. Gender Equal Curriculum can be realized through some of the strategies. They are,

• Instructional Material: Since textual materials are pivotal sources of knowledge, it is important that they include issues of equity and equality, as children both boys and girls from all segments of society access them. Therefore, portrayal of gender relation and their contributions are important in the thematic selection pertaining to all disciplines and their portrayal in the visual depiction. Textual materials world over and in the Indian context have been analysed from different perspectives, including gender.
• Teacher Involvement: Teachers can create the appearance of gender bias through unintentional, non-verbal actions. The first step to correcting this problem is to create an environment in which there is equality.
• Classroom Organisation and Management: A gender friendly classroom environment and its overall management can build harmonious relations between boys and girls at different stages of education. This can be done by adopting some of the following suggestive measures, as a facilitator, the teacher should ensure that the physical and social environment of the classroom promotes healthy relationships between boys and girls. Avoid use of adjectives like beautiful, pretty, obedient, submissive for girls and brave, courageous, strong, handsome for boys. Encouraging remarks like excellent, good, and well done should be used for both boys and girls.

4.5. Educational Institutions and Norms and Values:

Though educational institutions rely on a system of internal categories that is supposedly unrelated to external categories, like class, gender, race, and educational outcomes are strongly related to one’s social background. As a result, far from being a level playing field, education promotes and values certain norms that are closer to the regular cultural practices of dominant groups, which ultimately give them an advantage in the “meritocratic contest.” These norms value certain forms of language, interest in certain forms of arts and literature, particular knowledge and skills, attendance of the “right” museums, specific academic attitudes, or bodily posture, and the expression of independence agency[14].

Because implicit academic norms more closely resemble the cultural practices adopted by more advantaged families, the educational system is inherently biased in favor of students from privileged backgrounds. The match versus mismatch of academic implicit norms and family cultural practices has therefore two important consequences[15].

• First, middle-class students, who are familiar with these norms, are more at ease in academic settings. Indeed, they enter school possessing cultural capital that confers a head start in the classroom such as the use of particular linguistic posture, the way to express personal opinions, the display of constrained bodily posture, and being knowledgeable of the right museums.
• Second, because education is both conceived to be a level playing field and impregnated with psychological essentialism, higher cultural capital does more than just boost performance. Indeed, it also provides important avenues for symbolic gratification: Being categorized as “smart,” “intelligent,” and “interesting.” In contrast, for working-class students who are less familiar with these cultural practices these structures pose a barrier to academic performance.

4.6. Governance and Educational Institutions

Definition
Governance refers to the ways in which government and non-government entities intervene, both formally and informally, to shape the way organisations and individuals conduct themselves.  These interventions are designed to facilitate certain kinds of change (change in individual behaviour or organisational structure) or limit the possibilities for change in order to maintain the status quo.  In both cases, governance is designed to improve conditions by which change can be affected or limited to serve different political, economic and environmental aims[16].

The issues of autonomy and accountability, in fact, relate to the governance of higher education institutions (HEIs). Historically, there has never been a doubt about the academic freedom of HEIs in the civilized world though it might have differed in scope and content. It is a norm now to extend autonomy to HEIs in most countries including developing countries and even those operating under closed political systems[17].

Autonomy is the prerogative and the ability of an institution to act by its own choices in pursuit of its mission and goals. This ensures optimum allocation of resources for achieving the stated goals and missions of HEIs which are knowledge creation and dissemination. These institutions are mission oriented and although they have a significant impact on the economy and the society, their action and results are not directly measurable in financial terms. Autonomy encompasses three areas — academic, institutional, and financial.
Academic autonomy is the freedom for faculty members to operate freely which would lead to intellectual wealth of great quality. Institutional autonomy includes operational freedom and freedom of decision-making by the institute’s constituents.
Financial autonomy means the freedom to raise and use funds according to its priorities and internal rules. An institution cannot have full institutional autonomy without financial autonomy. Allowing financial autonomy with accountability would assess the effectiveness of the institution in disseminating knowledge to its students. Autonomy of publicly funded institutions also implies societal accountability. Institutions operate in a given environment. Therefore, their actions and outcomes must be consistent with the demands of the external environment. Societal concern assumes great significance as governance in HEIs cannot be devoid of environment and social responsibility. All organization’s actions influence the members of the society, directly or indirectly. Therefore, HEIs should strive to strike a balance between needs of their stakeholders, demands of the society, and autonomy. A socially responsible HEI should perform the following duties:

• Be a resource and supporter for public policies and issues.
• Ensure admission to all qualified students from all sections of the society.
• Facilitate quality education and research.
• Assist in professionalizing management practice of socially desirable but undermanaged sectors.
• Help business and industry through training, research, and consultancy.
• Research on the issues that are significant for the government, the industry, and other sectors and disseminate the research findings.
• Collaborate with other academic institutions to help them improve their academic standards.
• Organizations take a lot from the society and hence should also give back to the society. This attitude will sustain them over a long period of time.

Conclusion:

Social inequalities have reached in democratic societies a level rarely observed in the past. The educational system, which significantly contributes to the reduction of social inequality by promoting some social mobility along the social ladder, nevertheless simultaneously plays a decisive role in the perpetuation of these inequalities. Indeed, education accomplishes the important task of selecting and preparing individuals for the future positions they will hold in the social structure. As an institution, it elaborates internal categories that are used to sort students and funnel them in academic tracks. In societies that embrace democratic and equalitarian ideals, these internal categories are explicitly defined as unrelated to external categories such as class, race, or gender. But it is also clear that the outcome of the educational sorting process is not blind, and education plays a role in the reproduction and legitimation of the social structure.

Footnotes

[1] Vimala Paulus, Introducing Christian Education (Madras:CLS: 1986), 1-2.

[2] Subrata S Satapathy, Sociology of Education (MA Sociology, Paper 16), 6-7.

[3] Subrata S Satapathy, Sociology of Education (MA Sociology, Paper 16), 6-7.

[4] Subrata S Satapathy, Sociology of Education (MA Sociology, Paper 16), 6-7.

[5] Geoffrey Martin Hodgson, “What Are Institutions?”, Journal of Economic Issues, March 2006, 1-25

[6] https://www.insightsonindia.com/ethics-integrity-and-aptitude/human-values/role-of-family-society-and-educational-institutions-in-inculcating-values/role-of-educational-institutions/, accessed on 19th Sep 2022.

[7] Randolph Crump Miller, Education for Christian living (New York; Prentice Hall: 1957), 53.

[8] A. C. Nikolaidis, What Is the Meaning of Educational Injustice? A Case for Reconceptualizing a Heterogeneous Concept, 2-4.

[9] Fei Wang, “Social Injustices in Schools: Principals’ Perception”, Values and Ethics in Educational Administration, September 2017, 3-4.

[10] Fei Wang, “Social Injustices in Schools: Principals’ Perception”, Values and Ethics in Educational Administration, September 2017, 3-4.

[11] Fei Wang, “Social Injustices in Schools: Principals’ Perception”, Values and Ethics in Educational Administration, September 2017, 3-4.

[12] Dr. Annie Dimple Castelino and Dr. Shashkala A, Gender, School and Society (Perspectives in Education) (Mangalagangothri: Mangalore University, 2018-19), 50.

[13] Dr. Annie Dimple Castelino and Dr. Shashkala A, Gender, School and Society (Perspectives in Education) (Mangalagangothri: Mangalore University, 2018-19), 58-61.

[14] Croizet, Jean-Claude & Autin, Frederique & Goudeau, Sébastien & Marot, Medhi & Millet, Mathias, Education and Social Class: Highlighting How the Educational System Perpetuates Social Inequality, (2019), 143.

[15] Croizet, Jean-Claude & Autin, Frederique & Goudeau, Sébastien & Marot, Medhi & Millet, Mathias, Education and Social Class: Highlighting How the Educational System Perpetuates Social Inequality, (2019), 143.

[16] Brad Gobby & Andrew Wilkins, Governance and educational leadership (2020), 3.

[17] I M. Pandey, Governance of Higher Education Institutions, (Vikalpa: 2004), 80.

Friendly Note

Bachelor of Divinity Materials is your go-to resource for comprehensive Biblical studies, supporting students in Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) and other theological courses. Our platform offers access to the full syllabus, detailed answers, and a vast collection of assignments, study guides, articles, and research papers to help you excel academically.

We provide downloadable PDFs of study materials, including books and journals, for convenient learning anytime, anywhere. Whether preparing for exams or conducting research, our resources cater to both students and scholars in biblical studies.

Committed to empowering theological learners, we aim to deliver high-quality, authentic study materials. Explore Bachelor of Divinity Materials to deepen your understanding of God’s Word and Christian doctrine, making it a valuable resource for aspiring ministers and anyone dedicated to theology.