Cultural Themes in Educational Debates: the nature‐culture opposition in accounts of unequal educational performance

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates certain aspects of the debate about the causes of unequal educational performance. By analysing two illustrative explanations of performance, it shows that the debate appears to be shaped by a fundamental theme in modern Western culture, the nature‐culture opposition. This suggests that the knowledge that we have concerning educational performance is influenced not only by the social and political interests and positions of educators and researchers, but also by more basic cultural concerns; and if we want to understand both educational performance and the debate surrounding it, we need to be aware of this broad influence.