In Search of ‘Relevant Education

Abstract

Margaret Mead once cited an instance of how at the end of a lecture on primitive education, during which she described the learning of various skills by children of the Manus tribe, she was asked by a woman if they had any Vocational training'. This question, according to Mead, 'epitomized a long series of changes which stand between our idea of education and the processes by which members of a homogeneous and relatively static primitive society transmit their standardized habit patterns to their children' (1974: 19). Apart from drawing a distinction between education in tribal and other cultures, Mead's remarks, quoted above, bring to our attention the fact that educational/learning processes take place outside the formal system as well. According to this view, education includes processes that occur within the privacy of family settings or the community as well as in formalized educational contexts. Primary socialization, which consists of knowledge transmitted in the homes and in the community is distinct from formal education, understood as secondary socialization. Secondary socialization is predicated upon primary socialization. The continuities that obtain between the two phases are critical in giving the elements of knowledge acquired during the secondary socialization process the accent of reality.1 The relationship between formal education and the culture of children's homes has been explored by sociologists of education. But often they have paid more attention to formal education and only secondarily looked at primary socialization. Local culture and the processes of socialization are examined only insofar as they affect formal education (Kumar 1989; Tomlinson 1984; Young 1971). Alternatively, educational knowledge in particular the curriculum is evaluated in terms of its being relevant and/or functional2, terms which are not always clearly defined but understood in a normative sense. That is, a curriculum is considered suitable or relevant, and therefore appropriate, depending on whether it matches, confirms, replicates or draws upon the culture of children or adults (Keddie 1971; Kumar 1989; Midwinter,cited in Warnock, 1977; Young 1971). Since the issue of relevance in education has been raised in different contexts,