Abstract
Why is there such a striking discrepancy between the flexibility, democracy and empowerment that the Bologna process aims for, and the superficial educational activities that it actually results in? Our answer is based on the ritual theory of the American anthropologist Roy Rappaport and the psychoanalytical framework of the Austrian philosopher Robert Pfaller. Interpreting schoolified education as a ritual, we argue that both the reform initiative and its ensuing educational activities should be interpreted as mainly productive of a certain appearance, of compliance with prominent norms of modern society: the norms are articulated in policy documents and enacted in educational activity. We take schoolified education to be a normal ritual, in that this appearance is accepted ‘as if’ it corresponded with reality, while at the same time most people are aware (in a certain sense) of its superficial and ritualistic character. A twist, however, is added by the fact that modern society is distinctly anti-ritualistic, and therefore constantly tries to make education work ‘for real’. Drawing on Pfaller’s distinction between belief and faith, we show that this pursuit of de-ritualisation actually makes education progressively more formalised and coercive.
Highlights
Guided by the Bologna protocol, reform of universities in Europe is directed towards a vision of a ‘common European framework’, in which students can move freely between different national contexts and where it is transparent what students are expected to learn, how they are expected to learn, and what competencies each individual student has acquired by learning (ECTS credits)
Interpreting schoolified education as a ritual, we argue that both the reform initiative and its ensuing educational activities should be interpreted as mainly productive of a certain appearance, of compliance with prominent norms of modern society: the norms are articulated in policy documents and enacted in educational activity
Schoolified education can be understood as a compromise formation: On the one hand, it amounts to the recognition and reproduction of a set of norms and values, a certain doxa
Summary
Guided by the Bologna protocol, reform of universities in Europe is directed towards a vision of a ‘common European framework’, in which students can move freely between different national contexts (mobility) and where it is transparent what students are expected to learn (learning outcomes), how they are expected to learn (learning activities), and what competencies each individual student has acquired by learning (ECTS credits). We will show what we mean by describing a higher education programme that is designed to follow the tenets of the Bologna protocol, namely the teacher education programme at the University of Gothenburg.[2] This programme aims for about 200 learning outcomes, distributed over 35 courses. We have followed critics of the Bologna process and termed the resulting type of education schoolified This term refers to ‘the utilisation of models for knowledge-transfer typical of schools, in other settings where learning takes place, such as pre-schools, families, holiday camps and universities’. 5 Characteristic of such models are: ‘fixed curricula, teaching and learning organised around classes, external guidance instead of self-directed learning, a high number of compulsory courses, seminars with compulsory attendance, frequent examinations, small scope for choice and a subject matter consisting of canonised “school” knowledge’.6 Drawing on the cultural theory of the Austrian philosopher Robert Pfaller, we will argue that it does not hold, as Quantz contended, that ‘the more we recognise it as a ritual, the less likely it is to affect us’.14 On the contrary, as we will explain, critical analysis of ritual may drive a process of further ritualisation.[15]
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