Elite Education Research Articles

‘It's not a genuine elite’: partial habitus of advantage among Palestinian graduates of elite schools in Israel

ABSTRACT Within the marginalized Palestinian minority in Israel, a small elite has emerged; they are uniquely challenged as elite within their national group yet marginalized as citizens of the Jewish state. Through the perspectives of an elite private high school in Northern Israel, this qualitative study sought to elucidate this complicated reality. We asked graduates how they integrate their school experiences into their life narratives, understand and negotiate their elite identity in higher education and at work. We also wanted to know how their elite and minority national identities intersect and mutually influence each other. Similar to others' findings, their elite education facilitated academic distinction and distinguished careers. Yet, despite accomplishments, they view success primarily as an individual achievement, with limited collective impact. Their elite status is only partially realized due to constraints in translating privileges into broader action. Our research contributes to debates regarding elite education and stigmatized minority status.

Ginhawa and the Interpretation of Colonialism

The majority of historians and teachers of history tend to believe that it was the Propaganda of the educated elite that led to the Philippine Revolution of 1896. Reynaldo Ileto already made a powerful critique on such perspective by analyzing the mentalité of the pobres y ignorantes, and showed that they indeed possessed a certain worldview that was far different from that of the Ilustrados of the Propaganda Movement. Ileto, however, remained within the limits of the Catholic ideology and its appropriation by the masses in the 19th century. This paper aims to study ginhawa, a Filipino concept, as both a concept and an ideology. The paper argues that ginhawa was used by the natives in interpreting the workings of colonialism.

Beyond a sense of obliviousness: elite education and national identity among Palestinian students in Israel

ABSTRACT Through interviews with Palestinian students in elite schools in Israel, we delve into the intersection between experiences of elite identities and national identities. Contrary to the conventional narrative of hegemonic elite education promoting apolitical attitudes, our findings reveal that Palestinian students, belonging to a stigmatized minority group, prioritize academic excellence alongside a strong emphasis on Palestinian patriotism and national identity. Furthermore, we uncover a heightened political awareness among these students, which they attribute to distinct practices and rituals within the school setting. This paper contributes to understanding how elite education intersects with the construction of national identity among minority elites. It offers insights into the experiences of minority elite students facing discrimination while also highlighting the emergence of a self-defined elite within this specific sub-group.

Creating through Copying: Materia Medica, Women Painters, and Late Ming Culture

Abstract In the late Ming, illustrated materia medica works became increasingly salient among educated elites in the Jiangnan area. This article analyzes two hand-illustrated treatises, Jinshi kunchong caomu zhuang and Bencao tupu, and the cultural contexts of their production. The interplays between copying and editing and image-text relationships in the two works provide insight into how materia medica was exploited as a pictorial subject for ideas about the human-nature dynamic. I demonstrate that materia medica images represented symbolic possession of the natural world and thus served as a maker of social distinction. I also shed light on the perpetuated tradition of making images of materia medica as an intellectual practice. My examinations of materia medica images by women artists also challenge the correlations between gender and representations of flora and fauna in the historiography of Chinese paintings.

1914 as an inflection point: Arabic teaching in the Jewish community in Palestine

The late Ottoman period in Palestine witnessed the establishment of some prominent Hebrew educational institutions which, in addition to Hebrew, taught Arabic and other languages. Arabic was primarily taught in Arabic by native speakers – either Palestinians of Muslim or Christian origin, or Jewish-Sephardic teachers (from Palestine or neighboring countries) who were fluent in both the language and the culture. In light of pedagogical developments in the field of Arabic studies in the Middle East, and the widespread instruction of Arabic in Jewish schools, an Arabic-language pedagogical and educational elite developed in Jewish schools in Palestine, composed of Jewish and Arab natives to the region. Yet political and demographic changes transformed Arabic-language study at the start of the century. Whereas at the close of the 19th century, Jews constituted 3% of the population, they had increased to 10% by 1914, and included more and more European Jews as well as Jews who immigrated to Palestine as part of the Zionist movement’s efforts. In other words, for the first time in history, on the eve of World War I most Jews in the country were immigrants from Europe who represented new national Zionist ideologies. Their attitudes toward Arabic instruction were different, their pre-school capabilities in Arabic were nonexistent, and their presence transformed relations between Jews and Arabs alongside Arabic pedagogy in the Jewish school system. Thus, 1914 symbolizes the end of an era of Arabic-language instruction dominated by individuals intimately familiar with Arabic language and culture and ushered in the demise of the Arabic-Sephardic Jewish leadership that had been instrumental to Jewish Arabic-language instruction until that time.

The Impact of (Un)Ethical Survival Mode Duality and Choices of the Educational Elite on the African Renaissance

In postcolonial Africa, education has always been perceived as pivotal for national and continental progress. For many Africans pursuing education abroad, the intent was to contribute to their countries' development upon their return. However, the anticipated positive outcomes have often not materialised. Many faced a dilemma: conform to unethical systems or resist them, leading to either self-imposed exile, pursuing brain-drain channels, or compromising with corrupt systems. Using Edward T. Hall's Cultural Context method, this study analyses novels depicting African realities. It critically explores individual duality and its impact on the African renaissance by emphasising the challenge of reconciling personal ideals and integrity with the harsh realities of political power dynamics. The struggle against corrupt systems hampers postcolonial progress, hindering education's potential for sustainable development. The study confirms that the potential of education cannot materialise as a catalyst for positive change and sustainable development in postcolonial Africa without an ethical transformation.

"When Can I Call Home?" Coercive Control, Structural Isolation, and Functional Isolation Among Attendees of Residential Behavioral Modification Programs.

The "Troubled Teen Industry" refers to a network of federally unregulated programs marketed toward the behavior modification of teens through therapeutic intervention and elite education. The true nature and structure of these programs, however, remains relatively unstudied, with the consequences of program attendance largely unknown or based on anecdotal evidence. This study systematically analyzes 77 open-source testimonials of former program attendees for themes of coercive control and isolation. Thematic analyses revealed high rates of coercive control within these narratives. In total, 66 narratives mentioned themes associated with coercive control that were unrelated to isolation. Specifically, respondents experienced frequent psychological abuse, gaslighting, humiliation, and name calling. Additionally, a total of 69 narratives contained themes of coercive control specific to functional or structural isolation. The lack of privacy combined with fear of staff retaliation for disobedience lead to structural and functional isolation among program attendees, preventing program attendees from engaging in help-seeking behaviors. Study results provide critical information as to the functioning of these programs, the experiences of youth involved with these programs, and how youth involved may be affected. Such findings justify the dedication of resources to further research this population and encourages the development of federal policy regarding the functioning of these institutions.

Navigating change and shaping missions: a study of Notre Dame College's educational aims within the Holy Cross congregation in Bangladesh

The Congregation of Holy Cross has been working on evangelisation and education in Bangladesh for more than 170 years. This paper examines and discusses the educational aims of highly reputed institution of Holy Cross Congregation, Notre Dame College (NDC). It also examines how NDC negotiated historical changes – internal and external – and how those changes shaped its educational missions. This study is based on the examination of written documents – primary and secondary – and fieldwork involving oral history interviews of Holy Cross personnel, both local and foreign, who are/were involved either in the teaching or administration with NDC. Eighteen participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Data analysis involves a holistic examination of transcriptions, documents, and field notes. Key points from interviews, along with other data, are categorised thematically and chronologically. The paper argues that NDC had a distinctive aim as part of its elite education. It primarily aimed at developing and empowering the minority Catholic community in Bangladesh and developing and preparing clergies to establish a self-supporting and self-governing church in Bangladesh. Secondly, it aimed at the diffusion of the Christian spirit and morals to the elite youth of the country. The paper argues that as NDC went through significant changes to the political and educational shifts over the period, so did its educational aims. In addition, the paper argues that with regard to education policies and strategies, HC education at NDC had a different approach from that of education provided by the government. The paper illustrates how NDC has been seen as quite successful in its missions of raising native clergy and establishing a local church.

Intra-clan marriage in modern times: the role of elite education in assortative mating

Studies have shown a tendency for educational elites to marry within the elite circle in China. However, little research explores how they find a partner and the platforms’ roles in the process. We fill this gap by focusing on an online dating platform targeting alumni of elite universities. We interviewed the core staff of the platform to examine its operations. Through thematic analysis, we analyzed users’ self-representations in their dating profiles and the platform’s relatively high matching success rate. To achieve assortative matching for its elite users, the platform developed a large elite user base by setting university prestige as a dating threshold, hiring staff from elite universities, and providing profile editing and posting services. Users highlighted their privileged family backgrounds, elite university experiences, time-consuming hobbies, and preferences for a soulmate, as they aimed to attract similar partners. Our research reveals a new form of intra-clan marriage that has emerged with the massification of higher education. This homogamy, based on high levels of cultural capital, forms a social enclosure that may reinforce cultural inequalities beyond higher education.

The privileges reproduced by elitism in medical education: an integrative literature review

RESUMO Introdução: O elitismo no ensino da medicina é um fenômeno histórico. Desde as universidades europeias da Idade Média, o ensino da medicina tornou-se um monopólio da elite. No Brasil, a elitização do conhecimento médico ocorreu com a vinda da família real em 1808, reforçando o papel dos médicos como protagonistas da saúde, enquanto práticas curativas populares foram desvalorizadas. Nos Estados Unidos, Abraham Flexner influenciou o ensino médico mundial com um modelo elitizado baseado na lógica biomédica. Objetivo: Este estudo teve como objetivos compreender os fatores que reproduzem o contexto elitista no ensino da medicina, investigar como esses aspectos influenciam a exclusão de determinados grupos sociais no meio médico e apontar caminhos para a discussão e o enfrentamento do problema. Método: Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa de literatura realizada a partir de 14 artigos selecionados entre 182, publicados no período de 2012 a 2022 e filtrados das bases de dados PubMed, SciELO, Lilacs, Web of Science e Scopus. Resultado: Percebem-se semelhanças entre o grupo privilegiado na medicina, formado por homens, brancos, heterossexuais e cisgênero, de condição socioeconômica favorável, em comparação ao grupo sistematicamente marginalizado de mulheres pertencentes a minorias étnico-raciais, de baixa classe socioeconômica e/ou parte da população LGBTQIA+. Essa coincidência tem bases históricas e econômicas que refletem uma estrutura maior, que distribui privilégios partindo dos critérios de raça, gênero, classe social e orientação sexual. Entre os processos históricos que reproduzem esse padrão, cita-se o processo de colonização de países como o Brasil, marcado pela exploração, pelo apagamento e pela imposição de uma cultura e ciência médica balizada por um padrão europeu; o racismo e machismo que, como ideologias, continuam sendo critérios para a distribuição de privilégios na sociedade de classes; e a heterocisnormatividade, que também atua excluindo corpos e orientações sexuais e produção de conhecimentos e práticas de cuidado em saúde. Conclusão: Epistemologias críticas como as presentes no pensamento interseccional do feminismo negro e na colonialidade do poder de Aníbal Quijano e Audre Lorde apresentam-se como caminhos à ruptura dessa norma, propiciando o questionamento de suas raízes para a organização de lutas coletivas e formas de produção de conhecimento que venham ao encontro dos interesses dos grupos historicamente oprimidos.

A Study on Critical Exploration of Nietzsche’s View of Liberal Arts Education

At the invitation of the Basel Education Committee, the young Nietzsche, who was a professor at the University of Basel, offered five lectures on education. The collection of these lectures is called “On the Future of Our Educational Institutions.” In this lecture, Nietzsche critiqued German schools at the time, particularly their liberal arts education, and proposed alternatives. The goal of this research is to uncover the significance of Nietzsche's view on liberal arts education as presented in his speech, as well as to investigate its applicability and limitations to liberal arts education in Korea today. Chapter II provides an overview of 19th-century Germany relevant to the lectures, Chapter III analyzes the main contents of Nietzsche's view on liberal arts education as demonstrated in the lecture, and Chapter IV investigates the potential of Nietzsche's views in the context of today's universities. Nietzsche identified the problems of mass education caused by education expansion policies, as well as the fragmentation and practicalization of knowledge caused by education diminution policies, and proposed an educational view based on the ‘metaphysics of genius’ as an alternative. Nietzsche saw the purpose and goal of liberal arts education as acquiring a sense of ancient Greece and the ability to think like a Greek in order to create a new German culture. While Nietzsche’s view on the elite education and the ancient Greek culture implicit in his discourses of liberal arts education is difficult to accept for twenty-first-century universities, Nietzsche's point regarding fragmentation and practicalization of knowledge that arise from viewing universities as academic institutions rather than liberal arts institutions allows us to critically reflect on the nature of liberal arts education in today's universities.

Narratives of democracy: Educated elites’ responses to democratic erosion in Indonesia

Conventional wisdom maintains that a robust educated middle class is an important factor for a healthy democracy. Recent empirical evidence, however, has shown that there is a significant variation in middle class support for democracy. How do educated elites respond to declines in democracy? To date, we know relatively little about how the educated elites view, talk, and respond as democracy erodes in their country. We address this gap by conducting a discourse analysis of government and educated elites texts in Indonesia from 2010 through 2020. We find that government and educated elites’ discourses on democracy as democracy backslides tend to diverge significantly: While official texts boast of the Indonesia's identity as a Muslim-majority democracy, materials produced by the country's educated middle class express increasing disenchantment with weak political parties, restrictions on freedom of speech, repressive measures toward government critics, and limited checks on executive overreach. Our results suggest that as democracy erodes, government officials’ narratives continue to present the country as a robust democracy, and as such, official narratives alone would not reveal the cracks in democracy in the early stages of decline. Instead, traces of decline are more visible in everyday discourses, where informed citizens express their concerns and criticisms with less fear of reprisals. Rather than standing with the ruling elites, the educated elite authors and producers in our data respond to democratic erosion by resisting and criticizing illiberal measures and demanding greater protection of rights. Our work highlights the importance of an engaged educated middle class who can perceive the subtle erosion in democratic practices and challenge it, both in Indonesia and beyond.

Образование как средовой фактор и канал рекрутинга политических элит

The issues of reproduction of Russian political elites, improving the quality of political culture remain relevant. An extensive empirical array of data on the properties of political elites, their study by means of continuous re-finement of the conceptual apparatus of the theory of political elites, conducting directed studies of the qualities of political elites, detecting properties as complementary effects of studies of various subjects of political elites allows us to investigate the environmental nature of education, its influence on the properties of political elites. The interrelation of the processes of education, upbringing, and training in the process of forming the proper-ties of political elites is substantiated; the analysis of education as an environmental factor of political elites is carried out; the forms of determination of education, upbringing, training on the properties of political elites are revealed; a natural connection between the immanent nature of education and the formed properties of politi-cal elites is formulated. The criteria of differentiation of elite and elite education are formulated.

Helicopter mobility: Changing habitus without challenging structural inequalities, experiences of an international elite education programme

AbstractThis original study followed up ten beneficiaries of a UK charity‐led programme that supported disadvantaged students in applying to elite US universities. First interviewed in 2015 during their early university days in the United States, in our 2019 follow‐up all participants had graduated. Six remained in the United States and four had returned to the United Kingdom, with only one returning to their pre‐university community. They reported benefitting immensely from their international opportunities and were nearly all in high‐paying graduate jobs or high‐profile graduate programmes. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of the ‘cleft habitus’, which can result from rapid and substantial shifts in field, we found that this was rare. Rather, the majority had undergone a ‘wholesale escape’, replacing their originary habitus with one that was consistent with their new field. The significance of the study is that the findings allow us to propose the concept of ‘helicopter mobility’ to describe individualised approaches to social mobility, whereby those considered to have merit are removed from their communities without questioning or affecting wider structural inequalities.

Dethroning the Mao-era Elite, Clearing the Way for Reform

AbstractThe reform era began with the removal of Mao-era elites from leadership positions on a scale theretofore unseen in the People's Republic of China. Rather than depending on incentives to mobilize Mao-era cadres to support Reform and Opening, the new reform leadership brought in younger, better educated pro-reform elites. This article thus proposes a Personnel Model, in which the Communist Party brings in sympathetic cadres to implement major shifts in the Party line. Furthermore, personnel changes were first imposed on the military, then on the civilian apparatus. We show the large scale and rapid implementation of these reforms in 1982–1984 using an original database of over 60,000 cadres drawn from Organizational Histories.

The elite graduate school for leadership in the future. Results of a future workshop on excellent leadership education in 2030

Elite higher education institutions are notable for developing a significant number of graduates who assume leadership positions. This highlights the importance of integrating the two fields of elite education and leadership education. This paper seeks to address the central questions of how leaders will be cultivated and what elite higher education institutions will look like in 2030. To explore these inquiries, a case study was conducted at a German graduate school using the future workshop methodology. The process involved four creative workshops and an online survey, employing both top-down and bottom-up approaches. Through this participatory process, an image of the future of an elite graduate school for leadership in 2030 was developed. This image can serve as a starting point for contemporary higher education institutions to prepare themselves for and actively contribute to shaping a promising future.

Language Dynamics and their Influence in Zambia’s Political Discourse

Abstract Purpose – A world with an increasing number of questions needs people willing to contribute solutions. The fulcrum of this study is centred on assessing the language dynamics and impact of the English language hegemony over local languages in the social, political, and economic life of the Zambian population. The study gleans on the implications of English hegemony and its concomitant colonial undertones and effects particularly on marginalised groups. Notably, the study provides a critical and reflexive development study analysis that eschews the norm: this approach – leaning towards the developmental interests of indigenous and local constellations – enables a rethink of who really benefits from language policies and politics, allowing for a repositioning of who in fact the language development paradigm is for. Method of Enquiry/Design – Data were collected through an analysis of both latent and extant literature derived from a variety of scholarly sources on language dynamics and imperial notions associated with domineering languages. This approach of navigating through a juxtaposed pool of scholarly works provided a confluence of propositions that informed the study’s inferences, particularly by highlighting the subtleties embedded in the English language hegemony. Most significantly, the themes are also informed by this author’s own personal field anthropological observations; having been born and grown up in Zambia under this same hegemonic English language environment. Findings – The study finds that language regimes that put English above local languages (as is the case in Zambia) have enormous ramifications on the education and emancipatory objectives of locals, especially the marginalised groups. For instance, women are burdened in the sense that they must – in addition to the confronts associated with the imposition of the English language – also struggle to navigate the already challenging patriarchy terrains that are rooted in the Zambian cultural and political settings. Imposing additional inequalities makes the attainment of societal development goals a tall order to achieve. The study concludes that to redress this situation, the local educational curriculum needs to be re-designed and aligned to respond to the aspirations and context of local constellational demands. Also, Black consciousness as an ideology framed in liberation philosophy needs to be re-energised as a pathway towards a society free from systematic foreign oppression; this is the only way that sustainable development could be attained in Zambia. Originality/Value – The study exposes the prevalent fallacy – especially by Western institutions – that Zambians willingly seek out to learn the English language: To the contrary, the choice and acquisition of the English language is often a result of coercive circumstances. In contemporary Zambia, the English language is – to a greater extent – a means to an end; a means for survival in the modern environments that prioritise English language over any local language or local skill. In Zambia, the criteria for skill or intelligence are only seen through the prism of English language competency. Local initiatives and skills suffer stigma as they are perceived to be primitive, backwards, and redundant. English and ‘whiteness’ are seen as the ‘standard measure of goodness’. In fact, many white-collar job workers are ashamed of speaking their local languages in public spaces. In this context then, English in Zambia is not a luxury but a convenient necessity that allows local people to navigate other critical avenues of contemporary life. The study also lays bare the fact that the English language hegemony has brought about elements of distortion of ethnic identity particularly on how people can access their cultural rights. Furthermore, far from being a neutral language – English, in fact aids the entrenchment of neo-imperialist tendencies such as discrimination, exclusion, and subtle promotion of economic inequalities, and educational elitism.

Poetic Imitation: The Argument of Republic 10

Abstract The paper offers a new reading of the argument against poetry in Plato’s Republic 10. I argue that Socrates’ corruption charges rely on the tripartite theory of the soul, and that metaphysical doctrines play a role only in the first charge, which demonstrates that the poets are not qualified to teach by reducing tragic poetry to mimetic skill. This accusation clears the way for two corruption charges: the strengthening of appetite, and the softening of spirit (i.e., ‘the greatest charge’). The former focuses on the dangerous association between the poets and the largest appetitive class in the city (hoi polloi), while the latter focuses on the corruption of the educated elite (hoi epieikeis).

Populism and the Africanists in East London in the 1940s and Early 1950s

This article considers popular political mobilisation in East London prior to the launch of the Defiance Campaign in the city in 1952, which ignited a racial war. It suggests that the failure of the municipal authority to assimilate urbanising Africans from regional mission stations and schools, especially in the 1940s, created a crisis of legitimacy for the white city fathers, who had previously promised to find a place for educated and ‘civilised’ Africans. As young, educated African elites were blocked from climbing the class ladder, despite the growth and prosperity of the city, and were prevented from escaping the congestion and filth of its neglected African locations, a strong sense of affinity was forged between them and the urban poor despite their cultural and class differences. This was intensified when apartheid-style laws were introduced that treated and prosecuted all Africans in the same racialised ways. After the African National Congress Youth League was established in the city, educated elites and ordinary people participated in a single set of protests against the municipal leadership around living conditions and their right to urbanise. This was framed by a strongly Africanist ideology, analysed here through a discussion of populism.

RAGAM PERSOALAN PENDIDIKAN DI INDONESIA DALAM TINJAUAN KRITIS FILSAFAT PENDIDIKAN

Humans in their lives need education to develop all the competencies they have. So that the role of education is very vital in human life. Education is also often referred to as a human effort to free oneself from ignorance. However, behind the important role of education, there are actually various educational problems that have hindered various aspects of human development. This research seeks to look at various problems in education through qualitative methods with a phenomenological approach. The results of this study indicate that there is still capitalism in education, then the practice of dehumanization, education which should be a humanist institution but there is a phenomenon of violence in education. Policies in education are also changing which indicates where the direction of education in Indonesia is becoming unclear. Elitism and castelism in education also occur, which causes unequal access to education. Furthermore, education requires philosophy to solve various problems in education that cannot be solved by educational science. The importance of learning in the 21st century to use technology in education.
 
 Keywords: Dishumanization, Capitalism, Castanization, Educational Philosophy.