Learning, Knowledge and Cultural Context (Ire Library) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0792361415 ISBN 13: 9780792361411

Publisher: Springer, 1999

Synopsis

This special issue of the International Review of Education includes contri­ butions on indigenous knowledge, the cultural context of learning and on the interplay between the so-called "traditional" and "modern" ways of educa­ tion. It starts from the assumption that cultures are not static, that they are shifting and mutating, and that the Western need to encapsulate "other cultures", which found its most extreme form in their being frozen in time and boxed behind glass in museums of ethnology, has distorted our under­ standing of the way in which different cultures create, recreate and repro­ duce knowledge. The basic premise of this position is that there is no such thing as a pure culture, and that all cultures borrow, lend, adapt, and distort distinct elements from other cultures. All cultures, moreover, provide their members with ways of learning about that culture, which include elements such as language, forms of social organisation, and ritual spaces for the trans­ mission of specialised knowledge. Meaning may be shifted over time, but that in itself is a product of the passage of knowledge through history. Indeed, much meaning is cyclical and reinterpretive so that cultures may look back to a mythological past which they assumed gave them their essential identity but which may be part fact, part fantasy, and part fiction. This is then rein­ terpreted in the light of changed and changing historical circumstances.

About this title

Synopsis

This volume, edited by Linda King, brings together contributions on indigenous knowledge, the cultural context of learning and the interplay between so-called 'traditional' and 'modern' forms of education. Various different communities and cultures are examined, ranging from Egypt to Benin, and from central Brazil to New Caledonia. The contributions bear witness to the extraordinary diversity and richness of educational approaches found in these communities. At the same time, the approach of this volume is to emphasize not so much the exotic nature of otherness and difference, but rather the sense of common humanity which all cultures share with one another and which can lead us to appreciate the universal joy of learning.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792361415
• ISBN 13: 9780792361411
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144
• Editor: King Linda