EDUCATION AS ‘CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION’

 

Hyacinth Pink

Prof.& Head, Dept of English Language & Literature, Science & Humanities, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Chinnavedampatti, CBE, INDIA

 

Abstract

Education is critically paramount to a community’s cultural progress and social development. It is through education that society moulds the human capital for the performance of various responsibilities. The researcher proposes to assert that ‘Culture’ and ‘Education’ are interdependent

The present paper attempts to:

i) Clarify the concept, purpose and meaning of education and culture and establish its relationship and impact on each other.

ii) Introduce a ‘culture design’ as an analytical frame.

iii) Examine the implications of ‘modernism’ on education and culture.

iv) Critically examine Third World Education.

v)  Briefly survey the evolution of Indian education and culture

vi) Elucidate how education functions as a cultural transformer.

vii) Posit an alternative- a return to ancient schools of humanistic thought as a paradigm shift.

The study concludes stating that Modern Western education is instrumental in ushering a techno- economic insurgency and a materialist culture in the world. Though ‘Modern Culture’ claims ‘reason’ as its epistemological basis, from a functional point of view it is very’ irrational.’ So the cultural mission of education in the emerging twentieth first century is to build a postmodern culture. In building up such an alternative ‘world view’ in our proposed ‘culture design’ we need first of all to liquidate  modernism; and then search for alternatives – a return to ancient Indian schools of humanistic thought which insists on both knowledge and wisdom for a holistic personality.