Local Meanings, Global Schooling: Anthropology and World Culture Theory

272 Pages·2003·1 MB·English

by  Kathryn Anderson-Levitt

LOCAL MEANINGS,
GLOBAL SCHOOLING
Anthropology and
World Culture Theory
Edited by
Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt
01 anderson fm 2/28/03 4:12 PM Page i
LOCAL MEANINGS,
GLOBAL SCHOOLING
This page intentionally left blank
01 anderson fm 2/28/03 4:12 PM Page iii
LOCAL MEANINGS,
GLOBAL SCHOOLING
Anthropology and
World Culture Theory
Edited by Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt
01 anderson fm 2/28/03 4:12 PM Page iv
LOCALMEANINGS,GLOBALSCHOOLING
Copyright © Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, 2003.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2003 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan
Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United
Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the
European Union and other countries.
ISBN 0–4039–6162-X hardback
ISBN 0–4039–6163–8 paperback
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available from the
Library of Congress
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Letra Libre, Inc.
First edition: May 2003
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
01 anderson fm 2/28/03 4:12 PM Page v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface vii
INTRODUCTION
A World Culture of Schooling? 1
Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt
PART I
MINISTRIES AND SCHOOLS TRANSFORM
1. “Thai Wisdom” and GloCalization:
Negotiating the Global and the Local in
Thailand’s National Education Reform 27
Susan Jungck with Boonreang Kajornsin
2. Transformations in South Africa:
Policies and Practices from Ministry to Classroom 51
Diane Brook Napier
3. Teaching by the Book in Guinea 75
Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt and Boubacar Bayero Diallo
PARTII
TEACHERS, STUDENTS, AND PARENTS RESPOND
4. Beyond the “One Best System”?
Developing Alternative Approaches to
Instruction in the United States 99
Thomas Hatch and Meredith L. Honig
5. Resistance to the Communicative Method
of Language Instruction within
a Progressive Chinese University 121
Huhua Ouyang
01 anderson fm 2/28/03 4:12 PM Page vi
6. World-Cultural and Anthropological Interpretations
of “Choice Programming” in Tanzania 141
Amy Stambach
7. The Politics of Identity and
the Marketization of U.S. Schools:
How Local Meanings Mediate Global Struggles 161
Lisa Rosen
PARTIII
OUTSIDE OR BEYOND A GLOBAL CULTURE
8. World Culture or Transnational Project?
Competing Educational Projects in Brazil 183
Lesley Bartlett
9. Europeanization and French Primary Education:
Local Implications of Supranational Policies 201
Deborah Reed-Danahay
10. Transforming the Culture of
Scientific Education in Israel 219
Kalanit Segal-Levit
COMMENT
The Global Model and National Legacies 239
Francisco O. Ramirez
List of Contributors 255
Index 259
01 anderson fm 2/28/03 4:12 PM Page vii
PREFACE
This book grew out of long fascination with the European model of school-
ing and hence an interest in sociology’s “neo-institutionalism” or world cul-
ture theory. The book also coincides with a renewed interest among
anthropologists in studies of policy and hence in studies of educational re-
form. Many of the chapters grew out of papers presented at two symposia or-
ganized by the Committee on Transnational Education and Issues of the
Council on Anthropology and Education at the 2000 and 2001 meetings of
the American Anthropological Association. Other authors who shared their
studies and contributed to our thinking at those sessions include Bob Her-
bert, Inés Dussel, Maria Paz Echeverriarza, John Napier, and Vincent Lebeta.
Veryspecial thanks go to Elsa Statzner, who organized the first sympo-
sium and who insisted that this book happen, and to Evelyn Jacob, who
made extensive, insightful comments at the second symposium. Thanks,
too, to Francisco Ramirez, one of the key developers of world culture the-
ory, who let us entice him to the anthropology meetings to serve as a dis-
cussant and who has engaged eagerly in the dialogue that this book
represents. Email conversations with him and with the authors in this book,
particularly Susan Jungck, helped clarify ideas presented in the introductory
chapter. Finally, I am greatly indebted to the Spencer Foundation, which not
only funded the research that enabled me to investigate the transnational
flow of educational reforms but also gave me the opportunity to meet some
of the authors participating in this volume.
This page intentionally left blank
02 anderson intro 2/28/03 4:14 PM Page 1
INTRODUCTION
A WORLD CULTURE
OF SCHOOLING?
Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt
Isthere one global culture of schooling, or many? Are school systems around
the world diverging from their original European sources, or are they con-
verging toward a single model?1 This book opens a dialogue between two
verydifferent perspectives on schooling around the world. On the one hand,
anthropologists and many scholars in comparative education emphasize na-
tional variation and, beyond that, variation from district to district and from
classroom to classroom. From that point of view, the nearly 200 national
school systems in the world today represent some 200 different and diverg-
ing cultures of schooling. On the other hand, sociology’s “institutionalists,”
or world culture theorists, argue that not only has the model of modern mass
education spread from a common source, but schools around the world are
becoming more similar over time.2According to world culture theory, rather
than diverging, schools are converging toward a single global model.
This question matters to anthropologists because when we look at
globalization—the movement of people, money, and ideas across the entire
world in unprecedented volume—we wonder whether it really means that
the world is becoming more homogeneous. Are we creating a global culture
(a “McWorld” for the cynical), or do people create new local cultures as
rapidly as global imports hit them (Watson 1997)? Are we seeing increas-
ing uniformity, or simply diversity organized in a new way (Hannerz
1996)? The domain of national school systems is one of the richest areas for
exploring questions about globalization and, in particular, world culture
theory. National school systems offer an example par excellence of an insti-
tution that has spread in the last century across the globe.