What’s Culture Got to Do With It? Educational Research as a Necessarily Interdisciplinary Enterprise

Source: Educational Researcher, 39(6): 461-470. (August/September 2010).

In this paper, the author examines the role of culture in education in historical perspective to suggest the conditions required to promote generalized educational reform.

Schooling is associated with the development of institutionalized hierarchies, modes of cultural transmission associated with writing and record keeping, and increased political-economic disparities within societies.

The author examines several strategies for seeking change in the cultural foundations of schooling.

The author offers suggestions for why such strategies appear to have limited impact.