Many faces of the concept of culture (and education)

Bibliographic Data

ID18968879
AuthorsE Matusov (0000-0001-7587-2266, University of Delaware, corresponding author), Ana Marjanovic-Shane (0000-0002-5913-6880, Chestnut Hill College)
Year2017
Volume23
Issue3
Pages309-336
Publication date2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-067X • E-ISSN: 1461-7056
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1354067x16655460
OpenAlexW2422821204
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited38

In this theoretical essay, we examine four conceptual gestalt approaches to culture and education: “culture as pattern,” “culture as boundary,” “culture as authorship,” and “culture as critical dialog.” In the “culture as pattern,” education aims at socializing people into a given cultural practice. Any decline from culturally valued patterns becomes a deficit for education to eliminate. In the “culture as boundary,” encounter with other cultures highlights their arbitrariness and equality. Education focuses on celebration of diversity, tolerance, pluralism, social justice, and equal rights. The “culture as authorship” is about authorial transcendence of the given recognized by others. Education promotes dialogic creativity and authorship. Student/author is the final authority of his/her own education. “Culture as critical dialog” promotes testing ideas, opinions, beliefs, desires, and values. Critical dialog is inherently deconstructive, promoting never-ending search for truth. Education aims at the critical examination of the self, life, world, and society. Student is welcomed as an ultimate spoilsport, a devil’s advocate. In conclusion, we discuss complex relationships among the four gestalt approaches to culture and education and the ontology of these gestalt approaches. As a by-product of our analysis, we critically deconstruct the concept of meaning making as deeply dialogic process, separating it from its many masks that are mistakenly identified with it

Aesthetics · Dialog box · Dialogic · Epistemology · Gestalt psychology · Pedagogy · Social science · Sociology · Vernacular culture · Digital Storytelling and Education · Literacy, Media, and Education · Philosophy · Russian Literature and Bakhtin Studies

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