Week Nine - Task 4: Potential Problems with Education Tailoring

Is there a potential problem being stored up for people if 'education' is tailored to fit into their cultural and personal preferences?

I think that if education is tailored to fit into peoples cultural and personal preferences, then yes, there is a problem being stored up. Relating back to the ‘should education stretch a person’ question, I believe that education should broaden peoples horizons in terms of learning about different cultures. Although this is not a key aspect of education, I think it should take some part in it. If each educational institute, particularly primary and secondary schools, only taught students about their own country and their own culture they would leave with no knowledge of people from foreign countries, and even worse people who live in their own country. The U.K has a population of people from a variety of different countries and religions, and therefore their cultures are very different. If students aren’t taught about this then it could lead to problems such as bullying due to uninformed judgements.

Julia (2000: 281), believes that employing a multicultural curriculum is essential as this will encourage “willingness to expose oneself to one's cultural biases and vulnerabilities” and that “to become informed about other cultures forms the basis of receptiveness to multicultural education and to feel the need to search for and become open to examine multicultural knowledge”. I agree with this as knowing about different cultures is the only way of understanding ‘different’ people.

In terms of education being related to work culture, I think this is also a reason for education not to be tailored for individual’s cultural and personal preferences. After education, people typically find a job. “The lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business instantaneously with millions of people across the planet” (Prasad, 2006). This is another reason for people to understand other people and cultures; the jobs and workplaces they have may involve doing business with people from all around the globe.

Similarly, jobs which include working with the public mean working with culturally diverse people. In this case, education is related to ‘work culture’, so students need to be prepared by their education to enter a workplace which is culturally diverse. Work culture is no-ones culture; it will vary from workplace to workplace and include each individual employee.

Julia, M (2000) “Student perceptions of culture: an integral part of social work practice” International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Volume 24, pp. 279-298, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6V7R-3YVDBFT-7-1&_cdi=5849&_user=7880563&_orig=search&_coverDate=03%2F01%2F2000&_sk=999759997&view=c&wchp=dGLbVzz-zSkzS&md5=b8ca48a62e80aba883d23966b71fcf06&ie=/sdarticle.pdf
Prasad, S (2006) “Ethnic communities and work ethos: how to create culturally competent firms”, COS Round Table, http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:dgKiP9g786AJ:www.cosbcn.com/documentsCos/S.PrasadEthnicCommunitiesandWorkEthos.doc+is+there+a+problem+if+education+is+tailored+to+fit+peoples+cultural+and+personal+preferences+-health,+-diet,+-medical,+-nutrition&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk