Report system the cultural subsystem inside the schoolsystem

The Cultural Subsystem Inside the Schoolsystem

EdM610 – SYSTEM ANALYSIS IN EDUCATION

Mary Rose M. CabangonDiscussant

VALUE SYSTEM or CULTURAL SYSTEM

• is a complex network of aims, values, traditions, beliefs, ways of thinking and behaving which differentiate the schoolsystem from any other socio-cultural group.

• is found in or systematically stated in the aims, goals and objectives of the school.

EXAMPLES

The school system has its own• Rituals• School song• Attendance check or roll call• Excuse slip system• The curriculum which translates the aims of the educational

system into action and activitiesThe curriculum implementation - needs a methodology, a medium of instruction, textbooks and educational teaching aids.

Write on the board the first idea that comes to your mind upon seeing the word

CULTURE

Activity: ASSOCIATION FLUENCY

Structure of Culture

Two schools - different terms similar ideas

AIMS OF THE SCHOOLSYSTEMThere are individual and general societal goals of the

schoolsystem.• To prepare students for life• To create individuality • To develop critical thinking• To introduce planned change• To do selection for society in the different professions• To create an educational elite• To contribute to national development

(1) AIMS OF THE SCHOOLSYSTEM

• “The most important aim of the schoolsystem is that of helping students to think, to learn how to educate themselves for an uncertain and indeterminate future, to relate themselves to others in the context of an increasingly modernized and impersonal society and to make decisions from a variety of alternatives.”

From these aims flow the different functions of the schoolsystem such as the:

• ENCULTURATION function or the maintenance mechanism of the schoolsystem in transmitting the existing cultural heritage (deliberate infusion of a new culture to another.)Example: the teaching of American history and culture to the Filipinos during the early American regime.

• ACCULTURATION function or the renewal function of the schoolsystem in transmitting a prospective culture to be acquired (cultural borrowing and cultural imitation.)Example: the Filipinos are said to be the best English-speaking people of asia.

• ADJUSTMENT function of the schoolsystem • SELECTION function of the schoolsystem

SET OF DISTINCT AIMS Schoolsystems Institutional aims

Governments Governmental aims (either promulgated by the Constitution or

by legislation)Church Catholic education

Professions Professional aims

Parents, students,

teachers and administrator

s

All have their own perception of the various aims in the schoolsystem

SET OF DISTINCT AIMS

• Various interpretations or lack of integration of aims may and do lead to conflict and confusion of aims.

• Different aims of education must be integrated into a unity rather than to a stratification of layers of individual objectives and other layers of societal goals into the schoolsystem.

(2) CURRICULUM

• The curriculum also belongs to the value system of the schoolsystem because it indicates the means and the sum total of activities in the school as to how to attain effectively and efficiently the aims, goals and objectives of the schoolsystem.

• The different curricula are the intermediate values in the school system in order to attain the terminal values embodied in the aims, goals and objectives of the schoolsystem.

• Faulty curricula will necessarily impede the attainment of these aims while an efficient and relevant curriculum is a potent way to attain the aims of the schoolsystem.

(3) METHODOLOGY• In enforcing the curriculum, a certain methodology

which has to be followed has value only inasmuch as the curriculum can be worked out in a satisfactory way.

• Methodology is another instrumental value by which the curriculum and the aims of the schoolsystem are worked out.

• The methodology to be followed can only have real value to the students and teachers if it worked out in the context of their cultural realm.

(3) METHODOLOGY

• For instance,The case study method based on American

cultural setting as found in some American textbooks, would have little or no real pedagogical value as compared to the case study method based on Philippine cultural setting, in achieving the aims of the Philippine education.

(4) MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

• Social inheritance and cultural heritage comes to the learner in symbols like language to which the learner gives a value, a meaning or gets an experience.

• The meaning and reality has to be grasped first to know what the words symbolize through the process of conceptualization.

(4) MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

• The medium of instruction is another instrumental value by which the aims of the schoolsystems are realized.

• It would be meaningless and useless to teach Filipino students in the Japanese language as medium of instruction as it would be valueless to teach the Japanese in Filipino as medium of instruction.

(4) MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION• The value system in education is only concerned

with the medium of instruction or medium of education inasmuch as it belongs to the cultural pattern of the schoolsystem.

• It is not interested in the grammar of the language but in the fact that one or two specific languages and no other languages are used as medium of instruction in the schoolsystem.

• It has to explain why it is that way.

(5) TEXTBOOKS AND EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

• Textbooks and materials contain the content of the curriculum in written language according to the medium of instruction used in the schoolsystem.

• It has been said that books on the history of the Philippines during the Spanish Regime were history books on Spain in the Philippines and that books on the history of the Philippines during the American occupation were history books on the United States in the Philippines.


• In Engineering and Commerce it is often that course books from the U.S.A. which are used by first year American college students with 12 years of pre-university preparation are prescribed for Filipino students.

• The books are written in the English language as spoken in the homes of the students.


• It would be a gigantic task to have these books “studied” by Filipino students as pre-university education is only ten years in the Philippines and considering that English is often a foreign languge in Filipino homes.

• If textbooks and educational materials belong to the value system or cultural system of the schoolsystem, then textbooks and materials would have to be Filipinized accordingly.

Who Shapes the Aims of the Schoolsystem?

• Schoolsystems have set aims for themselves which are called institutional aims.

• Societies have also set aims for the schoolsystem which are called governmental aims of education made known by way of the constitution or legislation.

• Professions have set up aims for schoolsystems which are called professional aims.


• There are different functional aims in the schoolsystem as research, instructions and community service.

• Parents, students and faculty members have their respective aims with reference to schoolsystems. They also have their perceptions of the institutional aims, governmental aims and professional aims of the schoolsystems


• It is a matter of consideration that all these aims are integrated into the schoolsystems and do not bring a conflict situation in case of fragmentation of aims.

• The aims of the schoolsystem can be changed either by external intervention or by internal initiative of the schoolsystem.

Who Shapes the Aims of the Schoolsystem?• A difficulty in changing the aims of the

schoolsystems is often found with the faculty members.

• 1. Many teachers are not trained for changing the aims of a school system.

• 2. The statements of the administration can easily be appended by social pressure.

• 3. The arguments about aims in education and changes are often about means and procedures rather than ends or aims of priorities.

What are the criteria for QUALITY of EDUCATION?

External CriteriaThe efficiency of an educational system may be considered in terms of how it fulfills its social and economic objectives, and how much relevance it has to society and its environment.

This measures the external productivity of the schoolsystems.

Internal CriteriaIt may be considered in terms of quantitative and qualitative factors that are internal to the system, e.g., who are educated, by what methods, in what knowledge and skills, with what results and at what cost.

This measures the capability of the inputs and the internal efficiency of the schoolsystem.

CONCLUSION

In the cultural aspect, national security, national identity, solidarity, Filipinism, have to be strengthened

in the school curriculum.

In analyzing the school as a system in itself, it is necessary to identify all the subsystems within the school

environment. It is through the interaction among these subsystems that the school is able to maintain its

stability, perform its various functions and eventually attain its objectives. Within the school system are the social systems, cultural

systems and economic systems. (Zwaenepoel, 1985). These three systems are integral parts of the school systems. Any change in one of these systems affects the others. They are closely interrelated.

For example, a high drop-out rate affects the economic stability of the school system. In effect, this causes a social problem to the school. At the same time, students belonging to the low-income class may be deprived of participating in socio-cultural activities. The faculty members may also be affected in terms of their salary rate. On the other hand, increases in tuition fees among private schools could affect the smooth relationship between administrators and students.

REFERENCESBilhart, John and Gloria Galanes, Katherine Adams. Effective Group Discussion. New York:

McGraw-Hill 2005Hanson, Mark E. Educational Behavior and Organizational Behavior. Mass: Allyn and

Bacon, 2006Henry, Nicolar. Public Administration and Public Affairs. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall,

2005.Lunenberg, Fred. Educational Administration: Theory and Practice. New York: McGraw-

Hill, 2007.Rosenbloom, David H. Public Administration. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.Zwaenepoel, Paul P. Systems Analysis in Education. Manila: UST Press. 1985.Systems Analysis in Educational Management Module

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