School in the Soviet ethnographic research over the period from 1937 to 1953 based on the journal “Soviet Ethnography”

Examination of the role of school in Soviet ethnography remains a blank spot in the anthropology of education. However, despite the absence of this subdiscipline, the author indicates the interest of Soviet ethnographers in reorganization of educational sphere. Use of the method of content analysis of the journal “Soviet Ethnography” reveals the role of general education on the map of ethnographic science of the era of totalitarianism (1937– 1953). This stage is characterized by one of the major intrusions into science, which is clearly reflected in publications of humanities journals. The author highlights the common semantic structures – patterns and repetitive statements typical for most articles. These statement lead to the following conclusions: criticism of the prerevolutionary system of education, exclusion of religion from the system of education, and exposure of the problems in the system of education of foreign capitalist countries. At the same time, there was the task to emphasize the successes of Soviet education: elimination of illiteracy; growing number of schools, students, and teachers; and the role of schools in cultural development the Soviet Union. In face of ideological restriction, many ethnographers have identified separate issues and offered their recommendations for the Soviet system of education. These unique observations are the contribution made by the Soviet ethnographic science to the cultural interpretation of the school.

Researching Digital Sociality

Digital technologies have become deeply implicated in and constitutive of contemporary social life. They are reshaping who we are and how we associate with one another, and are profoundly reconfiguring social relations, processes, and practices in a host of social spheres, particularly education. With Covid-19 further entrenching this implication and accelerating those changes, we are forced to rethink what research is and how it is done. This article presents a step towards researching a changing sociality using social media. Drawing on fieldwork on the digital transformation of Egyptian education, it argues that and showcases how WhatsApp can be systematically used as a qualitative data collection instrument to examine educational change. This article also situates WhatsApp research within digital ethnographic traditions, unpacks emergent methodological challenges and ethical quandaries, and presents potential ways to manage them. In so doing, it problematizes extant methodological categories (such as participation), entrenched dichotomies (such as private/public space), and epistemological questions (such as research temporality). Using a unique case from the Global South at an exceptional time of (educational) change, this article can help researchers as they think about their questions, design their research, conduct their fieldwork, and maneuver an elusive digital landscape. It informs broader methodological discussions within digital sociology and anthropology (of education), digital ethnography, and social media research. It also informs research in other domains like healthcare, geographies beyond the Global South, and platforms with similar affordances like Telegram.

Miejsca kultury w antropologii i etnografii edukacyjnej

The focus of this article is on culture as a central concept of educational anthropology – a subdiscipline of anthropology that focuses on the fields of education and learning as key aspects of social life. It begins with an introduction into how culture has been criticially conceptualized in anthropology and ethnography and then illustrates how educational anthropologists have used the concepts of culture and cultural critique to analyze educational processes in diverse sociocultural settings. The author points out three primary areas in which anthropology of education enriches our understanding of education and learning: 1) investigations of diversity of educational practices in different sociocultural contexts; 2) critical examination of cultural practices and structures of inequality and exclusion vis-à-vis minority subjects in the educational process; 3) positioning of participatory research approaches and engagement as legitimate methodological and scholary standpoints. The article builts primarily on examples of texts that have been recently published in the Polish language in order to help situate the perspective of educational anthropology in Polish scholarly discourse and tradition.

Homo educandus through the prism of educational anthropology

An important area which has not received adequate attention within philosophy and educational theory is a close relationship of the human way of being and education. In the light of this the purpose of the article is Janus-faced, looking both inward at reconstructing a mental image of a man that is central for scholars’ worldview and outward at designing a philosophical model that would be keeping with the current challenges of education. Drawing attention at the widespread of electronic technologies in our life it is argued that the idea of a man as embodiment has significant educational consequences. The most important one is the possibility to reveal the meaning-making dimension of consciousness which the modern education urgently needs today. The claim that perception and cognition of the world does not take place from the standpoint of “pure” mind detached from the body, but rather on the basis of embodiment is considered to be a convincing one. In this regard, one of the primary missions of education is to reveal and activate the consciousness-body system as a source of man’s meaning-making activity. Furthermore the issue states that the pedagogical vision of the human being as someone who doesn’t have but search for meaning would succeed only if the human being is viewed as an integral whole rather than as separate parts. In conclusion it is stated that both philosophy and theory of education need to develop a multidisciplinary study of education – anthropology of education. The research field related to inquiry on the subject of education in the integrity of his three dimensions – mind, body and language.

“Effective Schooling” in the Age of Capital: Critical Insights from Advocacy Anthropology, Anthropology of Education, and Critical Disability Studies

This paper argues that the ideological and material reproduction of “effective schooling” in the Age of Capital functions to normalize and perpetuate the unequal social relations and oppressive dynamics that characterize free market economies and their accompanying political and cultural practices in the historical and educational context of the United States of America. I argue that the intersection of three perspectives furthers the work of scholars grounded in the various disciplines—advocacy anthropology, the anthropology of education, and the mutual engagement of anthropology and critical disability studies—and demonstrates that a multi-inter- transdisciplinary lens is essential for deepening an understanding of the discourses as well as the concrete practices that push ‘disorderly’ student subjects into precarious circumstances that threaten their physical, emotional, and psychological integrity.

Intercultural pedagogies: experiencing the kungfu teaching methods at the Shaolin Temple

The Shaolin Temple is a unique religious institution in China. It is the most renowned temple of Chan Buddhism and, at the same time, a famed site of intensive cultivation of traditional kungfu. Besides running the kungfu program for selected Chinese youth, the Temple offers a program for foreign students interested in training kungfu in its authentic cultural setting. Founded on anthropology of education, the theories of embodiment, and the theory of practice, our research project is focused on the relationship between the Shaolin kungfu and Chan Buddhism. The aim of this paper is to describe the students’ perceptions of the Shaolin kungfu teaching methods through the analyses of their narrated personal experiences. The research is based on our 16 months of fieldwork in the Temple, which comprised a full participation in the training program as well as the formal and informal interviews and the group discussions with the students. The paper presents the students’ perceptions of the Shaolin masters’ training methods, the main kungfu principles and their sources, as well as the differences between the training approaches in the Temple and in their home countries. In addition, the study brings forth the concept of intercultural martial arts pedagogies and its application in a representative Chan Buddhist setting.

Anthropology of Education

The anthropology of education (also known as educational anthropology, pedagogical anthropology, ethnography of education, and educational ethnography) is a broad area of interest with roots and continuing connections in several major disciplines, including anthropology, linguistics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy, as well as the field of education. It emerged as a named subdiscipline in the 1950s primarily in the United States through the work of George and Louise Spindler, Margaret Mead, and others. However, work of a related nature was also taking place around the same time in Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and Britain. While research in the anthropology of education is extremely diverse, a few central aims can be articulated. One is to build our understanding of how people teach and learn and what they teach and learn across different community, cultural, national, and regional contexts. Through comparisons of educative processes, scholars often draw insights about how culture shapes educational processes, how culture is acquired by individuals and groups through such processes, as well as how people create changes in and through their educational environments. A basic premise is that formal schooling is implicated in a paradoxical relationship with social inequality. While formal education can lead to greater social justice, it can also contribute to the creation and widening of social inequality. Thus, another key aim is to describe, uncover, and expose educational processes that undermine as well as enhance greater social equality. Formal education is not the only focus; studies of informal learning in families and communities provide rich descriptions of everyday contexts in which young people develop the skills and knowledge to be productive members of their community. Often such descriptions stand in stark contrast to the formal educational system where the same learners may be perceived as deficient. Since the 1990s, the anthropology of education has witnessed a number of shifts, including a movement toward research that takes an activist and engaged stance (e.g., research that includes a goal of changing oppressive conditions by collaborating directly with stakeholders such as youth and parents). This movement entails accompanying changes in methodologies, expanding beyond primarily descriptive ethnography to include methods such as participatory action research, teacher research, policy research, and critical ethnography. A more international and less US-centric perspective is also emerging as scholars around the world recognize the importance of studying both formal and informal education through ethnographic and other qualitative methods. The field is enriched as scholars around the world contribute new perspectives forged in regions with different historical and political environments. One of the key questions asked in early 21st-century educational anthropology is, under what circumstances can formal education be a force for change to create more egalitarian and inclusive societies?

Migrujące podmioty. Relacje, konteksty i przyszłość problemu zróżnicowania kulturowego w edukacji

The issue of migration is now becoming part of a wider debate on cultural diversity. This article explores selected aspects of this debate in the context of school education. A relatively new subdiscipline, the anthropology of education, is indicated as a useful perspective in this matter. Anthropological research on migration and cultural differences in general can be regarded here as a scientific reconstruction of the processes that lead to the construction of otherness. The cultural figure of a migrant in particular serves as an example of these processes in the context of European education. Western concepts of otherness thus build large part of the current political and social debates on migration and the presence of migrants in the educational milieu. The article examines these concepts in relation to the main contemporary migration trends visible in the West.

Anthropology of education in the Russian culture

The monograph is devoted to a systemic study of education in the context of Russian culture. We propose an approach corresponding to the postnonclassical type of rationality, to overcome Biologicheskie and sotsiologicheskie extremes in understanding the nature of education. Anthropology of education, according to the author, is a metatheoretic concept, which can be a basis for the systematic study of education. Used methodological principles of synergetics as the basis of innovative models in the sphere of upbringing and education. Investigated in detail the peculiarities of interpretation of Russian education in psychoanalysis and pedagogical anthropology. Composite monograph is structured as a dialogue between representatives of Western European and domestic anthropology of education. Can be useful for anyone who deals with the problems of methodology of the Humanities and problems of creativity in the field of pedagogy. Will also be of interest to philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists, pedagogues, historians of Russian philosophy.