DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

SOUTH LA UNION CAMPUS

COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Agoo, La Union

Nero M. Paderes Inquiry & Reflection #1

Doctor of Philosophy in Science Education February 2, 2018

Historically, has schooling been used for cultural transmission or change?

If we go back in history, it can be observed that schooling has always been a vessel for cultural
transmission. In its technical sense education is the process by which society, through schools,
colleges, universities and other institutions, deliberately transmit its cultural heritage, its accumulated
knowledge, values and skills from one generation to another making it as an instrument of cultural
change. Education can impart knowledge, training and skills as well as inculcate innovative ideas and
attitudes among the young. It is culture in which education germinates and flowers. It is the culture
also upon which education exerts, in turn, a nourishing influence. The intimate relationship between
culture and education is evident from the fact the one of the major aim of education is to impart to
the child cultural heritage and social heritage. Every individual is born into a culture which provides
him with definite patterns of behavior and values which guide his/her conduct in different walks of
life. Thus, education plays a significant role in the life of a person’s cultural heritage.
Just as the culture influences education, in the same way education also influences culture of
a country. Every country has a distinct culture of its own. Hence, it tries to preserve its culture and its
distinctiveness in its original form. Education is the only means through which this task can be
accomplished. Thus, education preserves the culture of a society. The process of preservation includes
the process of transmission from one generation to another. The famous sociologist Ottaway has
rightly remarked ‘The function of education is to transmit social values and ideals to the young and
capable members of the society.’ Another function of education is to bring the needed and desirable
change in the cultural ideals and values for the progress and continued development of the society
without which social progress cannot take place. Education accultures an individual modifies cultural
processes by research and deeper investigations into all areas of human requirements.
Education upholds the continuity of culture through its diverse activities and programs
because culture is the life breadth of a society. Without it society is bound to decay. Thus, society
establishes schools to preserve and transmit its culture to the coming generations. Children should be
motivated to learn more and more from cultural interaction among various cultures. Therefore,
cultural integration and assimilation will enrich the composite culture of a society. Education aims at
developing the personality of a child. It employs diverse cultural patterns of thinking, behavior and
cultural values so that children are physically, mentally, morally, socially and intellectually develop
with the development of society to the maximum extent.
While material cultural develop at a faster speed due to scientific and technological inventions
non-material culture consisting of ideas, values and norms lags behind and create a gap between the
two. Education is the only means by which these gaps can be bridged. Thus, education and culture
are interdependent and complementary to each other. However, the existing system of education in
our country has not evolved from its own culture. There is a need that education should be related to
our own culture.
While it is true that education should always be essentially a forward-looking activity, in
normal times when changes take place rather slowly and decorously, its function is mainly
conservation— adjusting the child to relatively stable environment. But in periods of crisis like the
present, when the older is dying out and the new one is not quite born, when the older forms of culture
have lost their grip on the loyalty, at least, of the young and the new "shape of things" is far from
being clear, education has a special difficult and critical role to play."
Modernization of education and cultural renaissance is needed to evolve education from its
own culture. The most powerful tool in the process of this renaissance and modernization is education
based on moral and spiritual values on the one and on the other on science and technology.
Education should transmit the culture to the new generation and transform the outlook of the
young towards life in the light of the past; in the context of cross-cultural influences and in the light
of the future requirements of the individual and the society.