SOCn6304 Anthropology of Education

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 10 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Irena Kašparová, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Irena Kašparová, M.A., Ph.D.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Soňa Enenkelová
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites
! SOC586 Anthropology of Education
Ability to read in English
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 15 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/15, only registered: 0/15
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
In this course, a student will gain knowledge about the different approaches to learning, teaching, schooling and socialisation around the globe. Intercultural differences in education and learning presents a mirror to the belief of universal benefit of western style of education. Stuudents will learn to think critically about various modes of ´gaining knowledge´.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course the student will be able to write a critical anthropological essay on the cultural relativity of the meaning of education and learningn. S/he will be able to identify and summarize main ideas about learning, schooling, deschooling, teaching and socialisation in anthropology and use them in forming their own views about this sphere of human behaviour.
Syllabus
  • 1. Socialisation and family as transferors of knowledge, control and power. 2. Child, childhood and ideas about when, how, why and whom to teach. 3. Parental ethnotheories of learning 4. Early theories of anthropology of learning 5. School as a total institution. 6. Education as universal export article of the western society 7. Deschooling western society and alternative education in current western schooling 8. Learning and schooling in non-european societies 9. Occidentalism: west takes educational approaches from the east 10. Homo scholasticus: serious play and creation of ´knowledge´, 11. timed essay 12. project presentation
Literature
    required literature
  • The anthropology of learning in childhood. Edited by David F. Lancy - John C. Bock - Suzanne Gaskins. Walnut Creek [Calif.]: AltaMira Press, 2010, xi, 483. ISBN 9780759113237. info
  • ILLICH, Ivan. Odškolnění společnosti : (polemický spis). Translated by Jiří Prokop. Vyd. 1. Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství, 2001, 109 s. ISBN 8085850966. info
  • Schooling the symbolic animal : social and cultural dimensions of education. Edited by Bradley A. Levinson. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000, x, 398. ISBN 0742501205. info
    recommended literature
  • The anthropology of childhood : cherubs, chattel, changelings. Edited by David F. Lancy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, xii, 466. ISBN 9780521716031. URL info
  • POSTMAN, Neil. The end of education : redefining the value of school. 1st ed. New York: Knopf, 1995, xi, 209. ISBN 0679750312. URL info
  • POSTMAN, Neil. The disappearance of childhood. 1st ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1994, xiii, 177. ISBN 0679751661. info
Teaching methods
Presentation, discussion, homework, writing, feedback
Assessment methods
Essay and oral exam
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2025/SOCn6304