Education in the Global Community



"it is a responsibility of both the locals and tourists
 to preserve local custom and culture"

Who is in control of culture? Or more importantly who is in control of the education which develops culture? These to me are the question that I’ve had to ask myself from reading the Comaroff and Comaroff article, ‘Ethnicity Inc’. Despite the article referring a lot to the tourism industry of various places some of the points do hold significant weight in education; particularly the when the authors ask ‘who controls the conditions under which culture is represented and alienated.’ (Comaroff and Comaroff, 24) In my previous blog I spoke about the history curriculum in Australia and how it promotes a culture where Australian’s are asked to feel guilty about past wrongs. The state controls this representation. Interesting in an article by Setiono Sugiharto in the Jakarta Post there is a discussion of educational systems controlling what culture is explored and what is repressed. Sugiharto comments that recently there has been a ‘fetish of the Education and Culture Ministry for Western-oriented education.’ Perhaps this fetish sings to the ‘outside entrepreneurs [who] exploit marginal people’ (Comaroff and Comaroff, 24) because having locals who have a strong grasp on English and Western customs can only be beneficial to those who wish operate in the tourism or business industries. With non Western countries such as Indonesia having an educational system which, as Sugiharto suggests, ‘favours internationalisation through the promotion of English’ are these nations allowing their citizens to become ‘the native other’ who are there to ‘serve as a fetish’ for tourists and their dollars (Comaroff and Comaroff, 25) Along with this point is another comment from Comaroff and Comaroff when they suggest that ‘the culture transacted in those markets (foreign cultural markets such as Indonesia) signified... the contrast between the enlightened and the primative’ (Comaroff and Comaroff, 29). This point made by the two authors is significant because it shows how foreigners use this cultural tourism as a means to feel superior yet there isn’t much thought on what it actually does to the countries us as Westerners visit. Sugiharto makes mention that ‘local language education has the power to shape children’s attitudes’ as well as preventing ‘stigmatization of local traditions and languages from inimical constructs generated by global, powerful discourses.’ The Indonesian authorities have the ability to promote local language education which according to Sugiharto ‘is the best medium for teaching on the grounds... [it] is more meaningful and comprehensible when conducted in the child’s mother tongue.’ The message I’m trying to get out of both Comaroff and Comaroff and Sugiharto’s articles is the importance of control of culture. Earlier in this blog I asked who controls culture. Perhaps in Australia and in Indonesia it is controlled at an administrative level by the authorities but really it is controlled by us, the global community. Using Indonesia as an example, it is a responsibility of both the locals and tourists to preserve local custom and culture and not degenerate it to a tourism enterprise.

 

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/10/06/a-fetish-local-tradition-indonesian-education.html (6th October 2012)

Comaroff, J.L & Comaroff, J. (2009). Ethnicity, Inc. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chapter 3: Questions of Theory.