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1/5

Sometimes we protect ourselv

es by

ostra

th t different,

sometimes by coercing,

or enslaving it,

sometimes by liqui

it. Always we would, if we could,

digest

as

we

digest vegetables and

nim

ls

orace

Kallen

CULTURAL

pluralism has been

dominant feature

in man's very recent

and

,

yet,

there has

been a

general

to consider

its

meaning and

to ex

its

implications for American culture

general and the

field

of

education in par

The

persistence

of

antecedent

c

ul

and successive

migrations

vast numbers

of

people

accounts,

in very

measure, fo

r

the present cultur l

plural

existingin the U

nited States

and specific

ings therein.

The

processes

of

cultural su

rvival

and

ration con

tribute

to

a

diverse

and con-

sociocultural condition to

which

all

including schools, must adapt.

the very

spatial

and socia

l

mobility

populations,

both

in terms

of

theirurban

on around the city coreand th

eir

flight

and extension

to

the

city's

rur l

environs, has created

many

new

the schools

and

the educational

s

a society,

America

has come to

en

with the idealism,

hope,

and

qualities

'th t characterize

other

Am

erican systems

and

the valuesystem as a

whole

Curti, 1

960).

Equally,

and

typically,

there

is a growing recognitio

n

th t

the pro

fessions

of

idealism

do

n

ot

match

the

prac

tic

es of reality for m any i

ncluding children,

in our

society.

Am

erica's educational sy

stem

has

long

been

held u

p as a model,

free

and open to

children from all social and economic

levels,

all

religious and

cultural

bac

kgrounds. Also

the educational

system

has been pointed to

with prid

e

by those who

see it

as

an encultur-

ation

mechanism

whereby

such diverse back

grounds would

be changed so

th t

individuals

might

be

made

culturally

capable and

able

to

function in American society

and

would

be

offered

through education an invaluable

means for self-realization and social mobility.

Looking beyon

d the enculturation, social

mo

bili

ty, and self-re

alization processes, the

scho

ol has been picture

d

as

a f

orce

for social

ch nge

source

of

innovation anda labora

tory

for

bold experimentation cf. Cremin,

1961).

In

fact

h

owever, t

he

end

product

of the

educational

process

has

now

been

recog

nized

by

educators

and

public

alike to

be

something

less for those

children who came

from

different

cultur

al backgrounds Hic

k-

erson, 1966; R

eport of the Nati

onal

Commis-

Thomas C Hogg Associate

Professor Depart

ment

of Anthropology

Oregon

State University

Cor

vallis;

and

Marlin

R McCom

b

In

structor.

epartment

of

Soc

iology

Baylor University

Wrico Texas

5

7/26/2019 el_196912_hogg

2/5

sion

o

n Civil

Disorders

968;

Cla

rk,

1965;

and Con

ant, 1964). F

or

the

poor

black, In

dian, Puert

o Rican, Mexican-American, or

white child,

the

Ame

rican

educat

ional proc

ess

has

been inadequate,

and

it has system

atically devaluated and

attempted to

destro

y

their

cultural

uniquene

ss.

This

educational

inadequacy has

been

assaulted through mass

ive public expenditures to

accelerate

th

e

process

of better education, but

in its train

has also come

cultural devaluation.

Deviations from

the

posited

cultural

norm

have

been

labeled as manife

stations

of

cultural deprivation

or

[of

being]

disad-

vantage

d in

the

educatio

nal world

(cf.

Riess-

man,

1962). Exemplars

of such diversity in

America

have been poked at, probed, and

diagnosed

a d

in mitum

b

y a bewildered edu

cational

profession, utilizing

a

string

of

euphemisms

that

ch

ange as the problems

they fail to co

nceptualize

remain.

For too

long the educational profession

has been

con

tent to place the bl

ame

on

the culturally

different for failing to

be

c

ompatible with

an

d malleable to the school environment.

Perha

ps even more

important

is

the

impli

cation

that

the

culturally different

offer

an

appearance, in poverty and

lifeway,

of

what

Am

erica should not b

e culturally hetero

geneous

and

socially

disintegrated.

Such cultural examples are

seen as

being different,

but

it h

as

been

held that

the

y

can

and should be

made the same,

that

they,

too, can

become

a

part of the American mai

n

stream

and mel

ting pot. How to bring this

state into bein

g was

th

e difficult question

that plagued past American educators, and

it con

tinues to

vex

u

s

in our ti

me.

The fundamental premises

of assimila-

tionist

approaches to education

have

seldom

been seriously

questioned,

even though

many

of the sour

ces of our past and present assimi

lation dilemmas app

ear to stem

from

two

fundamental fallacies

about the American

social and

cultural

situation. First,

is

the

notion that there

is

occurring and

has oc

curred a proper

melting-pot

effect

in assim

ilat

ing the culturally different; and second,

is

the

notion that American society should be

and therefore is

homogeneous cult

ural

syste

m. It is becoming more

apparent in

other c

ultures around

the

world that

t

exis

ts a

wi e

range of pluralis

tic struct

and cultures

(Hogg, 1965; Mitchell, I9

P.

M

Hauser, 1961). The same appear

hold for the United

States,

a

culture

o

held to

be a prime

example of the me

pot thesis.

Even

here,

contrary to m

existing

beliefs,

assimilation has

been

m

myth

than fact

(Riser, 1949).

It app

that

only now,

after we have come to re

nize cultural diversity withinother

nation

the

world, not only in Africa (Mayer, 19

and

Asia

(Burling, 1965), but in

Europ

well, have we dared

to apply realistic fra

works

to the American cultura

l

milieu.

In

deed, pluralism

in

Am

erica

s

from

earliest colonial days (Creveco

1962), appears again

in

the debates

compromises

surrounding the Constitu

and

is associated with the

cultural separ

featu

res

of the

Westward Movement. It

looms large in the causes o

f the Civil

W

multiplies due

to urban-industrialism, E

pean immigration, and internal

migrat

by

Afro-American

s,

accele

rates

during W

War I, the Depression, and World

War

mobile Americans discover new culture

home

and

abroad.

In

more recent

years,

the demand

Black

Power,

Red

Power,

and other

tional

evidences of a new cultur

al

aware

on the part of many American

cultural

gories are becoming more manifest fo

Americans to see (cf. Carmichael and

H

ilton,

1967;

and

Steiner, 1968). Man

these manif

estations are part and

parc

the

urban crisis, the context for whic

cultural

plura

lism

and

social non-arti

tion.

Similarly, e

ven now we are slowly

ing

to recognize,

contrary to

the

ideas

pressed

in

literature but

a

decade

or

two

that

the small

towns

of

rural

America

not, and probably never

were, as homog

ous as we thought cf. Vidich and Bens

1960).

Our own

recent

researc

hes in S

Home,

Oregon, for

example,

have reve

the survivals of antec

edent

traditi

ons

as

as a situation

of cultural c

onflict

for s

and

rural

settings. Nestled as it is

in the

hills

of the Cascade Mountains of we

6

7/26/2019 el_196912_hogg

3/5

Sweet

Home

has served as the base

of hunting and gathering India

ns,

rly

settlers se

eking escape

from

religi

ous

tion, robust log

gers o

r

timber

ploiting

the

forest

by brawn and

al ability, the m

odern logging and

g industr

ies, and now, water reservoi

rs

recreation

and new

abu

ndance.

al setting

has g

one

t

hrough a series

adaptive stages

as new immigran

ts and

of subsiste

nce, both

carryin

g dis

ve forms

of human organization a

nd

view have

replace

d

the

old. Though

sup

erseded, early stages

of Euro-

n cultural adaptation co

ntinueto be

n

ifest

in

Sweet

Home, not

only in

terms

valu

es and

norms, but

also

in

te

rms of be

vioral patterns.

W e

have found

that the multipl

e orien

of townsmen toward

schools

an

d gov

are more, much

more than a stub

adherence

to conser

vatism. Their

views

titute value

s

which

have

served well in

cultural ch

allenges, values to

which

those lacking

that

expe

rience and

ialized in

still

o

ther idioms of

thou

ght,

havior, and things,

c

annot

re

late. It is in

per

sisting

conflict situation that i

nsti

try

to m

aintain

themse

lves, and yet

is

also

the t

ype-situation wh

ich

most

se

ly threaten

s

the ex

istence of institutions,

articularly thos

e designed

to

acco

mplish

p

rocesses like

education.

In

Sweet Home,

as

in America

more

the

fundamental

question

appears

be,

education for

wh

at?

To what v

alue

to what

form of cultural adapta

tion

an ed

ucational system

structure itself

no clear trends

of

cu

ltural

su

bstitution

appa

rent,

w

hen

many

cultures are man

i

t, and when

a

setting

still possesses

an

which permits

a number

of

technical,

and ideolo

gical choices? M

ore

criti

ly,

can

our schools survive the game

o

f

ral roulette? W

hich tradition

is to

be

e

ducational legitimac

y? Whichbearers

w

hat culture are

to

be

ignored

and there

destroyed?

Cultural pluralism

and its attendant

flicts in Am

erica

are inc

reasing under

impact

of

industry;

pluralism plus

con

fl

ict

appea

r to

be

part

of

the

new

qual

ity

of

industrial, s

ocial, and cultural life. Thus,

a

condition which in

eras

only

recently

p

ast

was

viewed

as a strain

in

the social system

now appears

to

be

the

system. The new

adaptation is not

a m

atter of

c

hoosing one

of

many

cultu

res,

it

is

to

succeed

with

many

cultures.

It

is o

ur

v

iew then,

that

the

school in

the American setting,

and the

educational

process m

ore generally, must adapt t

o

cul

tural conditi

ons. Given the

existence of vary

ing cultural traditions,

and assuming

that a

setting's institutions are f

ormal and

endur

ingmani

festations o

f

local culture, t

hen the

school and the educationa

l process

must

formally ad

just to exta

nt

pluralism,

if they

are to retain their

institutional character.

Moreover, not

on

ly must

education itself

adapt to cultural pluralism,

it

must

educate

the

young for cultural pluralism.

This

latter

task necessarily

involves re

vision

of not

only

educational

technology

a

nd

organization,

but

the

ideology as well.

In this process

of

change the

fo

llowing

con

siderations

must be given

due weight.

First, in cultural terms,

the

school

mu

st

pro

vide each student with a se

t of

rele

vant cul

tu

ral experiences so tha

t

successf

ul and

meaningful cultural

adaptations mig

ht

be

made.

In

accom

plishing this task, it

must

work

wi

thin ard

tolerate multiple ran

ges

of

int

eraction and

ideology

providing reasons

for exp

ression o

f

and respect for

distinctive

behaviors

and thoughts. Basic to

the

task

is

the

necessity

for

the

school to go through

the

process

of a

fundamental redefinition and

redirection

o

f

assumptions

presently made

abo

ut

our

so

ciety,

the purpose

of

the

school,

and the school's

organizati

on a

nd external

relationship

s inculturally plura

listic settings

.

Failing this, the scho

ol is encouraging

the range

of social

problems afflicti

ng all

culturally differe

nty

outh dropping out

of

school, unemployment,

deteriorated self-

image, hostili

ty toward authority,

and

with

drawal from

social

inv

olvement. M

oreover,

by

a fa

ilure to recognize

cultural pluralism,

7/26/2019 el_196912_hogg

4/5

th

e schoo

l d

iscourag

es

inn

ovation

and sy

n

creti

sm

of

conf

lictive

cultu

ral elemen

ts,

thereb

y incr

easingconfl

ictand

public

apath

y.

W

hat educati

on h

as

d

one

to the A

merica

n

Indian

,

it is

also do

ing

t

o

those of

a differe

nt

c

ulture

not rec

ognized

thr

ough skin colo

r

andtong

ue.

Second in

ed

ucationa

l

t

erms, th

rough a

premise

of

individual

cultural

worth the

schoo

l

must establis

h means

f

or cultur

al

ex

press

ion

in

th

e wides

t varie

ty

of

school

co n

tex

ts class

rooms,

assem

blies, club

s,

and

curricul

a.

Th

is could

mea

n

a

revision

of c

ur

riculum

inclu

ding

redire

ction of la

nguage

and

otherart

program

s as well

as tec

hnical

expressi

on rathe

r than

train

ing) progra

ms,

an expan

sion o

f thetec

hnical

conce

pt beyond

trai

ning sim

ply for

place

ment in ec

onomic

te

chnology

. Such

means

as

these

requ

ire

spe

cial

training

and

recruitment

of

teachers

and

adm

inistrat

ors an

d thei

r sensitiza

tion to

cul

tura

l p

luralism

.

In

order

t

o

ensure

its

co

m

mun

ity future,

the

scho

ol mus

t main

taincon

sta

nt

conta

ct

w

ith

com

munity memb

ers in

fa

mily an

d organiz

ational

conte

xts. Thi

s

m

eans c

ooperat

ion with

and

study of oth

er

pr

ivate and

pub

lic a

gencies.

Through

c

on

scio

usly

soug

ht

cul

tural feed

back

the schoo

l

mu

st rest

ructure

its

organiza

tion andactiv

i

ties

and

attemp

t

t

o be

come

a cente

r of com

munity interaction.

Final

ly, the

sch

ool mu

stgo be

yond jus

t

b

ecoming

a reflect

ion of

cultur

al diversi

ty.

It must

p

articipa

te

in

, an

d

p

repare

youth fo

r,

a cultura

lly plu

ralistic li

fe a

nd society;

and

suc

h an ed

ucationa

l st

rategy must

become

a

major

and clearly

artic

ulated se

t of go ls

in

t

he edu

cational pr

ocess.

The exten

t

t

o

wh

ich th

ese

challen

ges

c

an

b

e m

et

in

cul

tu

rally plurali

stic

settings

depends

ulti

mately

upon

the

extent

t

o

which

the school

is

sensi

tized

to

cultural

differences within the set

ting.

So

lo

ngas

cultu

ral plural

ism is a

fa

c

tor

the schoo

l's role mu

stbe to

educat

e itself.

Ro

bbins Bu

rling.

H

i

ll Farm

s

a

nd Padi Fiel

ds.

Eng

lewood

Cliffs,

New Jer

sey: P

rentice-H

all, Inc

.,

1965.

S

tokely

Carm

ichael

an

d Ch

arles V .

Hamilton

.

Black Power: T

he Politics

of Li

beration in

America

.

New York: V

intage

Books,

1967.

Kennet

h Clark

. D ar

k Ghetto.

New

York:

Harp

er Row,

Publishe

rs, 1965.

Lloyd

R Coll

ins.

Cultura

l

Positio

n of the

K

alapuya

in the P

acific

Northwe

st. M.S

Anthro

pology

th

esis at

Universit

y of Oregon

,

June

19

51.

Jam

es B . Cona

nt.

S

lums

and Suburb

s. N

ew

York: The

New

Amer

ican Libra

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W

orld

Litera

ture,

1964.

L

awrence Cr

emin. T

he Transf

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of

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Schoo

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York:

Alfred A .

Knopf, In

c., 196

1.

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ichel-Gu

illaume

de Creveco

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What

Is

an A

merican?

In: Henr

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Com

mager,

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A me

rica in P

erspectiv

e.

N

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orld

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Merle

Curti.

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ocial

Ideas

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American

E

ducators.

New

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ageant,

1960.

Na

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Gla

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oynihan. B

e

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Gord

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Lif

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d

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Philip

M . Hause

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As

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C

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Copyright 1969 by the Association for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment. All rights reserved.