Learning Society and Learning Identities - Essay Example

Client inserts his/her name Name of tutor Course title Name of institution Date of submission Introduction This assay gives an interesting history of my learning development. It analyses every single step I undertook from the first day I was enroll in nursery school. My learning experience is unique compared to normal learning experience. Children who grew up in second family who live in urban areas are advantaged in that they are given enabling environment all though and they stand a better chance to finish school at an early age. That has been the case to me. This assay will give how I manage to advance in my learning despite many challenges that I underwent. Learning is a process that is dictated by many factors. A number of factors that I will discuss in this assay are the family background. There are quite number of initiatives that have been undertaken by the government to give education to all in my country. This is an improvement compared to my time where there was little support given to us. There is an aspect of private schools which have widened the earning gap between children from humble background and those from better family background. In this assay I will give my complete side of the learning story in contrast to modern learning experience of children raised in a better enabling environment. The assay will demonstrate psychological differences that manifest in the different learning environment. Children from well off background are well prepared psychotically and are able to learn faster and finish their studies early compared to children who hails from poor background. Primary school My primary school encounter was interesting one. I was not a bright pupil as such. My class one to class five was not fruitful one. I had a lot of difficulty in learning and I recall most of my time playing. I was active out of class and passive in class. Late in class five I began to change my way of doing things. Most of my close friends was doing very well in class work and made me to worry a lot. I became curious and got a lot of desire to gaining knowledge and compete with my friends. My mother used to comment about me badly regarding my behavior and my teacher did not like me as such due to my poor performance. That really disturbed my peace and there was an urge in me to make a difference. I put a lot of efforts on my class work and it was not easy to grasp things faster enough. I struggled but there was little difference in my academic achievements. In class six I made such a decision to learn two items and gram it per day. I kept doing that every now and then and it really made a lot of difference in my learning ability. I slowly began to rise in my class position from poor student to average student. I joint class seven with average marks and that was satisfactory to me. Class seven was a difficult; almost all the subjects were cumbersome. I kept on employing my approach until the end of class seven though I was not able to secure cut-off marks to enable me move to class eight. I missed two marks and that denied me a chance to go to class eight. I was so discouraged but I later took it positively and repeated class seven. At such a time I was sharp enough and I knew very well that I will be the best student in class seven. For all of my class seven in that year I became the best pupil. I later joint class eight with good marks and I remained competitive pupil in class. I met seniors who repeated class eight and they were smart but I was able to challenge them in class. In class eight final exams, I emerged the best pupil in the school and the second best in the whole zone. I secured myself a place in one of the good schools in my district. It was such a big fulfillment to me having risen from poor pupil to average and later bright High school My high school life was full of its unique challenges. Challenge number one is entering boarding high school from day primary school. It took me almost one full term to adapt to new boarding life style. I recall having a serious problem with my learning ability in first term. I was not used to waking up early and having little meals. I could sometimes starve and completely lose concentration during lessons. During most of afternoon classes I found myself dosing off due to lack of adequate sleep during night. I was enrolled in high school at such a time when there was ill-famous bullying of new student. Senior student were so rough on us and we were belittled in many aspect. The only comfort zone in school was class room where we were purely form one student where nobody was senior than the other. During meal times we were the last priority and many a times we missed meals and nobody cared. There were prefect students who were given powers to discipline others and I recall in many occasion my colleague being beaten in front of us. The worst place of all was dormitory where all kind of mistreatment was taking place. We were made to clean it before we go to bed. In many occasion we were also made to clean clothes for senior students and polish their shoes. My life in high school became better when I joint form two and later senior classes. My background also featured in many ways. I was many a time chased out of school due to school fees and that had a significant impact in my performance. I sat for my final exams and managed to perform well to qualify to join the university. University University was the best place in my academic life. I enjoy every aspect of it. We were given study loans and scholarships by the government. It made my life in university easy and enjoyable one. There was one major challenge in the university. It was not easy to obtain accommodation with the university due to a high number of students who enrolls for degree and other courses. The conduct of the student in the university was mature one. There was no bulling and everyone mind their own business. One major item that characterizes lifestyle in the university was freedom. Students conducted themselves the way they want so long as they attend lecture classes. There was no movement restriction within and without university except security check on strangers in the university. Dress code was one of the interesting features. Students enjoyed the freedom of choosing their attire so long as they don’t expose their bodies too much. There was equal benefit from freedom given to students who knew what they were doing. On many occasions, students messed with the freedom given. Quite a good number of collogues found themselves on the wrong side of the events. Some wasted their time enjoying freedom and doing things that drifted them from their performance. A good number of lady colleagues got pregnant and gave birth to kids during their life in the university. One of the major social academic behavior, and high marks were given to students by some of the lecturers who had sexual relationship with them. Current and future learning Globalization and reflexive modernization are concepts that have impacted upon my current learning at the university. Constant change means that people need to continue engaging with education in order to update skills or re-skill to compete in the global employment market, leading to lifelong learning for many (Field, 2002, p. 38). There is an expectation at government level that people will continue to participate in formal and informal learning (Wheelahan, 2003). “Learning to learn” skills are now just as important as task related skills. For those learners who did not engage well with school, it is difficult to return to formal education and important that education is geared towards providing learning experiences that are inclusive and learner centered. Attending university is learning experience with its own hidden curriculum of academic expectations and jargon. Where teachers provide ‘explicit instruction’, especially regarding assessment, it is much easier to comply with requirements and makes the recognition and realization rules easier to navigate, especially for disadvantaged students. The concept of a learning society is part of globalization and reflexive modernization, yet is not a new concept. Events such as wars, natural disasters and increasing technology have a profound impact on the way that citizens react to change (Field 2002 p.10). For instance during the two World Wars, women were required to learn skills previously confined to men. This required new and faster methods of training and change in societal attitudes towards gender roles. In response to reflexive modernization, I am training for teacher registration and the opportunities that may arise, yet I am also conscious of what Jureidini et al, (2003, p.19) describe as ‘precarious employment’ where traditional, life long career paths are no longer applicable, and chosen careers may become redundant in years to come. This may require more change and study on my part in the future as part of the learning society. Part of my decision to diversify my teaching areas is based on the need to develop and maintain skills to compete in a globalised marketplace (Field 2002, pp. 58-63). Online and flexible learning modes are now having an impact on people’s ability to participate in learning (ibid, p. 53-54). The Internet has made it easier to source goods and information globally and to engage with the world on an everyday basis (Held & McGrew, 2000, p. 1; Jureidini, et al, p. 12; Singh, 2002, p. 572). Modern society requires its citizens to be lifelong learners, adapting to the changes taking place around them, however working life is only one component of lifelong learning. Dewey’s (1966, p. 307) definition of vocations is inclusive of all activities that are central to an individual’s life direction, including paid work. Bagnall (2001, p. 8) argues that contemporary lifelong learning is ‘…being overwhelmingly framed by economic considerations…’ and that for the majority of people it is becoming a process of fitting into contemporary cultural realities.’ This learning for economic reasons is supported by Billett (2004) who views the rise of economic discourse in education as having a negative impact. I have found education and learning empowering and helpful in breaking out of the barriers and mindset that my upbringing has presented to me. Entry to higher level education has changed my perception of myself, my attitudes and my place in the world (Crossan, et al, p. 56). It is also fulfilling to be able to encourage women in situations similar to myself to step out and have a go. Conclusion My learning history has been shaped by my upbringing, in a disadvantaged socio-economic area, by working class parents and extended family that had no experience of higher education. As a result of this, my decision to finish school at 15 and enter working life led to my absence from formal education for many years. Different sociological theories and Bernstein’s (2000) Pedagogic Device help to explain why school was not a success for me, however in finishing school early, I was able to gain valuable life experience in the working world that now helps me to understand, as a trainee teacher, the needs of students in similar situations to myself at that age. My decision to return to study, whilst difficult at the time has proven to be expedient and useful in responding to changes in society such as reflexive modernization, globalization and lifelong learning. I am a part of the learning society and consider myself a lifelong learner, not necessarily in the formal sense, but through informal learning as well. As a mature aged student who has finally made her way to university, the road to educational success has been a long one, but worthwhile. My only regret is that I didn’t start my higher education earlier. Critical Reflection This assignment has been very useful in assisting me to analyze my learning history and its impact upon my life. Until I thought in depth about it, and learned about the sociology behind it, I just accepted that my schooling was normal and that I just have the ‘brains’ to go on to university. I now know differently and this has helped me to better understand the education of my own children and how pedagogic practices can make or break a learner’s experience of education. In my professional practice, undertaking this essay has helped me to understand that my students are all individuals, with aspirations and experiences of their own that have helped to shape their views of themselves as learners. I felt the readings helped me to understand the theoretical concepts more clearly and I used the NCVER website to try and find articles about mature-aged learners and workers. Although I didn’t use a lot of the material I found due to word count limits, it was nonetheless helpful in adding to my understanding of lifelong learning issues. I found it difficult to gather relevant information about education in the 1970s to help me with analyzing my early history. This is always a hard call – would you have been in a position to engage in the way you have now? I feel a bit the same way, but don’t know how things could have been different. It would have been good if I could have found a study of state education practices in the 1970s. I’m sure there is probably something out there if I’d had more research time to look. I found the handout on setting out the essay very useful and decided to go with the second format of justifying throughout the essay. It was hard to start, but I found by writing down my history first, then analyzing it throughout, the task was made easier. I don’t consider my essay to be an ‘elegant’ account of my history, and I left quite a lot out that I have done, but I find sometimes the academic style of writing is foreign to me so I just write it my way, then try to edit until it doesn’t sound quite so un-academic. I feel that the strongest part of the essay is the first section and the analysis of my early learning. I found it easier to apply sociologist theories to this. For the later section that was more difficult as I feel it depends on your perspective of how you saw your lot in life. Whilst I do agree that discrimination and disadvantage in education still exist, not everyone can have high paying professional occupations or society wouldn’t function properly. For this reason my sections on globalization etc are limited in scope and would benefit from more detailed analysis using sociological theories. Well, this could be part of your post-graduate career. I think writing that tries to sound academic is writing that isn’t good. The best writing is direct, simple and clear. The best advice I can give is to try and write directly, simply and clearly, and you do – so keep working on that. This is a very insightful critical reflection – I take your point about your current position – perhaps reflecting –to some extent – a functionalist perspective – but the way to do this is to get stuck into the debates and to defend your argument from this perspective. References Billett, S. (2004). “From your business to our business: industry and vocational education in Australia”, Oxford Review of Education, Vol 30, No. 1, 11-33. Field, J. (2002). ‘The Silent Explosion’ in Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order, 2nd, Staffordshire: Trentham Books, Chapter 2, 35-67. Giddens, A. (1993). Education, Communication and Media, Sociology, 2nd Ed, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 424-454. Held, D. & McGrew, A. (eds) (2000). “The Great Globalization Debate: An Introduction”, Held, D. and McGrew, A. (eds), The Global Transformations Reader: An Introduction to the Globalization Debate, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1-45. Jureidini, R., Kenny, S., & Poole, M. (2003). “The search for society”, Jureidini, R. & Poole, M.,Sociology: Australian connections, Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, pp. 3-25. Krause, K., Bochner, S., & Duchesne, S. (2003). Educational Psychology for learning and teaching.Victoria: Thomson. Reay, & Dianne, (2001). “Finding or losing yourself’: working class relationships to education”, Journal of Education Policy, Vol. 16, No. 4, 333-346. Singh,& Parlo, (2001). “Pedagogic Discourses and Student Resistance in Australian Secondary Schools”, Morais, Ana, Neves, Isabel, Davies, Brian and Daniels, Harry, Towards a Sociologyof Pedagogy. The Contribution of Basil Bernstein to Research, New York:Peter Lang,Chapter 10, 251-285. Read More