Segmenting Learning for Transport
A Blatant Editorial
American public education is in the grip of an obsessively ‘etic’ perspective on teaching and learning. Etic comes from anthropology and is used to distinguish research geared toward producing structural models and theories of universal significance using quantitative methods from a type of inquiry carried out usually by an outsider to understand local cultural meanings from an insider’s perspective. In the case of schooling, etic research examines templates of universal factors depending on the research question interacting generatively to evoke compliant behaviors predictably such that schools function. One such universal factor is learning, by which is meant test scores, which are structurally calibrated on a scale derived from instruments and interpreted probabilistically. Commodification of academic achievement qua economic capital exerts etic pressure on teachers and learners alike to buy into the numbers.
Classroom culture can be viewed from an emic perspective. In this case, an inquiry into the meanings participants in the classroom hold for tools, engagements, and enactment of roles on the stage in the space in regard to shared goals informs outsiders about problems teachers and learners are facing. Understanding and reflecting on real problems in real time is a good thing. Measuring after the action is over and laying down the law isn’t.
Critical thinking is ranked highly on scales of importance for teachers, an etic scale, I realize. Sometimes this fact baffles me. What does critical thinking mean in a classroom to learners constrained by a monthly formative assessment regimen across the curriculum across the network? Reading—literacy absorbs and is absorbed by and in sociocultural contexts. What activities are accessible regularly for readers to self-regulate their reading activities according to their goals individually and collaboratively? Any at all? How do readers feel about their participation?
No one seriously believes that learning is captured on tests, But etic measures are probably unavoidable in today’s world, perhaps even required to support social infrastructures. It’s interesting that the Carnegie hierarchy of Universities vis a vis level of institutional research is on the verge of change in 2025. The new system takes begins to consider student outcomes broadly defined in relation to access, geographical spaces, etc.—what it’s calling “granular data.” It will allow apples to apples comparisons with some face validity of the sort good qualitative data provides. The R1s will still be R1s.
American public education relies on standardized testing as a primary measure of student achievement and school performance. It has no other option. This approach reflects an etic paralysis universally because it applies universal criteria to evaluate diverse student populations mindlessly, ignoring the cultural and individual embodiments of the lives of students, especially those not easily fitted in a list of options. The focus on test scores as a metric of success can lead to cutting unsuccessful children’s feet to fit the shoes available to them.
The Common Core standards and other national benchmarks further exemplifies an etic approach. Forget the ramshackle start the Core had. These standards are designed to provide a consistent framework across states, focusing on uniformity and comparability rather local educational needs or wants or cultural differences. This top-down approach limits teachers' ability to respond to their students as human beings in the moment and moments yet to come in the term. The contradictions between what we know to be high-quality responsive teaching and the systemic obstacles teachers confront when they try to draw on students’ funds of knowledge are mind-boggling.
Today’s etic school ethos leaves very little chance for student-centered instruction as the order of the day. The days of the cries for balance are long gone. Marginalization of students’ perspectives is not just appropriate today, but legally required in many states. The current educational system sidelines student voices, focusing instead on adult-generated notions of what education should be. Those who value students' point of view and incorporate their insights into teaching practices are powerless in the event of a visit from the curriculum police. By not authorizing student perspectives, the system fails students.
Education policies assume that preparing students for the workforce is why we have public schools, underscoring economic competitiveness as a primary goal. This focus aligns with an etic perspective by prioritizing external economic metrics over intrinsic educational values like critical thinking, information literacy, and civic engagement. Such an approach diminishes the role of education in fostering democratic citizenship and personal development.
Cultural contradictions within American education further illustrate its etic orientation. While there is an amazing opportunity in our diversity for individuality and creativity to blossom in teaching, these values are often crushed by the need for accountability and standardization. This tension reflects a struggle between seeing and responding to these students in my classroom today and doing what supervisors tell me to do according to external criteria imposed by a legislature.
It’s not surprising that reasonable citizens cite problems with public schools as the reason for the spike in home schooling since COVID. But—and this is big—it IS unreasonable to lay the blame at the feet of teachers who already feel angst about the future of teaching as much as they love teaching. American reliance on numbers, performance standards, tough love, and economic outcomes demonstrates an obsession with an etic perspective that is already showing its weaknesses.
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[1] https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1070987.pdf
[2] https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=edu_pubs
[3] https://manhattan.institute/article/the-cultural-contradictions-of-american-education
[4] https://tcf.org/content/report/putting-democracy-back-public-education/
[5]https://www.lkouniv.ac.in/site/writereaddata/siteContent/202004120825283934tara_bhatt_anthro_features_of_field_work.pdf
[6] https://boris.unibe.ch/154189/1/till_mostowlansky_andrea_rota-2020-emic_and_etic-cea.pdf
[7] http://www.columbia.edu/~da358/publications/etic_emic.pdf