The education of rural children : cultural differences in 'monocultural' Malta?

Abstract

Over the past decade, sociological research in Malta has shown that education is implicated in reproducing social differences (Darmanin, 1991, 1992a, 1992b, 1997; Sultana, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997) rather more than in promoting equal opportunities for all. That research has relied mainly on qualitative and quantitative empirical data informed by economi<;, ideological and cultural reproduction theories in order to document the processes by which schools work in the favour of some groups, and against the interest of others. In these accounts, schools are presented not as agencies with an educative mission, but rather as mechanisms for the selection and channelling of students to different sectors in a segmented labour market. While the process of selection is supposedly based on neutral and 'scientifical~y' valid evaluations of intelligence and ability, so that students end up going to the educational and occupational destinations they 'deserve', critical sociological investigations have suggested that what happens is in fact less benign. Indeed, education systems the world over have been accused of privileging the cognitive and cultural habits of the urban middle class so that children from the latter background experience the school as an extension of their home background. Students from other class cultures, on their part, experience the school- the knowledge it privileges, the pedagogical styles it uses to convey that curriculum, the general environment and ethos promotedas alien, a painful rupture from what they know and value in the home and the community. Quantitative research in the political arithmetic style has shown time and time again that it is precisely these children who tend to fail at school (Halsey, Heath and Ridge, 1980; Ishida, Muller and Ridge, 1995). Qualitative and interpretive research has suggested that the failure of working class students at school is not due to lack of innate intelligence or ability, but rather due to hidden processes of exclusion (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977; Willis, 1977). Rather than adapting the structure, content, and communication modes of schooling to cater for cultural differences, education institutions tend to remain resolutely monocultural. As a result, children from manual working class backgrounds are at a major, often insurmountable disadvantage because they have to shed their past in order to cope with the present and perform in the future. Many learn that they are 'ignorant', attribute their failure to their own deficiencies rather than that of the school, and either passively or actively resist whatever teachers try to teach. The low grades they obtain 'justify' the channelling of these 'failures' into separate tracks through the practice of intraand inter-school streaming. Such labelling further convinces students of their inadequate intellect, certified as this has been by significant and powerful others using such legitimising tools as tests and national examinations. These students give up on intellectual labour in schools, and condemn themselves to occupational destinies that are often marked by low wages and unattractive conditions of work, engaged in labour that leaves little room for creativity, spontaneity, autonomy or self-determination. This chapter engages with such a critical account of the consequences of sociocultural difference within the context of the school by exploring the experiences of ten-year-olds in two state primary education institutions in Maltese rural villages. The key question that this chapter will ask is therefore whether these children, coming as they do from a home environment that can be described as rural/manual, experience the school as an 'alien' world. Issues related to this initial query include the extent to which such difference is recognised and catered for successfully by the school, and whether cultural differences inhibit educational achievement.