Presentation looking at the paper Deonanan, C. R. (1976). Education and Imperialism. The Journal of Negro Education, 45(4), 472–478. doi:10.2307/2966859 and asking what are the issues we should be looking at with regards to the curricula of overseas students in dentistry.
Presentation given by Dr David Patrick for the Dental Education Group at the University of Sheffield School of Clinical Dentistry.
2. Education and Imperialism
• Carlton Deonanan states in his paper that the
British Governor (Sir Henry MacLeod) of
Trinidad and Tobago wanted a general plan of
education under the control of the
government and for “the language spoken to
be that of the country to which this colony
belongs.”
3. Education and Imperialism
In 1851 Lord Harris outlined a system of free
secular education, involving the establishment
of ward schools. This system included plans for a
training school for teachers, intended to give
secular instruction without direct religious or
doctrinal teaching, and a Model School close to
the Training College, to provide necessary
teaching practice for the student teachers.
4. Education and Imperialism
• This style of education continued in Trinidad
and Tobago using books produced by the Irish
National Board for supposedly teaching
children of all denominations in Ireland.
5. • In 1869, as opposition to Harris' system
became more widespread, the Secretary of
State for the Colonies appointed Patrick J.
Keenan, who was Inspector of Schools in
Ireland, to make a full inquiry into the state of
education in Trinidad and to make
recommendations.
6. Among Keenan's recommendations were that:
1) management of each ward school be vested in
the clergymen of the same religion as the
majority of the pupils
2) the Government Training College be abolished
3) a system of monitors be instituted for providing
highly qualified teachers
7. • As Deonanan says:
• “It is clear that the educational system in
Trinidad was fostered in England for a white
middle-class society and not for a Trinidadian
society.”
• He goes on, “Does this type of pervasive
education attempt to free the individual from
the bondage of ignorance and mental slavery?
It does not, emphatically!”
8. • A British imposed education system was
teaching irrelevant subjects such as The War
of the Roses to schoolchildren in Trinidad
whose main employment opportunities would
be in agriculture.
9. Imperialism
"the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal
economic, cultural, and territorial relationship,
usually between states and often in the form of
an empire, based on domination and
subordination."
Johnston R J, 2000
10. Educational Imperialism
The way in which we indoctrinate a learner with
the perceived necessities of our own
educational wants over the educational needs of
the learner.
11. Educational Imperialism
In broader terms this may constitute ‘cultural
synchronization’ - where the educators
unwittingly impose their cultural identity upon
the learners and eventually the learners become
more like the educators in terms of cultural
identity.
12. Educational Imperialism
The Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci (1891-
1937) proposed the idea of cultural hegemony
whereby a culturally diverse society can be
dominated by a social class whose dominance is
achieved by manipulating the beliefs,
perceptions and values of that culture so that
the dominating influence and views are imposed
as the norm.
13. • Can a system of education that has been
written in England with exams, created by the
University of London and Cambridge
University be relevant in Trinidad?
14. • Can we use a set of curricula written from the
perspective of UK based healthcare problems
for overseas students that may have very
different dental health issues?
15. Dental Technology
• Oral cancer is a problem in the Indian sub-
continent and the treatment of post operative
patients requires the making of obturators.
This is only taught as part of the max-fac
specialist aspect of dental technology.
16. • To make our postgraduate courses more
attractive should we individualise the
curricula?
