ANT101 Education in Perspective

Education in Perspective

The following is an example of a title page for this paper. You can use this as

a model to help you create your own title page.

List your sources in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.

Cultural relativism tells us that we must examine cultural practices within their cultural contexts, seeking to understand cultural practices from the perspective of those who take part in

them. It is always difficult to understand another culture from an emic perspective, and there is

an ethnocentric tendency to favor your own culture, viewing it as superior to others. In order to

overcome this tendency toward ethnocentrism, it is helpful to change your perspective, assuming

an outsider’s view toward your own culture and taking on an insider’s perspective toward

another culture. Over the course of this paper, I will examine an aspect of my own culture

through an etic lens in order to gain the perspective of an outsider, and I will examine an aspect

of another culture from an insider’s perspective in order to become more familiar with the

motivations behind this practice. Specifically, I will examine the state of higher education in

America and discuss anti-school culture among boys in Sweden to show that what Americans

consider “normal” is unusual in a wider context, and to examine how cultural narratives are

perpetuated and how they can negatively affect student performance. In both cases, culturally

based expectations are treated as the norm and often go unquestioned.

The following is an example of an introduction for this paper. You can use

this as a model to help you write your own introduction, but you can’t use

this exact introduction.

End your introduction with a

thesis statement that sets up

what you will cover in the body

of the paper and explains the

purpose of your paper.

Helpful tip: Use the

introduction to set up the

major concepts and topics

that will be covered in the

paper.

Part I

In this section, I will examine the state of higher education in America

from an etic perspective. As Crapo (2013) describes it, “etic models invariably

describe each culture in ways that seem alien to its own participants but that

facilitate comparisons between cultures and the discovery of universal principles

in the structure and functioning of cultures” (p.27). In his seminal article entitled

Body Ritual among the Nacirema, Miner (1956) describes aspects of the

“Nacirema” culture from an etic perspective, allowing the reader to gradually

realize that the Nacirema are Americans. It is helpful to examine American

culture from an etic perspective in order to step outside our own experience as

enculturated members of this society. From an etic perspective, American

practices probably seem just as strange or unusual to outsiders as other cultural

practices sometimes appear to us before we understand the cultural context behind

them.

The following is an example of how to start Part I of this paper. You can use

this as a model to help you write your own paper, but you cannot use this

exact phrasing.

Begin this section with a discussion of what the term etic means and why it is

important to be able to take this perspective. Then apply an etic perspective

to the aspect of culture you have chosen to discuss.

Please note that this example is shorter than what is required for your final

paper and the margins are wider to allow for comments.

Include a section heading here.

Set up a quotation

with a signal phrase,

enclose it within

quotation marks, and

include a citation and

page number.

Include a citation

every time you

paraphrase

information that you

have learned from

your sources. The

majority of

information that you

present in your paper

should be

paraphrased (rather

than quoted) in order

to show your

understanding of the

material.

Introduce your topic

in the first sentence.

Examining higher education in America from an etic perspective is

instructive. American colleges and universities are considered some of the best in

the world; however, American students often have to take on staggering debt in a

bid to achieve the “American dream” (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). The

total amount of student loan debt in America is approaching $1.2 trillion (Chopra,

2014). The average graduate in 2014 had approximately $33,000 in student loan

debt, leaving many students hesitant to take on other large debts, such as

mortgages (Izzo, 2014). If the trends continue the way the U.S. Department of

Education (2012) has predicted, by 2016, the cost to attend a public college will

have more than doubled over the past fifteen years. Around the rest of the world,

students protest tuition increases that might appear miniscule to Americans. In

London, thousands of protesters marched against tuition increases in England,

which would be capped at a maximum of £9,000 per year (or around $14,500)

(BBC, 2011). Recently, Germany decided to make higher education free to all

students (O’Shaughnessy, 2014). Previously, fees were quite affordable at around

$630 per semester (O’Shaughnessy, 2014).

While Americans enjoy high quality education, the amount of debt they

must incur leaves many critical of the higher education system. Even American

President Obama noted that colleges should find ways to reduce costs (Hudson,

2014). Cultural outsiders, especially Germans, might very well conclude that their

own system of higher education is preferable, and many would likely be surprised

at the lack of protests and activism among American college students.

Remember to include a full reference entry at the end of your paper for each

source you have cited in this section.

Use reputable

statistics and/or

scholarly sources to

support your

assertions.

You only need one

source in addition to

the textbook and the

Miner article for this

section, but you can

include more if you

would like to do so.

It is okay to

occasionally use

reputable news

sources to refer to

current events.

Avoid opinion or

editorial pieces,

however, and focus

on reports of factual

information.

Examine how

outsiders might view

this aspect of

American culture.

Part II

In this section, I will examine the cultural narratives that negatively affect

school performance among boys in Sweden. As Crapo (2013) describes it, “An

emic description or analysis—that is, an insider’s or native’s meaningful

account—may be written for outsiders but portrays a culture and its meanings as

the insider understands it” (p.27). In his article, Boys’ Anti-school culture?

Narratives and School Practices, Jonsson (2014) conducts an ethnography of two

secondary schools in Sweden to better understand boys’ attitudes toward school.

Boys are influenced by their peers, teachers, and by stereotypes about how

male/female students typically act.

There is a danger to assuming that the behavior of boys and girls can be

categorized and applied to all members of the same gender, but in terms of overall

performance in all subjects, girls out-perform boys in Sweden (Jonsson, 2014).

Similar results are seen in America, where the performance gap is most

pronounced in language courses and smallest in math courses (Voyer and Voyer,

2014). Evidence suggests that, in America, there are deeply held stereotypes

The following is an example of how to start Part II of this paper. You can use

this as a model to help you write your own paper, but you cannot use this

exact phrasing.

Begin this section with a discussion of what the term emic means and why it

is important to be able to take this perspective. Then apply an emic

perspective to the aspect of culture you have chosen to discuss.

Please note that this example is shorter than what is required for your final

paper and the margins are wider to allow for comments. Include a section heading here.

Introduce your topic

in the first sentence.

Introduce the source

you are using in this

section.

Include an in-text

citation every time

you draw upon

information that you

learned from your

source.

Remember, you do

not need to do

outside research for

this section. If you do,

make sure to use

reputable scholarly

sources.

regarding the superiority of boys in math, such that teachers, students, and parents

all believe that boys are inherently better than girls at math, even though recent

studies show that girls and boys perform similarly in math, with girls even out-

performing boys in some recent studies (Lindberg, Shibley Hyde, and Petersen,

2010; Voyer & Voyer, 2014). It is only recently that this gender-based gap in

math performance has closed, indicating that stereotypes and cultural narratives

can have a strong role in influencing school performance.

Conversely, in Sweden, Jonsson (2014) investigated the cultural narratives

and stereotypes about boys that can negatively affect their performance in school.

Jonsson argues that there is a “master narrative” that boys in Sweden draw upon

which indicates how they ought to act in order to be perceived as cool and

popular. Working hard in school and getting good grades does not fit with the

rowdy, independent, and rebellious traits that this narrative promotes. This

cultural narrative is constructed and reproduced within individual schools, and

stereotypical characters emerge, such as the “relaxed, cool, and rowdy boy” and

the “ambitious school girl” (Jonsson, 2014, p.278). These stereotypes are

reinforced and largely unchallenged, even when students do not fit into these one-

dimensional characterizations.

Good students are characterized as doormats who are quiet, well-behaved,

subservient, and more likely to be female. Some of the boys Jonsson (2014)

interviewed noted that they were not brown nosers, and so they, “are unable to

achieve higher grades […and] there is no point in studying more than they already

do” (p.287). From their perspective, they simply do not embody the right

Examine the issue as

it is experienced by

cultural insiders.

It can be helpful to

introduce a

comparison to

American culture to

make your point, but

make sure the

majority of this

section focuses on

the culture you have

chosen to discuss.

characteristics to be good students, so there is no point in even trying. Jonsson

(2014) also tells the story of Daniel, who is seen as a rule-breaker and a poor

student. Daniel notes that he is often summoned to the principal’s office and

singled out for questioning. His classmates recognize that he is a “rowdy boy,”

but it doesn’t seem to gain him friends or popularity as the master narrative would

suggest. His classroom disruptions instead seem to give him an excuse for poor

performance in school; he just doesn’t care to conform to the rules.

Although boys and girls are not homogeneous groups, cultural stereotypes

play a role in socializing them into certain roles, normalizing certain behaviors to

the point where even teachers expect different behaviors based on the student’s

gender. Students both conform to and do not conform to this narrative, and

students’ behavior is sometimes contextualized within the expected role for the

student, as Daniel’s treatment by authority figures seems to reinforce his negative

behavior. Although many boys may fit into the stereotype of the “rowdy boy,”

from their perspectives, there are a variety of reasons to behave this way and

sometimes even conflicting desires to both do well in school and also not be seen

as a “doormat” or “brown noser” by their peers.

Remember to include a full reference entry at the end of your paper for

each source you have cited in this section.

As shown throughout this paper, anthropology provides us with several tools that can be

used to overcome ethnocentrism. In approaching cultures from a perspective of cultural

relativism, we gain an understanding of the reasoning behind different cultural practices while

striving not to impose our own judgments or opinions. In taking an etic perspective on your own

culture, it is possible to gain an outsider’s view on practices that are deeply ingrained in our

enculturation, practices that often seem “normal” and “right” when compared to other cultures.

In examining higher education in America from an etic perspective, it is possible to see the

strengths and weaknesses specific to the American educational system, and it allows us to

question and critically examine this system based on the similarities and differences that exist

between our own and other educational systems. Similarly, taking an emic perspective on anti-

school culture among boys in Sweden helps us to see how cultural context and cultural narratives

affect education. Examining the problems found in other educational systems can help us to

better understand the cultural narratives, stereotypes, and underlying assumptions that operate in

our own educational system, and help us to see how our problems are both similar and different

to those found in other cultures. Taking an etic perspective on your own culture and an emic

perspective on another culture allows you to flip your viewpoint in order to counteract deeply

held beliefs about what is “normal” and what is “other.”

The following is an example of a conclusion for this paper. You can use

this as a model to help you write your own conclusion, but you cannot

use this exact conclusion.

Helpful Tip: Use the conclusion to reiterate the major concepts and

topics that were first brought up in the introduction and then covered in

body of the paper. Provide a brief, self-reflexive analysis. Make sure all

parts of the paper are connected.

References

BBC. (2011, November 9) Thousands march in student protest over university fees.

Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15646709

Chopra, R. (2013, July 17). Student debt swells, federal loans now top a trillion. Retrieved from