|
 |
|
Learning to Divide the World Education at Empire's End John Willinsky |
|
|
An examination of the colonial legacy of education. "The barbarian rules by force; the cultivated conqueror teaches." This maxim from the age of empire makes explicit the usually hidden connections between education and conquest. In Learning to Divide the World, John Willinsky brings these correlations to light, offering a balanced, humane, and beautifully written account of the ways that imperialism's educational legacy continues to separate us into black and white, east and west, primitive and civilized. Considering a dazzling range of subjects, Willinsky discusses how the discovery of the New World inspired European culture with "the desire to take hold of the world . . . to enumerate, order, identify, and differentiate." Willinsky reveals how this "will to know" became a foundation of the apparatus of imperialism, as shown in phenomena ranging from zoos to the British Museum to National Geographic. Through analyses of colonial schooling, anthropology, and the formation of academic subjects instrumental in the expansion of empire (history, geography, science, language and literature), Willinsky argues that education was and is the research and development arm of imperialism. Drawing on contemporary classrooms and materials, he considers how schools continue to educate the young within the "colonial imaginary." Through primary texts, cutting-edge scholarship and students' voices, Willinsky examines schooling itself, arguing for the incorporation of the imperial legacy into a multicultural education that does not dismiss the achievement of the West but gives an account of the divided world that achievement has created. Learning to Divide the World raises urgent questions about how colonialism and its attendant ways of learning gave rise to powerful ideas of race, culture, and nation that continue to influence us—and the children we are responsible for educating. "Willinsky's work has made a significant and generous contribution to the current academic debate about properly defining universal, national, regional, local, and individual historical narratives. I recommend this book for an enlightening journey, laden with personal reflection, challenges, responsibilities, and possibilities facing educators today." —Comparative Education Review "A valuable way of introducing important questions to future educators. Learning to Divide the World inspires [them] to find ways to make their students more aware of the persistence of imperial thinking." —Interventions “The author’s main thesis is that imperialism lingers as a ‘trace element’ in educational systems. Even though empires disappeared within the space of a generation, they continue to shape the ways in which the world is viewed.” —College and Research Libraries "Willinsky asks us to reevaluate our entire schema and to flip our collective worldview on its very head, imploring us to forge and advance a far more enlightened 'postcolonial' approach in our classrooms. Every now and then I read a book that leaves me with the thought, 'I wish I had written that book!' Learning to Divide the World is indisputably one such book. In fact, I shall go so far as to declare the following: If every (human) geographer were limited to reading only one new book this year, I would fervidly encourage them to read this one; and for those who teach our intro courses, and especially the regional ones, this book is quite simply indispensable. It may very well be the most cross-disciplinary book written by a professor of education this decade. It is no small feat to encapsulate the 500-year-long educational history and legacy of imperialism in only a few hundred pages, but John Willinsky has done just that. I thoroughly recommend this book." —Annals of the Association of American Geographers John Willinsky is professor of education at the University of British Columbia and the author of several books, including the widely reviewed Empire of Words: The Reign of the OED (1994). Winner of the 1999 American Educational Research Association Outstanding Book Award 304 pages | 11 halftones, 1 table, 1 figure | 5 7/8 x 9 | 2000 |
||
$20.00 Paper