Ideology is back.
Interrogating further attempts to maneuver ideological boundaries.
This is what is so frustrating about some of these teacher education faculties where they're not always imparting this onto our future teachers, and then they get control of things like this curriculum and embed bad practices based on their ideological approach rather than what's clearly based on the evidence - Alan Tudge
Listen to the podcast segment of Ideology in Education (at 7:27) based on this blog post for the Teacher’s Education Review below 👇.
Ideology is making a comeback, and teacher education is the playing field.
You see, recently a report titled “Strong Beginnings: Report of the Teacher Education Expert Panel” just came out, laying out some new reforms to initial teacher education (ITE) programs in Australian universities. As one might expect, it has met a generous dose of both praise and critique.
It is in responses to this report that ideology has been used by a number of people to refer to the practices of teachers and teacher educators (the teachers of teachers).
I should rephrase that.
The practices of some teachers and teacher educators.
When we see ideology used within contemporary educational discourse, it is often wielded to shame and discredit other positions. Alternative positions are labelled as ideological and unworthy of consideration. Those labelled as ideologues are pitied that ‘if only they were to shuck off this conceptual straitjacket, they might begin to see the world as it truly is’ (Eagleton, 1994, p. 1). It is often used by those who claim to have the “evidence”. Furthermore, the term is almost never defined, assuming a conceptual consensus about what ideology means. The quote above from Alan Tudge in 2021 is a less-recent example of the term being used to attack the presence of education academics in the review of the Australian Curriculum.
But do we actually know what ideology is?
I don’t think Alan Tudge knew.
I’m not sure many who use the term in education commentary know either.
Maybe if those using the term knew it better, they would begin to appreciate their own conceptual straitjackets.
Let’s try and make some sense of it then.
Enlighten me.
The study of ideology has a long history.
(I bet you didn’t see that coming)
As such, there are a diverse range of perspectives that consider what ideology is and the ways in which ideology functions.
But I have a growing sense that most who refer to ideology in educational discourse don’t really understand what it means.
As it appears in educational discourse, ideology seems mostly used to describe supposedly false ideas, whilst at the very same time obscuring any possibility of personal critique. In his recent book, Ideology, Marius Ostrowski describes this view of ideology as the pejorative perspective of ideology. That is, ideology is seen ‘as a source or instrument of dissimulation and manipulation, which fosters equally fictitious unity and disunity among us where neither need exist’ (Ostrowski, 2023, p.3). However, Ostrowski explains that this view of ideology has been in direct competition with the non-pejorative perspective of ideology, one that views it ‘as a way to understand and describe the nature and meaning of the world around us’ (ibid., p. 3). These two perspectives, Ostrowski argues, have been in a constant struggle for conceptual supremacy.
At this point I can hear some saying:
“Great! I’ll take the pejorative view then and if you disagree with me well we clearly have different perspectives of ideology.”
Like most things, it’s never that simple.
Regardless of such quarrels, from either a pejorative or non-pejorative lens, ideology is seen as a system of:
ideas that determine how we understand reality and,
a set of derived elements (a habitus) that determines how we engage with it, whose,
construction is more or less thick and robust, and which,
claims to be comprehensive, complete, and correct
(Ostrowski, 2022, p. 69).
In a guest post for Archedelia, Shiffman (2023, para. 5) describes ideology in another (albeit less diplomatic) way:
an ideology is a conceptual system that oversimplifies reality while claiming to explain it comprehensively, and that justifies its political rule by insisting that, if social and political reality could just be made to conform to its conceptual schema, all problems would be resolved.
Ideology therefore is not just a characteristic of the unenlightened progressives and social justice warriors. Ideology permeates all educational decision making, whether you follow the “evidence” or not.
Conceptual straitjackets.
There are many who will continue to avoid the political and ideological realities of teaching, schooling and education.
Those that berate others for their ideological ways are often advocating for some neutral, objective and “scientific” stance to solve educational problems once and for all. Unfortunately, the ideological use of ‘narrow and prescriptive “science” approaches leaves unresolved the multifarious particularities which still confound the field of education’ (Skourdoumbis & Webster, 2022, p. 148).
So even from a supposedly “scientific” standpoint, we will never be done with education, teachers and teaching.
When we understand that these perspectives come from an ideological framework, we can begin to appreciate that such ideas do not represent some higher dimension of knowledge, but simply represent another perspective of what education, teachers and teaching should look like.
So next time you witness someone dismissing another’s view as ideological, be sure to ask for their conceptualisation of the term. You may even wish to gently remind them of their own ideological position.
You could even share this post with them.
They might even begin feel the tightness of their own straitjacket pressing into their skin.
Till next time,
References
Eagleton, T. (1994). Ideology. Taylor & Francis Group.
Ostrowski, M. S. (2022). Ideology. Polity Press.
Shiffman, M. (2023). What is ideology? Archedelia. Retrieved from What is ideology? - by Matthew B. Crawford - Archedelia (substack.com).
Skourdoumbis, A., & Webster, S. (2022). The epistemological development of education : Considering bourdieu, foucault and dewey. Taylor & Francis Group.
I like the bit about “conceptual supremacy.” It hangs in the air as elusive, fleeting, and tricky to capture yet I’m sure it’s very powerful in the real-world once it’s a thing in a context with a group of people.