Alternative u socijalnoj funkciji obrazovanja

The social functions of education have changed through history and the result of these changes can be presented in the following two alternatives: (a) education is primarily a process of adaptation to class society aimed at its preservation and (b) education should serve to create new situations to surmount the existing situation (class society) and its products. A fundamental consequence reached in the first alternative of the social function of education is its total insertion into the existing system. On the other hand, the second alternative leads to precisely the opposite; that is, education serves for the formation of forces for a radical transformation of society and with it, of education itself. In such a conception, the role of the humanistic sciences or those engaged in them is particularly important. The involvement of the state in education is evidenced in regulations on educational subject matter and methods which lead to a partialization and functionalization of knowledge and behavior. State control of the education process has increased leading to an ideologization of instruction. This, in turn, has particularly harmful consequences for education in the area of humanistic-social disciplines which are transformed into a »culture of silence«. In order that education represents an authentic process of changing society, it must be so organized to prepare for coping with new situations which go beyond the framework of class society so as to provide preparations for future situations.