Cultural Studies and Education in a Socially Just World

The course provides a general overview of the highly diversified field of "cultural studies" - what it is, the evolving relationships between its various approaches and concerns, the central issues that it confronts, and the ways in which it helps us to understand methods and means of individuals, institutions and societies have of communicating and transmitting culture. We look at the meaning and practices of everyday life and the ways in which power is transmitted, with particular emphasis on the role of education and schooling. We will do this by exploring the multiple ways in which social identities are both reflected and reconstituted through everyday practices, especially in the schoolplace, and we will emphasize the ways in which cultural backgrounds and social identities affect how we interpret the world.