Barriers in the education system

 Barriers in the education system

The main barrier that exists within our current education system is that mainstream education takes place within a  Western-centric cultural hegemony. This means that those whose first language is English and who come from a Western culture more immediately feel a sense of when engaging with course content, as it reflects their world and worldview, is familiar, reassuring and comfortable.
Very often - almost always, in my experience - the Western perspective on any topic is the first that is taught, and established as a "truth". Very often, other perspectives or understandings of a topic - mātauranga Māori, for example - are not explored or engaged with.
In some cases, even at tertiary level other perspectives and cultural understandings of knowledge are not only not taught but actively denigrated. It is a system in which not all learners, not all cultures, feel they belong or welcome. This sense can be reflected back to the learner through the bias of course content, teacher attitudes, unconscious bias, the hidden curriculum, and even outright racism.

These barriers will continue to exist until thinking changes at every level of the education system.. The greatest shift would come from change taking place at the highest levels of the system, where decisions in education policy are made regarding what is important to be taught and assessed, and how it should be taught and assessed, and what is important in the classroom. Creating a shift in thinking at this level, which would filter throughout the education system to be enacted in classrooms and lecture halls across the country, requires multiple cultural perspectives and ways of understanding being engaged in and contributing to the process of creating policy and making change.