Hegemony

Hegemony refers to the unequal power relationship between two or more cultures or ideologies, socioeconomic groups. Hegemonic education refers to a term used primarily in critical pedagogy. Hegemony is the complete domination of one group by another. Another requirement for hegemony is the willing consent of the dominate group. In education, this occurs when students from one culture are taught to assimilate into their new culture as a primary goal. Often times, immigrant families are not only willing, but are eager to become” Americanized”.

Our educational system is presently a mess. Governments have long lost sight of what education actually is and it is mainly replaced within formal 'educational provision' by systems of indoctrination. As the governmental agencies, once again take control of our curriculum for an 'upgrade' many teachers must be considering whether it will be worth all of the effort. But now more than ever we need our education systems to turn out more inventive people who are able to think for themselves .True change requires innovations based on replacing constructs rooted in past white hegemony and its current vestiges and building educational programs and communities consistent with children's ethnic, cultural, social, and developmental needs

As a part of teaching weather to my students I stray from the school curriculum a bit to include a movie, An inconvenient truth, by Al Gore, In this movie he tells a story that when he was in his 6^th grade Geography class a student they we looking at a old pull down map of the world. A student noted that the Eastern tip of South American could fit into the Western side of Africa, The teacher told that student that they fit together and that belittled the student for thinking that way… As we know today, that did happen, the theory of Pangaea is true, and in actuality the continents have shifted back and forth a few times through history. Gore’s point of view on global warming is not one that most curriculums teach fully. We teach a watered down version, that doesn’t raise much political eye brows.  And other example would be Darwinism….. Did I dare say that word, “Darwin” in Texas??? Why is that an issue?? Religion?? Political??? Darwinism is taught, or at least touched upon, in other states, as a theory. I my district you can explain the theory as it pertains to Finches and how animals can evolve due to their environment, but not the whole stated theory.  HHHMMM .. If you think about it isn’t that what Hegemony is and adaptation or evolution of a culture?

 The point is that the truth as we think of it today may or will not be the truth of tomorrow. With different insights and various angles of view, we change our perspective due to the increase composition of our culture.