Education and collective memory
This article titled "Education and collective memory" appeared in the business journal of the Women's Institute of Management. Inspire: The WIM Review December 2020-March 2021 edition, pages, 48-49. The following text has references.
Education and collective memory
For societies to function effectively there has to be shared memories that enable citizens to participate together in a shared sense of the past and thus a shared sense of what is important in the present and some sense of shred aims for the future. Sue Campbell argues in ‘Our Faithfulness to the Past’ that: the ethics and politics of memory reminds us that memory, ‘secures our identities, is at the core of our practices of responsibility’.[1] In other words, without memory and memories we lack any sense of who we are, where we have been and what we can commonly aspire to.
Memories shared among a population can serve to provide binding stories and mutually reinforcing narratives that reinforce social solidarity and a shared sense of destiny. They also provide the basis for shared sense of moral direction. These memories are known as collective or shared social memories. According to Barry Schwarz, ‘collective memory refers to the distribution throughout society of beliefs, feelings, moral judgements and knowledge about the past’[2] In other words the importance of collective memory rests on a, ‘belief that every society exhibits and requires a sense of continuity with the past.[3] Collective memories may include, among other things, shared understanding of important points in history, shared moral knowledge and shared respect for important figures in a nations struggle for independence and development.
One place where these collective memories can be inculcated, celebrated and learned are our educational institutions. The role and function of educational institutions from pre-school to tertiary levels in fostering and reinforcing collective memory is critical. Werner Gephart points out, ‘Socializing agencies, such as schools, religious communities and ‘ethnically-grounded’ communities organize, more or less systematically, the transmission of their past from one generation to the other by structures of collective memory.’[4]
If we ask ourselves the question, to what extent our institutions of higher learning should concern themselves with helping to reinforce collective memory we may find among some people a tendency to scratch their heads and argue: “Higher education is a place to learn skills and knowledge relevant to being successful and competitive in the modern economy. The place to introduce young people to the stories of their civilization is in the home or in primary and secondary schools. Higher education is a place to learn facts relevant to getting ahead in “the real world” and to get a job”.
Can we assume that students arrive at universities and other tertiary institutions with an adequate sense of shared collective memory? Consider the example an imaginary society where there was no sense of commonly held historical knowledge, where even the most basic issues regarding national sovereignty, national identity and important historical moments were either unknown or hotly disputed. Such a society could not draw upon the wellspring of collective memory in any positive way. Imagine in such a society, many families despite their best efforts being unprepared or misinformed regarding the nature of the past in their society or where schooling in collective memory despite the best efforts of teachers was for many uneven at best. Higher educational institutions could not ignore such a situation.
Emmanuel Durkheim the famous French social theorist and philosopher points out that underpinning collective or social memory lies a sacred dimension.[5] In other words, a lack of attention to common core subjects that address issues in collective memory also potentially acts to diminish any sense of the sacred nature of societies foundation or of its moral core. What exactly is sacred in a society that suffers collective amnesia? How can a society maintain and cultivate its sense of the sacred if its basis in collective social memory is dissolving before its eyes? Try to imagine a society trying to maintain its respect for its sacred values, beliefs and practices if such a society has lost any sense of common or collective memory.
Curriculum dedicated to inculcating a sense of common collective memory found in common core subjects in history, ethics and literature acts to balance an otherwise instrumental and very utilitarian approach to education. Without attention to the importance of education as a source of positive socialization we might face a crowding out of non-instrumental and non-quantitative ways of understanding who we are and what ought to inspire us and guide us.
Collective memory should not be confused with homogeneity of thinking or reduced to a totalizing concept that allows no difference or argument. Rather collective memory can exist with the most rigorous argument and difference of opinion. However even the most politically divided societies must rely on some kind of collective memory to maintain social cohesiveness and a sense of common purpose. To repeat, such an argument does not presume homogeneity in society. Rather it presumes a certain level of shared understandings that bind and sustain some sense of shared destiny, mutual respect and agreement on certain ethical norms.
So, we return to the role that educational institutions and specifically higher educational institutions can play in forming and inculcating collective memory. Here we find a problem that needs to be recognized before it can be addressed. If in our imaginary society higher education pays scant attention to collective memory, and if in its practices it privileges, forms of competitive individualism, economic progress at all costs and an unflinching technological optimism then the moral educative function of higher education is simply crowded out. A shared sense of social bonding which is not reducible to an instrumental and calculative approached to life is diminished in such institutions.
The role of higher educational institutions in providing “some kind of anchor” in societies which feel increasingly adrift requires considering their role in addressing collective memory.[6] Imagine the kind of future our imaginary society faces without such an anchor. Can we truly claim to be educated in a society without some sense of shared collective memory? Could such a society survive? Hopefully, our imaginary society is simply that: imaginary. Hopefully.
References
[1] Sue Campbell, Our Faithfulness to the Past: The Ethics and Politics of Memory (Oxford: OUP, 2014)., p.1
[2] Brian Conway, "New Directions in the Sociology of Collective Memory and Commemoration," Sociology Compass 4, no. 7 (2010)., p.443
[3] Barbara A. Mitzal, "Durkheim on Collective Memory," Journal of Classical Sociology 3, no. 2 (2003)., p.136
[4] Werner Gephart, "Memory and the Sacred: The Cult of Anniversaries and Commemorative Rituals in the Light of the Elementary Forms," in On Durkheims Elementary Forms of Religious Life, ed. N.J.Allen, W.S.F.Pickering, and W.Watts Miller (1998)., p.130
[5] Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (New York: Dover, 2008); The Division of Labour in Society (London: Macmillan, 1984); Emile Durkheim: On Morality and Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973).
[6] Mitzal., p.138