Theme: Decolonizing knowledge, Decolonizing Social Sciences: Issues, Concerns and Recommendations
>>>>> If there would be a question which could cover all the readings that were discussed and presented to us, it would be: Are the countries that were once colonized truly independent? Then, after this, it is possible that one would question what kind of method of colonizing is being applied in a particular country. One good example that is given is the education system in general of those countries that was once colonized and as of now considered as developing countries. According to Philip Altbach (1971, 452), before countries were being conquered by direct political domination of one nation over another area, this is what he called traditional colonialism. However, now what is being applied is neocolonialism which indicates the impact of advanced nations on educational systems and intellectual life and it is not only a partly planned strategy to influence developing countries but at the same time to continue what they had already started. Another author who has the same concern is Syed Farid Alatas (2003, 600), he stated that imperialism is the same as colonialism and he continued by mentioning that one can refer to academe as imperialistic and that academic imperialism is the same as political and economic imperialism. Both of these authors are only telling us that the means of conquering a country has now evolved.
>>>>> Education is now seen as a new way of colonizing. In line with this, Alan Bishop (1990, 72-74) had mentioned 3 mediating agents in the process of cultural invasion of countries by western mathematics. Education is one of those agents and is seen to be the most powerful and most subtle mediating agent. One particular subject that was discussed was Mathematics which was perceived to be a secret weapon for imperialism. Many had believed that mathematics is universal and culture-free; one reason of this is because it is universally valid. Nevertheless, one must be aware that mathematics is an idea therefore it was constructed by humans and thus it is greatly affected by the culture of those individuals. Unlike science particularly math which is considered as objective, social scientists try to pattern their own studies to sciences so that it would be universally valid and accepted therefore also objective. John Searle (1995, 8) had discussed objectivity and also subjectivity in both epistemic and ontological sense. In his other essay, Is There a Crisis in American Higher Education (1994), he focused on the debate whether liberal education (traditional) should be replaced by multiculturalism through presenting the assumptions of the ‘defenders’ and ‘challengers’ of the tradition.
>>>>> In the Philippine setting, Randolf David (1976, 93-94) emphasized the importance and the situation of social sciences. He had emphasized that we, Filipinos should focus, research and understand more of our own situation and culture. However, this is not possible unless we are free from the American way of thinking which is continuing poisoning our own knowledge and understanding.
>>>>> There are various issues that I would like to discuss and it would be Psychology in particular. I think that except for Economics, Psychology is another social science which is really imitating the ‘science’ way. Almost everything that could be learned from psychology is from western countries. Books, journals, authors, research methods are western oriented. Even theories, stages of development, psychological tests and concepts are western based. The terms that are being used by psychologists are every now and then, discriminates people especially those from the developing countries.
>>>>> The Philippines is a country which has been colonized for a long time and in a way it is obvious that advanced nations, which are mostly colonizer, still influences us. The bad part of this is that the kind of colonizing is more subtle. They used education as a means of greatly affecting developing countries’ culture. It is hard to win in this kind of battle if we are not aware of what is going on. Therefore, basically the citizens of the developing countries should be reminded that we must be more cautious about what is being presented to us.
>>>>> There are some recommendations that I think would be helpful so that we could decolonize knowledge especially knowledge in the social sciences and these recommendations are more or less alike in our readings because I also believe that what they are trying to make us do is really helpful. I recommend that we should be more interested in our own culture. In this way, we would be able to depart from the culture of other countries. Next, as I said earlier we should give more importance or focus to social sciences so that we could analyze situations, individuals, society, and other things better. Not only individuals or small groups of people should give importance and focus on the social sciences, simultaneously the government should also be concern. The government’s concern could be shown by making programs and conducting researches that would be beneficial to the citizens of the said country and not to other countries. It would also be of great help if we could have more advanced technology and have more resources in sciences. I would also like to add that social sciences should be offered and be known to other schools. It would also be better if there are high schools which could offer an introductory course not only on economics but to other social sciences and also philosophy. There is another way in which the government and other institutions help, that is they should make the public aware by having forums, I believe that ignorance to this kind of issue would make things worsen. Another practical way is by making the social scientists generate more ‘local made, local based’ books, journals and researches and even if it is hard, we should try and be able succeed in developing theories and concepts that are applicable to our culture. Lastly, we should have more individuals who would want to advance and pursue their studies in the social sciences and not at all study what is in trend today like nursing, and when these said individuals had finished they should be more interested in working in their own country rather leave the country. There are a lot of ways but what is important is that individuals should be aware of what is happening.-
>>>>> If there would be a question which could cover all the readings that were discussed and presented to us, it would be: Are the countries that were once colonized truly independent? Then, after this, it is possible that one would question what kind of method of colonizing is being applied in a particular country. One good example that is given is the education system in general of those countries that was once colonized and as of now considered as developing countries. According to Philip Altbach (1971, 452), before countries were being conquered by direct political domination of one nation over another area, this is what he called traditional colonialism. However, now what is being applied is neocolonialism which indicates the impact of advanced nations on educational systems and intellectual life and it is not only a partly planned strategy to influence developing countries but at the same time to continue what they had already started. Another author who has the same concern is Syed Farid Alatas (2003, 600), he stated that imperialism is the same as colonialism and he continued by mentioning that one can refer to academe as imperialistic and that academic imperialism is the same as political and economic imperialism. Both of these authors are only telling us that the means of conquering a country has now evolved.
>>>>> Education is now seen as a new way of colonizing. In line with this, Alan Bishop (1990, 72-74) had mentioned 3 mediating agents in the process of cultural invasion of countries by western mathematics. Education is one of those agents and is seen to be the most powerful and most subtle mediating agent. One particular subject that was discussed was Mathematics which was perceived to be a secret weapon for imperialism. Many had believed that mathematics is universal and culture-free; one reason of this is because it is universally valid. Nevertheless, one must be aware that mathematics is an idea therefore it was constructed by humans and thus it is greatly affected by the culture of those individuals. Unlike science particularly math which is considered as objective, social scientists try to pattern their own studies to sciences so that it would be universally valid and accepted therefore also objective. John Searle (1995, 8) had discussed objectivity and also subjectivity in both epistemic and ontological sense. In his other essay, Is There a Crisis in American Higher Education (1994), he focused on the debate whether liberal education (traditional) should be replaced by multiculturalism through presenting the assumptions of the ‘defenders’ and ‘challengers’ of the tradition.
>>>>> In the Philippine setting, Randolf David (1976, 93-94) emphasized the importance and the situation of social sciences. He had emphasized that we, Filipinos should focus, research and understand more of our own situation and culture. However, this is not possible unless we are free from the American way of thinking which is continuing poisoning our own knowledge and understanding.
>>>>> There are various issues that I would like to discuss and it would be Psychology in particular. I think that except for Economics, Psychology is another social science which is really imitating the ‘science’ way. Almost everything that could be learned from psychology is from western countries. Books, journals, authors, research methods are western oriented. Even theories, stages of development, psychological tests and concepts are western based. The terms that are being used by psychologists are every now and then, discriminates people especially those from the developing countries.
>>>>> The Philippines is a country which has been colonized for a long time and in a way it is obvious that advanced nations, which are mostly colonizer, still influences us. The bad part of this is that the kind of colonizing is more subtle. They used education as a means of greatly affecting developing countries’ culture. It is hard to win in this kind of battle if we are not aware of what is going on. Therefore, basically the citizens of the developing countries should be reminded that we must be more cautious about what is being presented to us.
>>>>> There are some recommendations that I think would be helpful so that we could decolonize knowledge especially knowledge in the social sciences and these recommendations are more or less alike in our readings because I also believe that what they are trying to make us do is really helpful. I recommend that we should be more interested in our own culture. In this way, we would be able to depart from the culture of other countries. Next, as I said earlier we should give more importance or focus to social sciences so that we could analyze situations, individuals, society, and other things better. Not only individuals or small groups of people should give importance and focus on the social sciences, simultaneously the government should also be concern. The government’s concern could be shown by making programs and conducting researches that would be beneficial to the citizens of the said country and not to other countries. It would also be of great help if we could have more advanced technology and have more resources in sciences. I would also like to add that social sciences should be offered and be known to other schools. It would also be better if there are high schools which could offer an introductory course not only on economics but to other social sciences and also philosophy. There is another way in which the government and other institutions help, that is they should make the public aware by having forums, I believe that ignorance to this kind of issue would make things worsen. Another practical way is by making the social scientists generate more ‘local made, local based’ books, journals and researches and even if it is hard, we should try and be able succeed in developing theories and concepts that are applicable to our culture. Lastly, we should have more individuals who would want to advance and pursue their studies in the social sciences and not at all study what is in trend today like nursing, and when these said individuals had finished they should be more interested in working in their own country rather leave the country. There are a lot of ways but what is important is that individuals should be aware of what is happening.-
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