Using anthropology to make schools more human

Peter Demerath

Chapter 5 in Research Handbook on the Anthropology of Education, 2026, pp 39-46 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: For over 200 years Western schools have been guided by a set of assumptions and practices that have had corrosive and delimiting effects on the lives and futures of millions of children worldwide. Anthropology, as the “study of ways of being human”, offers perspectives and approaches that can correct many of these faulty beliefs about who we are and how we learn. This chapter explores how our research can bring to the surface and question beliefs and practices still guided by the long reach of psychology, external motivation, competitive and neoliberal individualisms, patriarchy, coloniality, and most importantly, norms of whiteness and Eurocentrism. We can ferret out the “rot” that persists from older and more exclusive models of schooling. In this way, we can contribute to the enduring project of making schools more human.

Keywords: Anthropology; Humanism; Learning; Schools; History of education; Power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332908
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