Education plays an important role in our lives and has as well a huge impact on culture and society. However, I would like to emphasize the other way around in particular how culture effects education and that in the end culture is education. We maybe sometimes tend to ignore the fact that social norms, traditions and customs are actually affecting education in a significant way.
I would even go further and say that society and culture in itself is an educational institution. It is an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic orgainzation. The building parts of it are we human beings. How we interact and do relationships between individuals identifies the society according to the traditions, norms and values. Our surroundings and circumstances are shaping our personalities and we learn from experience. Society is providing us with a platform to learn, grow and enrich ourselves.
We see also that in the same way that a culture is upholding the values, morales and healthy principles, people in it will create an educational system that teaches the same values, morales and principles. This kind of correlation can in both ways impact culture as well as education positively or negatively. Just think about the impact on education from a cultural background where there is a denial or discrimination of women’s right to education or children forced to work instead of allowing them to take part in formal education. On the other side, it might make more sense to first investigate the local culture and according to their specific needs and way of life develope an educational system, respecting their uniqueness rather than copying an existing (western) way of education. The same applies for learning systems for companies – their core values and identity should be included into and respected at any training and education. This is the main strength of eWyse with its custom-based E-Learning solutions.
One of my personal motivations for working in the education and culture change sector is that I am investing my time in a field where there is still a huge potential to positively impact the world I am living in. With a healthy culture and a professional education we are in a great place to reduce poverty, create jobs and empower others in order to be independent and most of all, to be free to choose to work in a field according to ones giftings, talents and passion.
I am excited to be part of a small team at a forward-moving company that is investing into the area of education that respects culture – in traditional ways but more than anyting in new forms of education that include the latest technologies, making it possible to reach the next level of individualized, targeted and efficient learning. To provide excellent and professional digital or blended education is our daily goal at eWyse and keeps us motivated to give our very best.
Thomas Trunec