Education

EDUCATION, SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY, AND GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS: TOWARDS A PARADIGM SHIFT
M. Kiwako Okuma-Nyström, Institute of International Education, Department of Education, Stockholm University, Sweden Michiyo.Kiwako.Okuma@interped.su.se Center for Pacific Asia Studies, Institute of Oriental Language, Stockholm University, Sweden kiwako@orient.su.se Theme: Social Transformation Research domain: Education ABSTRACT Socialization is the lifelong process through which a person becomes a respected member of the society where he or she lives. Thus, socialization is a crucial process for sustainability of the society. School education occupies some space in the process of socialization, but there are phenomena that school education disturbs socialization of children and youths, and eventually social sustainability. This paper problematizes some aspects of school education, and suggests to develop new indicators of school education, so that school education can contribute to healthy socialization, social sustainability, and Gross National Happiness. INTRODUCTION Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a concept that silently challenges the indicator of GNP/GDP that has been used to measure the degree of development of countries. The GNP/GDP myth has been conditioning many aspects of the society, of which school education is one. The modern school system has the characteristic that children are gathered at a place called “school”, and are grouped into different grades according to their age. Schools in the modern system are often separated from surrounding social environments by walls or some kinds of physical barriers. School is a place where students are supposed to use identical textbooks, where students’ knowledge is measured in various ways, and where students are ranked based on several criteria. The modern school system has been the state apparatus that is closely linked to the state development [8]. For example, there are various examples of state-run school... [continues]

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