Copyright: © 2020, Mustafa Zulkuf Altan.

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the terms

of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY NC ND 2.0) License.
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Education Reform Journal Volume 5 Number 1, 2020

e-ISSN: 2602-3997 http://dx.doi.org/10.22596/erj2020.05.01.1.7

Education as a Social System: Present and Future Challenges

Mustafa Zulkuf Altan1

Submitted: September 16, 2019; Accepted: December 30, 2019; Published Online: June 29, 2020

Abstract

Education is usually considered as one of the most important social institutions. Since it builds the present and the
future of each and every society, all the other institutions such as, family, politics, health, religion and economics
would be meaningless and incomplete without it. As being the foremost instrument and power for creating the
preferred and desired future, it is anticipated that this power should be able to raise better generations to bring the
desired dreams to come true. Hence, each society has its own changing socio – cultural / economic needs and
requires an education to meet these needs. These needs should be met both deliberately and cautiously since they
will shape both the present and the future of the society. This article aims to highlight the relationship between the
education and the social system and point out some critical issues and challenges.

Keywords: Educational Reform, Social Systems, Education, Challenges,

Education and Social System Relationship

When confronted with any kind of societal problem, education is usually seen one of the primary
instruments to contribute to the solution all over the world. Therefore, many educational reforms, changes
and innovation initiatives are prepared, introduced and implemented in almost every country.

Each and every society has its own changing socio – cultural/economic needs and requires an
education to meet these needs. These needs should be met both deliberately and cautiously since they will
shape both the present and the future of the society. It is clear that society would be in a state of complete
turmoil without a quality education. As a consequence, the quality of education that a society's members
receive influences the quality of the society in which they live.

We generally forget that the education system is much broader than the simple school system. It
includes the best efforts of families, religious institutions, preschools, sport leagues, service groups,
educators, media, etc. If the purpose of schooling is to help the next generation of citizens into being, then
all of the other institutions should have a role to play. And keeping all these players informed and active
should be the purpose of our multiple accountability systems.

Education systems, mainly formal, from pre-school to higher education face social, cultural,
environmental, technical, and political challenges, as well as other developments at both local and global
level. Countries should be able to react properly to these challenges and prepare generations ready to both

1
Erciyes University, [ORCID 0000-0001-9391-5856], [email protected]

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survive with these challenges and come up with solution(s). Some of the important challenges will be
discussed in the following section.

Challenges, Goal and the Role of Education

Historically, the purpose of education is to "encourage responsible citizenship" (United Nations, 1989).
Therefore, the goal should be to produce a better educated and more responsible generation than the
previous one.

According to the UN’s scenario, it is projected that there will be 11.2 billion of us by 2100
(BBC). The increase in number causes a serious economic problem. That is, the more we get the more the
income gap increases. This gap between rich and poor has always been there but it has never mattered
more. It’s estimated that the top 1% of the world’s richest people owns 450% of the planet’s wealth
(inequality.org). Therefore, solving this level of inequality is often considered as an important challenge
both for today and for the future. However, it should be noted that income disparity may not be
responsible alone for the problem. The issue is not the existence of a gap between rich and poor, but the
existence of unfairness. That is, where some people get an extra preferred treat others are just treated
unjustly. Therefore, both poverty and unfairness set the fundamentals of many challenges in the 21st
Century. How could these challenges be solved for the good of the citizens?

There are three significant criteria to be paid attention to so as to manage these challenges. First
of all, it is important that people get equal opportunity in society, regardless of their background, race,
sexuality, gender, and ethnicity and so on, secondly, rewards should be distributed fairly based on
integrity and thirdly, people should get equal outcomes without considering the circumstances (ILO.org).

Education systems both in Turkey and elsewhere changed significantly in last few decades and
will continue changing enormously over the next 10-20 years as a result of global changes in every area
of life including the needs of students and the societies they will live in. And this future poses major
challenges for us today. We should be able to connect the various elements of the system to ensure that it
provides educational pathways for all and it is hoped that remarks made in the article will bring some
insights into future education reforms and systems.

Education systems should be able to contribute to a creating a more equal, inclusive and socially
just world (UNESCO, 2017). Unfortunately, the recent education reforms in most countries from the US
to Turkey are part of a larger and pre-planned effort by some international organizations, corporate and
political ideology to transform the nature of society by abrogating the social democratic policies.

Politicians, business chambers, journalists pejoratively label government schools as monopoly

and claim that they must be eliminated and the entire educational system from pre-school to university
must be privatized. And honestly, the main tool of this movement is centrally made both national and
international high-stakes tests.

When recent educational reforms are analyzed carefully we notice that they are usually based on
three areas: high-stakes testing, accountability and privatization. And these initiatives are generally
introduced by business organizations and political leaders to transform government’s role in society.
There is clear evidence on the relationship between the present education policies and the interest of
capital. This relationship links to the ideology of inequality, social efficiency and neo-liberalism.
Therefore, it is not surprising to admit that the recent education reforms we have witnessed cannot be
understood without understanding neo-liberal philosophy. Neo-liberal political theory increasingly
influences education policies. Recent reforms systematically transform curricula, pedagogy, and
assessment as a whole.

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Neo-liberalism provides the principles for reforming school curriculum and pedagogy
concentrating on teaching students the skills and knowledge they need to be productive workers in
workplaces (Bhopal and Shain, 2016). Therefore, STEM and coding movements should also be analyzed
from this perspective! Neo-liberalism replaces community common sense and thought over what we
desire from society and our institutions with decisions made through the market.

The kind of school we require should not hold a perfect ideal where all learners set to the same
goal at the same time and with same pace and pattern. In fact they should infuse the idea that quality
schools are places increasing the variance in students’ performances and at the same time raise the mean.
We have to be more different instead of more alike. And the way to achieve this vision is via a system
where individual differences are nurtured equally and assessment is done alternatively instead of centrally
made high stake testing as the main determinant.

Education could contribute to creating a more socially just and inclusive society. If we really
want to create a truly democratic system of education, we should open many entryways of opportunity for
our children where they can fulfill their visions creatively. These entryways should lead into all the areas
of human life and learning from zoology to anthropology, from education to archeology and not only the
areas pressed, infused and dictated by corporate powers as it is the case in STEM or coding nowadays in
Turkey and worldwide. The increased global integration of the capitalist economy in past two decades has
created networks and circulations of capital that reach across international borders with new intensity,
speed and aim (OECD, PISA, TIMSS).

We should have enough faith in human kind to believe that an approach based on student interests
and aptitudes will also take care of the both present and future needs of the society. For Dewey (1987),
Schools were essential to developing the “democratic habits of thought and action” necessary for effective
participation in the democratic process (p.225). And in order to improve themselves and the society,
individuals need to deliberate with one another and practice habits of “open-mindedness, tolerance of
diversity, fairness, compassion, rational understanding, empathy, respect for truth and critical judgment
(Olsen, Codd & O’Neill, 2004).

Current education reforms threaten not only teaching and learning but also the future of public
schools and relatedly the whole society (Teacher evaluation by students, parents, school principals etc.).
Inconsistent findings, overlooked evidence of bias, allowing the people to game could be just a few
shortcomings of such a system. I am not against to accountability. However, a system designed to control,
punish and reward via controlling and threating has nothing to do with accountability.

The real crisis in education is the increasing unwillingness of politicians and the public to realize
that markets and privatization are not the solution, but rather the problem themselves. Instead, we need to
envision creating a society where everyone gets a quality education starting from kindergarten to the
university and beyond and making their own dreams to come true.

When we look at some of the other cited challenges to be taken into consideration we come up
with a list including of artificial intelligence, global development, health and humanity, energy, future of
internet and media, democracy, terrorism, racism, white supremacy, creativity, environment and world
security, immigration, sustainability, international/global problems, individualism, aging, generation gap,
polarizations, authority, ethics, poverty, scarcity/abundance, gene editing, chemical & biological
weapons, eugenics, producing artificial human organs, personality & privacy, producing bigger and more
powerful weapons & technological products for consumers. Let me touch some of these challenges in
light with education.

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Artificial intelligence is one of the most important challenges we will face in the 21st century.
Robotic systems including driverless cars, drones, surgical and manufacturing robots will be part of our
daily lives. How will we be able to endorse these systems as safe, human friendly and ethical? How will
we be able to get rid of our uncertainties about such systems? How will we be able to cope with replacing
such systems with human force? How will we be able to solve unemployment problem? The more we let
computers to take over human reasoning the more we are faced with losing our human side and thinking.
What are the things that make us human? For example, ethics, morality, conscience, compassion,
wholeheartedness, creativity, irrational originality, craziness etc. Could computers and robots have these
qualities and use them like human beings? What happens if the computers fail?

One of the main constraints today and future is how we move around our cities. Will education
systems be able to produce such architects, civil engineers, urban planners or city developers to create
cities where we can live peacefully and safely? Without the design of places to support a social
dimension, cities will not thrive regardless of how much technology we attempt to integrate, design for,
and adopt. Immigration and refugee issues also adds another important dimension this issue and make it
one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century.

Social, environmental and behavioral factors have tremendous impact that on our health overall.
The challenge is how best we can engage the public with fundamental scientific advances that really can
positively impact human life and the world we live in. Recent advances in gene editing, robotics,
information and nanotechnology open a whole different world for human beings. Gene editing, especially
promise a future in which human genomes can be corrected and upgraded. It seems obvious that by using
tools like CRISPR, traits such as intelligence and lifespan could be rewritten. We must be sure that
CRISPR technology is not abused. Therefore, we must continue to discuss and consider the profound
societal and ethical impacts of CRISPR technology. Will we be able to educate scientists and to use such
technology safely, ethically and responsibly?

For example, recent outbreaks like Mad Cow Disease, Avian (Bird Flu) Influenza, SARS, Ebola,
and Zika have all shown how unprepared the world is to deal with epidemics. Such epidemics require
serious preparation, and we must do more to be ready for them. Have you ever thought how and why we
get all these epidemics suddenly and usually in just one part of the world? As technological and
innovative advancements progressively create social change, how can democratic societies enable
ordinary individuals to have a say in the choices that shape the innovative trajectories that will thus figure
out what the future resembles?

We all know but generally forget that the Earth is finite and this fact has and will have
tremendous implications physically, economically, socially, and politically. Sustainability became one of
the buzz words of the present time. In any case, it is generally not well understood and by and large is
misused, yet actually the fact is that any activity that is not sustainable and reasonable will end soon. So
we should urgently plan for the time when humankind can live utilizing just new generation renewable
resources, while keeping up the biodiversity that makes the planet more tenable and habitable. In fact,
sustainability should be the ultimate environmental issue, the ultimate health issue, and the ultimate
human rights issue. Another major challenge related to this topic is the 'water security' which will be
caused due to heavy urbanization. The battle for sustainable development will be won or lost in cities. 150
million people are moving to cities each year. By 2050, over 7 billion people will live in cities (80% of
the world), and cities will be responsible for 75% of global carbon emissions (UN). How will education
systems educate responsible citizens, grow political leaders, and create entrepreneurs, engineers to focus
on energy issue and develop renewable energy sources and lead nations to use them effectively and
efficiently.

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Google was built on providing people with high-quality and authoritative results for their search
queries. It gives users a breadth of diverse content from variety of sources with the principle of a free and
open web. However, non-authoritative information ranks too high in Google search results and this leads
us to more high quality, credible content on the web. Internet became a source of fraud news! Education
should be able to educate individuals to use internet responsibly, effectively and ethically. Recent
developments and media reports show that we are far behind this vision and therefore media literacy
courses started in many programs all over the world.

Terrorism is rising as a result of the availability of weapons of mass destruction that are becoming
increasingly less expensive and easier to access. And unfortunately, some developed and heavy weapon
producing countries are both supporting and creating terrorist organizations. It is vital to deal with the
reasons why people want to become terrorists and to achieve cooperation among potentially hostile
cultures. And why some developed countries support these groups? Education systems again should be
able to educate people for diversity, tolerance and great understanding in order to live in peace.

We will need creative individuals in all areas since the technology will lead to an era of extreme
creativity. Exciting jobs will develop and rich countries will help young people around the planet to
become entrepreneurs. Therefore cultivating the entrepreneurial mind set should be basic element of
education systems. One of the important goals of the 21st century should be to develop the capability
inherent in everybody by exploiting powerful technologies that accelerate learning potential. There seems
to be a serious gap between our skills and our wisdom. Science and technology are accelerating furiously,
but wisdom is not. The skill-wisdom gap is enlarged because skills offer the ways to get wealthy. How
about morality? Creativity and innovation should definitely be carried out with social responsibility and
humanity in mind.

Conclusions

The push for economic growth and development in recent few decades has prompted significant increase
in wealth for large numbers of people across the globe. In any case, notwithstanding immense gains in
worldwide economic growth and development, there is clear proof that our present social, political and
financial frameworks are creating imbalances instead of decreasing them. As a result of this inequality,
the globe has been facing some new forms of financial crisis which showed significant weaknesses in the
financial system and some of the burdens that can result from having even such an interwoven global
market. The world economy is now struggling with slow growth, unconventional monetary policy in
major economies, and strained and tailored government budgets. It is important that we must find ways of
making the financial system more resilient and able to resist shocks in the market in for a more just and
equal world. The crises in many countries inevitably caused a significant drop in levels of public trust and
confidence in financial institutions. Therefore, the system needs to re-establish that trust in order to
function effectively (Breene, 2016).

Our educational experiences should provide us with the information and tools to understand what
are happening around the world, how it affects our lives, the lives of others and the planet itself. We
should be taught how we, as ordinary people, could live our lives and actively participate in creating a
safer, happier, civilized, more humane and a sustainable world (Stansberry, K., et al.).

Education should be able to prepare individuals for ethical decision-making and ethical leadership
for the above challenges. Therefore, the present conflict between education for social responsibility and
education for jobs should be ended for the sake of a better future. Teachers should be prepared to help
their students develop the global consciousness needed to support human rights and ecological
sustainability.

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Will the education we give be able to raise citizens to create a just, democratic and better society?
How will our students be prepared to make decisions on the above topics? How will they play their roles
in future? What ethical values will shape their decisions? Who will teach and where will they teach these
values? Whose values will they be? Is there consensus over these values? Do we have the right strategies
for working toward consensus? Will the education help us to understand the purpose of life? Will the
education we provide help children to survive and fulfill their sense of self? Will the education provide
individuals to have a better quality life both for themselves and others? Will the education system help
individuals to realize their potentials and chase their dreams? And finally, will the education help
individuals to love and live wholeheartedly?

I honestly have no intention to attack on teachers, schools, and governments, whatsoever, rather I
am in an effort to help them to re-examine both the global and national political pressures on schools,
teachers and education system in general which narrowly focus on preparing students for the workforce
they have in their minds rather than for broader citizenship and social responsibility purposes for the good
of humanity.

The educational challenge facing Turkey and many other nations worldwide is not that schools
are not doing jobs well rather schools are not helping the majority of young people reach levels of skill
and competence to live a decent life supporting a just and civil society that helps them to maintain a
sustainable and responsible democratic life.

Will we be able to take the control or will we continue being controlled?

Acknowledgments

No funding to declare.

Conflict of Interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note: This paper is an extended and revised version of a conference keynote speech that was presented in
EDUSREF 2018, 6-7 April, Ankara/Turkey.

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