Socialization and Cross-Cultural Education

(1) Following Bernstein, I have argued that educational systems are intricately related to the culture in which they are embedded; (2) I have attempted to show that socialization through the family and the educational institutions on the subcontinent creates a particular sense of “identity”; (3) I have argued that this identity is challenged when the student is brought into the English educational system at the university level and that it is this conflict that gives rise to many intangible problems in cross-cultural education; (4) I have argued that whereas the mechanical problems arising from the educational process are better understood, and perhaps better solved, there is so far no evidence that problems that arise from the deep symbolic differences between two distinct educational systems have been made explicit. In my discussion I have leaned heavily on hypotheses put forward by Bernstein and by Hsu. I claim total responsibility for the interpretation and application of their hypotheses.