Ritual and pedagogy, Part II

Prof Paula Ensor and Dr Zain Davis

Abstract:

We are currently working on a paper which develops of a framework to theorise the place and effect of ritual in pedagogy. In this seminar, which is Part 2 of a series of two seminars on ritual and pedagogy, we each present analyses of a commonly occurring empirical event— “acoustic counting”—in  a selection of Grade 3 mathematics lessons.

In Part 1, Davis detailed and discussed features of ritualised behaviour derived from work in evolutionary psychology (listed below) as a possible resource for thinking about and researching the regularities of educational activity observed in formal teaching situations.
Compulsion - Given certain circumstances, people feel that it would be dangerous or unsafe or improper not to perform specific ritualised actions.

Rigidity, adherence to a script - People feel that they should perform a ritual in the precise way it was performed before.
Goal demotion - Rituals include action sequences selected from ordinary goal-directed behaviour, but the context in which they are performed results in performance divorced from observable goals.
Repetition and redundancy - Repeated enactments of the same action or gesture, as well as reiterations of the same utterances, are typical of many rituals.

A restricted range of themes - Pollution and purification, danger and protection, the possible danger of intrusion from other people, the use of particular colours or specific numbers, the construction of an ordered environment. Ensor will analyse “acoustic counting” from the perspective of ritual studies in education (Bernstein; McLaren), sociology (Collins) and anthropology (Durkheim; Douglas; Grimes & Turner), to present an initial description of ritualised behaviour on the part of teachers and learners. Davis will draw from the work on ritual in evolutionary psychology to inform his analysis of the nature and use of “acoustic counting” in pedagogic contexts.