Week 10- Given what I know about educational inequalities and Bourdieu’s theories of class reproduction, what’s missing from Deepmind’s statement.
Introduction
I will like to discuss what is missing from Deepmind’s statement in relation to my knowledge about educational inequalities and Bourdieu’s theory of class reproduction using my country Nigeria specifically .
Deepmind’s statement
It is worthy of note that the summary of the Deepmind’s statement is that education is a scarce commodity and its uneven distribution creates inequalities, that AI can make education abundant and therefore reduce educational inequalities, this has always been the Edtech selling point.
Bourdieu’s theories of class reproduction
On the other hand Bourdieu’s theories of class reproduction explains how social inequalities are perpetuated across generations through the transmission of cultural capital and social structures.
He noted the following Cultural Capital,Habitus,
Social Reproduction and Symbolic Power.
In summary it highlight the ways in which social inequalities are sustained through the interplay of cultural capital, habitus, social institutions, and symbolic power, and through this mechanisms, Bourdieu sought to understand how social structures perpetuate and reinforce class divisions over time.
Educational inequalities in Nigeria
Educational inequalities is the imbalance in education it leads to disparities in access to and outcomes of education among different groups of individuals or communities.
Some of the factors that contribute to educational inequalities in Nigeria are:
1.Socio-Economic Factors: this is a significant driver of educational inequalities in Nigeria. Children from low-income families often face barriers to accessing quality education due to factors such as poverty, lack of resources, inadequate school infrastructure, and limited access to educational opportunities.I once had a student although very brilliant and got admitted to a very big private school in Lagos but couldn’t go because of lack of fund, truly this thing called social economic/ class does exist, although it’s so saddening that some very good students are denied the opportunity of quality education because of fund but it’s actually the reality
2.Geographical Disparities: Disparities in educational infrastructure and resources exist between urban and rural areas in Nigeria. Schools in rural areas often lack basic facilities, qualified teachers, and resources, leading to lower educational outcomes for students in these regions compared to other areas, apart from rural and urban area in Nigeria some areas are prone to unrest like what is presently happening in the North East part of Nigeria, we have the boko Haram, the Fulani herdsmen and other bandits terrorizing the area, for crying out loud what kind of education will those kind of children have, when many of them are even staying in internally displaced people’s camps, I was moved to tears the day I watched a documentary on some of those IDP camps,no body wants to go to those areas , one can just imagine how those kind of children will be lagging educationally.
3.Gender Inequality: Gender disparities persist in education in Nigeria, with girls facing barriers to accessing and completing education. Factors such as early marriage( my friend was even affected), cultural norms, gender-based violence, even religion and limited opportunities for girls contribute to lower enrollment and completion rates for girls compared to boys.
4. Access to Early Childhood Education: Limited access to quality early childhood education in Nigeria although (this may be caused by some factors I mentioned earlier which may include poverty level or the culture) contributes to educational inequalities. Children who do not have access to early childhood education programs may start formal schooling at a disadvantage compared to their peers who have had access to such opportunities.
There is so much educational inequalities in Nigerian that it is really disturbing,my country requires comprehensive efforts to improve access to quality education for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background, gender, ethnicity, or geographical location.there should be increasing investments in education, improving school infrastructure, enhancing teacher training, promoting girls’ education, addressing cultural barriers, and ensuring equitable distribution of resources across regions and most importantly there should be adequate security of lives and properties. By addressing these factors, Nigeria can move towards creating a more inclusive and equitable education system that gives opportunities for all students to reach their full potential.
What’s missing from Deepmind’s statement
With all these educational inequalities in Nigeria though I didn’t even mention everything and Bourdieu’s theory of class reproduction which already showed itself in the Nigeria education inequality few things are missing from Deepmind’s passionate statement,as regards my country educational system.
It is important to recognize that AI technologies are not developed in a vacuum. The design, implementation, and use of AI systems can reflect and even reinforce existing social inequalities and power structures. For example, biases in training data, algorithmic decision-making processes, and access to AI technologies can contribute to the reproduction of educational inequalities and class disparities.Just like I discussed earlier, some rural areas or places where people don’t even like to visit will even experience more educational inequalities.
There is a place called makoko on Lagos Island, it is like a ghetto in the midst of a city, one wouldn’t believe that a place like that exist on Lagos Island, but it is for real, the people there live on the big ocean which is connected to the Atlantic ocean, they live in wooden houses built on water and there major occupation is fishing,there is no infrastructure there, it’s like a shanty but hopefully the government will look into the place and develop it, How will a place like that make use of this technologies.Which electricity will they use to power there gadgets or devices? Where is even the money to purchase the gadgets when their priority will be feeding and being safe from any harm or unrest.O
Obviouslyin a country like mine what is missing in Deepmind’s statement is the inability of the statement to carry everyone along, the statement is only true for some people, maybe the rich in my country and so untrue and incomplete for many others.
Conclusion
I’m of the strong opinion that Deepmind’s, researchers and practitioners in AI field must be mindful of the social implications of their work and try to create more equitable and inclusive technologies as much as they could. This may involve more fairness in the development of AI systems, as well as considering the broader social contexts in which these technologies are deployed since it is meant for everyone in the world, they should try as much as possible to carry them along, although realistically it may not be possible but they should explore and block many loopholes, and to achieve some of these it is crucial for organizations like DeepMind to engage with sociological perspectives on class, education, and inequality in order to develop AI technologies that are sensitive to these complex social issues.
In a nutshell Deepmind statement will be more encompassing and adequate if theories like Bourdieu’s theory of class reproduction are well considered while making their inventions, this will go a long way in reducing educational inequalities as against their present claim of “reducing educational inequalities”.
References:
1. Smith, M. K. (2020). Pierre Bourdieu on education: Habitus, capital, and field. Reproduction in the practice of education, the encyclopaedia of pedagogy and informal education. [https://infed.org/mobi/pierre-bourdieu-habitus-capital-and-field-exploring-reproduction-in-the-practice-of-education.
2.National Education Policy Center (NEPC) report: https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/personalized-learning
3.Gbamanja, S. P. (1997). Curriculum Development and Implementation: New strategies for
the year, 2000 plus. Port Harcourt.
4. Olumuyiwa, O, et al. Urban Design and Sustainable Development: A
Case of Makoko Area of Lagos State, Nigeria,
Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria
Thanks for this Olubukola. This was a challenging week of reading with many new complex concepts to grapple with but I see you working hard to understand them, to apply them to the Nigerian context and to adapt them as needed based on your own evaluation. This will get easier with time so keep going with this same enthusiasm and critical argumentation. It will serve you well on the remainder of the programme, I promise!
A few points in response:
Not so much for the blog, but for the final essay try to use multiple sources rather than rely solely on the one. You talk about Bourdieu a bit but don’t reference it specifically so try your best to do that in the future with inline citations and a reference in the reference list.
You might also want to see how Bourdieu has been used in Nigeria and beyond:
Olakulehin, F. K., & Singh, G. (2013). Widening access through openness in higher education in the developing world: A Bourdieusian field analysis of experiences from the National Open University of Nigeria. Open Praxis, 5(1), 31-40.
Alzouma, G. (2013). Dimensions of the mobile divide in Niger. In The Digital Divide (pp. 297-308). Routledge.
The theory itself has a lot of potential use when doing larger studies on technology use in education (maybe for your dissertation!). Something to note for later.
‘There is so much educational inequalities in Nigerian that it is really disturbing,my country requires comprehensive efforts to improve access to quality education for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background, gender, ethnicity, or geographical location.there should be increasing investments in education, improving school infrastructure, enhancing teacher training, promoting girls’ education, addressing cultural barriers, and ensuring equitable distribution of resources across regions and most importantly there should be adequate security of lives and properties. By addressing these factors, Nigeria can move towards creating a more inclusive and equitable education system that gives opportunities for all students to reach their full potential.’
A very interesting observation Olubukola. Inclusion of the sort you are describing is challenging particularly as it is so complex: so many marginalised groups, so many reasons why groups get marginalised. Inclusion carries with it some significant economic implications (educational inclusion for marginalised groups is significantly more expensive than other approaches). And when technology is seen as a fix for this, it suggests an incomplete understanding of the root of the problem in the first place. I wrote about this with my colleagues a bit in the Ugandan refugee context: Gallagher, M., Najjuma, R., & Nambi, R. (2023). Bidi Bidi creativity: The liminality of digital inclusion for refugees in Ugandan higher education. Social Inclusion, 11(3), 309-319.
Inclusion is being increasingly bound in digital discourses (like Deepmind’s) that need to be interrogated carefully. So my suggestion is to keep critiquing and seeing how this all works for the Nigerian context. Perhaps something you can explore further in the dissertation!
I appreciate your comment and I promise to do better, you never fail to give your objective comment on my post for the past ten weeks, this really made me better, I appreciate your hard work, thank you, I promise to improve