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Cultural Coherence and the Schooling for Identity Maintenance
Author(s) -
Merry Michael S.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9752.2005.00449.x
Subject(s) - identity (music) , autonomy , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , face (sociological concept) , sociology , social psychology , coercion (linguistics) , cultural identity , psychology , contingency , epistemology , law , political science , aesthetics , social science , linguistics , physics , feeling , quantum mechanics , philosophy
An education for cultural coherence tends to the child's well‐being through identity construction and maintenance. Critics charge that this sort of education will not bode well for the future autonomy of children. I will argue that culturally coherent education, provided there is no coercion, can lend itself to eventual autonomy and may assist minority children in countering the negative stereotypes and discrimination they face in the larger society. Further, I will argue that few individuals actually possess an entirely coherent identity; rather, most of us possess hybrid identities that lend themselves to multiple, not necessarily conflicting allegiances.