COLLATERAL LEARNING : A THEORY TO EXPLAIN LEARNING FROM AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC WORLDVIEW

Abstract

The literature shows that the cultural background and the worldview presupposition of a learner can have a great influence on achievement in education. When students base their reasoning on a non-Western worldview, they tend to be inhibited from constructing concepts. This further alienates learners, from indigenous or minority groups who must fit within the world of the majority, whose success at learning must be measured from a Western framework. This paper discusses the cultural borders learners from a non-Western/indigenous background have to cross daily to acquire education within a modern day context. It also discusses the theory of collateral learning, a progression that appears to move from anthropological instruction to autonomous acculturation, to explain the coping mechanism which goes on in the schema of the non-Western learner in order to cross borders from a hazardous (symbolically violent) to a secured learning environment.