Professional paper
Circumference of the head: about intelligence, classification and education
Eva Marija Jurešić
Abstract
The problematic construct of intelligence is one of the most durable bases of educational policies in modern Western societies. This paper deals with the pseudo-scientific origin of the intelligence theory, as well as the political implications of its past and present instrumentalizations within the educational system, while focusing on scholarship programmes for “gifted” students and the separation of “gifted” and “mentally challenged” children in schools. The question raised while looking at those practices and the wider economic and political context which shapes them is: who benefits from the dominant conceptualisations and treatments of intelligence, giftedness and mental disability, and who is at loss? Part of the answer can be found in the fact that the logical and mathematical skills often favoured by intelligence tests are of key importance to the technical demands of corporate economies. Another important clue is that social groups such as the Roma population in Croatia are systematically marginalized by being assigned special education programmes in schools. This research also provides an outline of a possible alternative: an inclusive educational system which has abandoned tools of oppression such as intelligence testing and has dedicated itself to the development of each individual’s growth through mutual care and cooperation.
Keywords
class reproduction; critical pedagogy; educational system; giftedness; intelligence; scholarships; special education
Hrčak ID:
333888
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2024.
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