4 - The psycho-politics of meritocracy: IQ + effort = merit?

Summary

The paradox of education and freedom

Paulo Freire (1972), in Cultural Action for Freedom, addresses the relationship between the oppression of the poor and the domination of power elites in society. In Freire's mind, education is freedom. Cultural Action for Freedom raises fundamental questions about the meaning of freedom and the role of education in the cultural empowerment of the silent masses of oppressed people in a divided world. Education in Freirean theory and praxis is a narrative of personal, cultural and social liberation. But there the complexity begins, as we have noted already in relation to access inequality, affirmative action and widening participation. Non-financial forms of wealth, available to the privileged affluent citizens in a meritocratic society – through unequal access to the acquisition of cultural capital and education credentials – empower individuals, define personal identity, promote self-esteem and embed in the public mind the myths of equality of opportunity and social mobility as truths. In a democracy we call it freedom.

Freedom is not available to everybody, however, at least not equally in democratic societies. In authoritarian regimes, such as present-day Afghanistan, there is little or no freedom for women, which includes the denial of education. Afghanistan is a traditional society under religious hegemony that favours gender separation at great cost to women's rights. Access to education for Afghan women is highly constrained because it potentially liberates women to be free citizens with equal rights and opportunities to their male peers. We are reminded of Freire's dictum about the importance of critical literacy as a guarantor of freedom. At the core of this political struggle about women's access to education, labour-market participation and civic activism in Afghanistan is the right to think and express an opinion of one's own, which is as important as the right to breath and food security for all people as human beings.

This chapter explores a competitive education system, where class, culture and wealth largely control access and progression on the ladder of opportunity in a meritocratic society, and asks who gets up the ladder, who is left behind and why. What are the implications for democratic and personal freedom? Is the popular belief in social mobility valid? The chapter argues three points.