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"I Love Learning; I Hate School": An Anthropology of College
Abstract
Frustrated by her students' performance, her relationships with them, and her own daughter’s problems in school, Susan D. Blum, a professor of anthropology, set out to understand why her students found their educational experience at a top-tier institution so profoundly difficult and unsatisfying. Through her research and in conversations with her students, she discovered a troubling mismatch between the goals of the university and the needs of students.
In "I Love Learning; I Hate School," Blum tells two intertwined but inseparable stories: the results of her research into how students learn contrasted with the way conventional education works, and the personal narrative of how she herself was transformed by this understanding. Blum concludes that the dominant forms of higher education do not match the myriad forms of learning that help students—people in general—master meaningful and worthwhile skills and knowledge. Students are capable of learning huge amounts, but the ways higher education is structured often leads them to fail to learn. More than that, it leads to ill effects. In this critique of higher education, infused with anthropological insights, Blum explains why so much is going wrong and offers suggestions for how to bring classroom learning more in line with appropriate forms of engagement. She challenges our system of education and argues for a “reintegration of learning with life.”
... One of the major issues secondary school students report in their reflection on schooling is the fact that schooling very often boils down to students being tested and marked. According to Blum (2016), students are aware of the dominance of marks over their school life; they recognize and sometimes deplore the central position marks have in schools. Some students are conscious of the difference between genuine learning and doing something just for marks and they see marks as preventing learning (Blum, 2016). ...
... According to Blum (2016), students are aware of the dominance of marks over their school life; they recognize and sometimes deplore the central position marks have in schools. Some students are conscious of the difference between genuine learning and doing something just for marks and they see marks as preventing learning (Blum, 2016). Marks turn students' attention away from learning to the mere surface performance, from observing schools as places where their abilities can be improved to places where they need to avoid negatives and get positives (Morrison, 2007). ...
The aim of the paper is to examine the way secondary school students perceive their English classes, including their awareness of the importance of learning English as a foreign language. The participants were 2,107 students enrolled in 9 secondary schools in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research instrument was a survey questionnaire. Qualitative method was applied in analysing the students’ responses. The results show that, for students, the most important aspects of EFL classes are the following: teachers’ understanding and respect towards students, fair assessment, clear explanations provided in class, and teachers’ treating all students in class equally.
... One of the major issues secondary school students report in their reflection on schooling is the fact that schooling very often boils down to students being tested and marked. According to Blum (2016), students are aware of the dominance of marks over their school life; they recognize and sometimes deplore the central position marks have in schools. Some students are conscious of the difference between genuine learning and doing something just for marks and they see marks as preventing learning (Blum, 2016). ...
... According to Blum (2016), students are aware of the dominance of marks over their school life; they recognize and sometimes deplore the central position marks have in schools. Some students are conscious of the difference between genuine learning and doing something just for marks and they see marks as preventing learning (Blum, 2016). Marks turn students' attention away from learning to the mere surface performance, from observing schools as places where their abilities can be improved to places where they need to avoid negatives and get positives (Morrison, 2007). ...
The aim of the paper is to examine the way secondary school students perceive their English classes, including their awareness of the importance of learning English as a foreign language. The participants were 2,107 students enrolled in 9 secondary schools in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research instrument was a survey questionnaire. Qualitative method was applied in analysing the students’ responses. The results show that, for students, the most important aspects of EFL classes are the following: teachers’ understanding and respect towards students, fair assessment, clear explanations provided in class, and teachers’ treating all students in class equally.
... Eden (1998) states that the involvement of students in activities in the schoolyard can lead to the cultivation of their psychological and spiritual development, through various activities, such as the school garden. Finally, involvement with programs related to the reformation of the schoolyard, can lead to the development of positive emotions towards the school as a whole (Blum, 2016). ...
Schoolyards should be used to cultivate the cognitive, social, psychomotor and developmental skills of children. But for this to happen there are certain conditions. Initially, schoolyards have to be designed based on the needs of the children and the teaching staff. It is also important to ensure safety and aesthetics, to a reasonable degree. Finally, it is legitimate to operate as an outdoor classroom. In practice, schoolyards should provide equal opportunities to every person living in them during the operation of the school. Schoolyards should be harmonized with the principles of Social Pedagogy, inclusion and equality of people. The 2 current situation of schoolyards in Greece and in the international arena presents schoolyards that have gender dimensions. For this reason, views of primary school teachers were sought on the gender dimensions of the schoolyards. The research was conducted using a questionnaire. It seemed that the educational staff that participated in the research wants a schoolyard that does not reinforce gender discrimination. However, it recognizes that schoolyards are currently not an area of meeting a greater variety of needs and desires of all children.
... Eden (1998) states that the involvement of students in activities in the schoolyard can lead to the cultivation of their psychological and spiritual development, through various activities, such as the school garden. Finally, involvement with programs related to the reformation of the schoolyard, can lead to the development of positive emotions towards the school as a whole (Blum, 2016). ...
The dominant theme characterising the early twenty-first century is undeniably crisis (Popenici, Artificial Intelligence and Learning Futures: Critical Narratives of Technology and Imagination in Higher Education. Routledge, 2023). In 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic had morphed into what may be best described as a polycrisis (a convergence of multiple intersecting, simultaneously occurring crises: Tooze, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy. Viking, 2021) inside of a mess (Ackoff, The Societal Engagement of Social Science 3:417–438, 1997): not just a crisis of continuity of learning, but also health, economic, social, and political crises; a “crisis like no other” (IMF, World Economic Outlook Update, 2020. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2020/06/24/WEOUpdateJune2020).
The wide-ranging disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic altered the experiences of place, technology, time, and school for students. This book explores how students’ responses to these extraordinary times shaped their identities as learners and writers, as well as their perceptions of education.
This book traces the voices of a diverse group of university students, from first-year to doctoral students, over the first two years of the pandemic. Students discussed the effects of having their homes forced to serve as classrooms, work, and living spaces, as they also navigated much of school and life through their digital screens. The affective and embodied experiences of this disruption and uncertainty, and the memories and narratives constructed from those experiences, challenged and remade students’ relationships with place, digital media, and school itself. Understanding students’ perceptions of these times has implications for imagining innovative and empathetic approaches to literacy and learning going forward.
In a time when disruptions, including but not limited to the pandemic, continue to ripple and resonate through education and culture, this book provides important insights for researchers and teachers in literacy and writing studies, education, media studies, and any seeking a better understanding of students and learning in this precarious age.
2025 recipient of the Divergent Publication Award for Excellence in Literacy in a Digital Age Research from the Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age
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