And You Gotta Believe Me: When Social and Human Capital Collide

Abstract

Human capital theories that dominate the educational theories of our times, focusing upon skills, test scores, and competition in economic markets often deny the existence of other relevant and valid ways of looking at learners and teaching, and in so doing deny other purposes of healthy communities. Theorists have argued that pedagogic approaches resting on these Human Capital arguments result in “apolitical” or decontextualized systems of thinking and are often misapplied to other contexts. Such thinkers have argued for more socially responsive alternatives (Baptiste, 2001; Penn, 2005; Rodriguez, 2009). One result of such narrowing of thinking is a focus on assumed links between academic achievement and employment opportunity (Lightfoot-Rueda & Peach, introduction of this volume) often at the expense of social relevance of curriculum in the young child’s classroom, a cornerstone of student motivation.