| dc.description.abstract | Operating from the premise that episodic television comedy The
Simpsons is perceived more as a living culture than as a symbolic
artifact, this thesis uses a qualitative approach to examine the
program's education system and compare it to those of contemporary
western industrialized nations with respect to intents, means and
outcomes. This is achieved by melding sociological theory and
substantive pedagogical studies to explore two interweaving
dualisms : organizational efficiency versus social variability and
a functionalist perspective compared with a critical viewpoint.
The data suggest that the consumeristic individualism of the
Simpsonian culture and the authoritarian mode of its education
system are antagonistic to its socialization role. The educational
bureaucracy does not fulfil its organizational mandate of service
and accountability to the maximal benefit of society. As well,
teachers do not fulfil their ethical responsibilities to students,
independent of administrative goals. The equitable treatment of
students is precluded by the existence of a hidden curriculum by
which students are tacitly judged by their congruence with and
acquiescence to the dominant cultural perspective.
Other than hope-inspiring indications that positive social
change is occurring though the actualization of feminist ideas in
the locus of the working class family, the data present a grim
portrayal of a traditionalist culture, one in which the education
system serves to rigidify class and gender relations into
preexisting socioeconomic categories. | |
