Educating Citizens in This Era of the Democratization of Knowledge

Oleh Irsyad Zamjani 

Educational institutions and teachers must realign themselves in the digital era to instill civic and social responsibility in cultivating students as democratic citizens.

Education has for years been under the sway of a knowledge regime, with educational institutions tasked with a mission to enlighten students and transform them into repositories of information imparted by teachers and textbooks. Students committed to their memory theories, methods, historical accounts and timelines.

In the past, the ability to assimilate and retain information was paramount, particularly given the challenges in accessing rational and empirically verified information. Scientists and experts needed to be skilled in not only collecting and validating information, but also retaining it, which facilitated academic narratives, analyses and decision-making. 

Knowledge was a proprietary commodity only available to a select few, and educational institutions were places where knowledge was taught systematically to ensure full student comperhension.

However, a sea change has occurred with the advent of the internet and digitalization, triggering the democratization of information and knowledge in a profound way. Technology has made it possible for individuals to access information that was once the exclusive purview of professionals. Knowledge is now externalized in an array of online repositories that can be searched, accessed and synthesized by anyone, from anywhere and at no cost (Toppo and Tracy, 2021). 

The democratization of knowledge has led to two contradictory outcomes. On the one hand, it levels the playing field, giving everyone equal opportunity to create and access knowledge. On the other hand, however, the quality of the information and knowledge produced is under threat.

The democratization of knowledge has given rise to new values, norms, modes and actors in the knowledge production process. Conspicuously, formal education and academic literature no longer constitute the primary avenues of acquiring knowledge in the digital age. Social media has taken over as the preeminent source of new knowledge (Peters and Fitzsimons, 2012).

Consequently, the old guardians of expertise are rapidly losing relevance and, according to Nichols (2017), are even being declared dead. In the digital realm, anyone has an equal opportunity to obtain knowledge, disseminate it and establish themselves as an “expert”.

In this way, the democratization of knowledge may present a danger of a decline in the quality of information and knowledge that is produced. With anyone able to produce and consume information, the veracity of information is no longer determined by objectivity and factuality, but instead by the number of people who believe it.

This is compounded by the observation made by Tom Nichols (2017) that as more people gain access to vast amounts of knowledge, they become less inclined to learn. People may consume information without seeking to understand its essence or truth.

As in a political democracy, the democratization of knowledge can elevate the majority voice, even if uninformed, to the same level as that of the Almighty. The views of the learned and scientifically validated may be drowned out by those of influencers who can capture the sympathy of the masses.

Furthermore, if the purveyors of scientific truth come from a minority sociocultural group, they may find themselves pitted against a majority driven by their ideological convictions. This could prove to be a cause for concern for democracy itself. 

Several countries, including major democracies such as the United States, India and Indonesia, have experienced a disregard for common sense in the democratic process. Elections are often characterized more by sectarian contestation than ideas.

Studies found that hoaxes were among the key factors that led to Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US elections (Allcott and Gentzkow, 2017; Gunter, Beck and Nisbet, 2018). In Indonesia, the Communications and Information Ministry (2019) revealed that there were 3,356 hoaxes from August 2018 to September 2019. The highest frequency of cases occurred in April 2019, the month of the elections.

If this trend continues into the future, political institutions may be more susceptible to domination by demagogues rather than statesmen. And in the end, public policy may be guided more by fiction than evidence.

Educational institutions play a critical role in nurturing a democracy that upholds common sense and noble virtues, especially in the face of the potential threat of the tyranny of the majority as a side effect of the democratization of knowledge. This demands a reevaluation of our educational practices.

Continuing to treat children as mere repositories of knowledge risks rendering educational institutions irrelevant. With the wealth of available information, machines have proven more effective in storing knowledge and analyzing data with remarkable accuracy and speed. 

In this digital era, besides honing digital literacy, education must focus on cultivating unique human abilities that machines cannot replace, such as creativity, responsibility, collaboration, critical thinking, values and purposefulness. This also includes the ability to thrive in diversity and to respect different opinions, which reflects democratic values.

While mastery of knowledge remains important, it should serve as a medium for training higher order skills. Not everyone will become a scientist or an expert, but regardless of their profession, they should be educated with an emphasis on high integrity and commitment to lifelong learning. 

Teachers should expose students to real-life examples and cases in addition to theoretical knowledge, and give more projects that allow them to explore beyond the confines of textbooks and classrooms. In this manner, schools can simultaneously cultivate the civic and social responsibility of students as democratic citizens.

Teachers must also reposition themselves as facilitators and learning partners, rather than the sole proprietors of knowledge. In this era of the democratization of knowledge, students may possess more knowledge than their teachers. However, the teacher’s task is to train students to be critical of the information they receive and to communicate truth in a tactful manner, even when it runs counter to the uninformed views of the masses.

The writer is acting head of the Center for Education Standards and Policy at the Educational Standards, Curriculum and Assessment Agency of the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry. The views expressed are his own.

Artikel pertama kali terbit di: thejakartapost.com

Sumber foto : jakartapost.com