The School as Superorganism: Cooperation, Control, and Working Across the Moral Matrix
Dustin Eirdosh
2014-02-08 00:00:00
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When human organisms cooperate at large scales, stunning imagery results. But is our evolved capacity to forming such superorganisms an unambiguous moral positive? The answers are not so easy - with culture and moral emotions strongly shaping our reasoning.


In the last month I've been in and out of many a school here in Toliara, public and private, primary through secondary. To my very western eyes, there is much to absorb - and therein lies a significant challenge and opportunity for cross-cultural collaboration. Let me illustrate with a stunning visual display of superorganismy-ness I had the fortune to witness just yesterday.



 



 











For a generation of Americans

raised on images from Pink Floyd's

Classic The Wall - questioning

authority is often a highly

developed moral intuiton...

In other cultures the knob of

authority might be on quite a

different setting!




The images, and video within this post document a totally routine school ritual here - the morning singing of the Malagasy national anthem. Indeed, in classrooms all across the US, and in many countries around the world, there are nearly identical scenes repeated daily. And who would doubt this is as crystal clear example of humanities evolved capacity to form ourselves into a superorganism (even for brief moments in time)?

 












When we look at educational culture it is important to understand the evolved moral foundations that guide our intuitions and thusly shape

our reasoned judgements.

This is of course does not mean all things are equal. A data-driven science of human flourishing must still be our

road map to educational design!


When children sing together in such massive unison, undoubtedly many of them experience the kind of transcendent selflessness or hive-mindedness common of religious experiences, sportsmanship, and numerous other inventions of human culture. For a great many people around the world - the video above is a beautiful image of a youthful display of patriotism, commitment to education and character development. "Just exactly what the world needs now!" these folks might say.



Yet - for many of my friends in the US and EU, and as well, for some of my Malagasy friends - watching the video above will (I've already been told!) induce some feelings of unease - or dare I say it - disgust. For these viewers - uniforms and national anthems strip students of creativity and personal freedoms and promotes blind allegiance to authority.  "Just exactly what the world does NOT need now!" these folks might say.



As a social scientist - this political issue of pledging governmental allegience in schools is actually quite a new issue for me to look at, and as such I can thankfully remain agnostic on the mechanics of this question in proportion to the data I am able to rummage through.



Now, also being a human with developmentally attenuated, evolved moral brain circuitry - I have intuitions and reasoned judgments already leaning me towards a given side.... But there are two important lessons of applied science here.



Firstly - my personal beliefs and attitudes must not stop me from digging for evidence and, especially, nuance on both 'sides' of the moral divide.  But this is not enough.



To be truly rigorous in pursuing the scientific ideal of objectivity - I must be willing to genuinely embed myself in socio-cultural groupings with which I may have even significantly varied moral intuitions.

 












Pope Francis calls on  Catholics, Non-Catholics, and even 'Non-Believers' to work together toward shared values

of Peace. I'm not Catholic, but I can agree with that!


I am not a Catholic, and I think kids should have significant freedoms in pursuing their own self direction in education and school culture. Yet - when I work with the numerous Catholic Schools in Toliara, I am able to seek beauty and academic rigor where others from a similar background to mine might be turned off.



A theory helps - and evolutionary theory provides two models I'm finding of high utility.



Firstly, Jonathan Haidt and colleagues' moral foundations theory talks about the 6 evolved taste-buds of moral intuitions being like knobs on a stereo - attenuated somewhat by genetic variation, and perhaps more so by one's developmental environment. Understanding the potential richness of observable moral diversity allows us to draw the brakes on broad-stroke categorizing of groups of people by certain beliefs, practices, or other cultural markers, opening the doors for perhaps unlikely collaborations.

 





Secondly, the recently illuminated Ostrom's Generalized Principles of Group Design, allow my colleagues and students a common framework for us to explore and understand the educational ecosystem of Toliara across multiple levels of organization. From students within student groups, to schools within the urban membrane; the same 8 principles allow us to design a locally adapted analysis of school functioning based on nuanced understanding of evolutionary principles in general, and our very individual human history specifically.



Unsurprisingly, a diversity of proximate mechanisms relating to each of these 8 ultimate functions can be found at every level of social organization of the Toliara education ecosystem - and indeed, around the world.



These "Ostrom's 8"  therefore do not result in monolithic prescriptions for school development, rather a road map for local adaption. Importantly, it is possible for such ostromic functions to be in conflict. In the video of the Malagasy Anthem, we see a striking mechanism for the cultivation of (1) group identity and sense of purpose and (4) monitoring agreed upon behaviors, yet those functional benefits may be (at least temporarily) hindering the development of (7) authority to self-govern at the student and student-group levels of analysis.

 












City as Superorganism - our emerging map of the

educational ecosystem in Toliara, Madagascar,

part of the open-data for education effort that is the

www.EduToliara.info project.


By focusing on everyone's shared values of student and community development, we are beginning to cultivate a multi-level study of the diversity of proximate mechanisms within these 8 ultimate functions identified by Ostrom and colleagues. An action-oriented, open-data platform has been created: www.EduToliara.info, which can serve to assist in educational design from the student to the classroom to the urban planning levels.



Lots of people have lots of different socio-cultural and moral beliefs about what education can and should be. Our approach allows for important discussions to happen at the appropriate level of social organization, while cultivating coherence and connectedness across all levels.