SOCIAL CONTROL IN THE PROCESS OF AGRONOMY EDUCATION AT THE NATIONAL AGRARIAN UNIVERSITY, IN PERU, 1975/6 -X-X-38HHE Institute of Education xxxx-**** Ross Eric Cooper Ph.D. Abstract The thesis explores the process of social control involved in the teaching of agronomy at the National Agrarian University in Peru, 1975/6. It is concerned with the social origins, the organisation, the mechanisms, the implications and the consequences of the process of social control. It considers the agronomy course within its social context by examining the Agrarian Reform under the Military Government and the role of agronomists in the changing social division of labour. The analysis is developed in a wider social context considering the social policy of 'participation', and focusing on the role of education in the process of social control. This is to place the analysis of the subtle controls in the educational process within a general theory of social control and also to begin to explore the relationship between the educational experience,and power and control in society. It further considers:- 1) The Education Reform 2) The influence of 'financing' 3) The influence and beneficiaries of research at the University 4) The influence of employment prospects. While examining these issues the analysis of agronomists as part of a coherent social group within the tmiddle class' in Peru, who have acquired socially legitimate technical expertise and are committed to the concept and practice of Idevelopmentalismt is developed. It then develops the argument that the subtle controls inbedded in the pedagogy and course structure are part of a wider process of 3 social control that can reproduce power relations. A consequence of this is the social product of an agricultural model which is 'scientifically' legitimated and yet intimately and exclusively concerned with the problematics of Idvelopmentalism, on both a social and technical level. In conclusion, the teaching of agronomy is argued to be characterised by the process of social control and reproduction, and closely involved in the process of legitimating reproduced social relationships, social positioning and social development. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 10 CHAPTER 2 THE AGRARIAN REFORM : INTRODUCTION TO THE STRUCTURES AND FORCES UNDERPINNING THE CONCEPT AND PRACTICE OF THE NEW AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 20 CHAPTER 3 THE CONCEPT OF 'PARTICIPATION' AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION CHAPTER 4 EDUCATION AND ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT CHAPTER 5 THE ROLE OF 'FINANCING' IN SHAPING THE ORIENTATION AND CONTEXT OF AGRONOMY EDUCATION AT THE U.N A 1S5 CHAPTER 6 SOCIAL CLASS AND SOCIAL REPRODUCTION 210 CHAPTER 7 PEDAGOGY 269 CHAPTER 8 THE ROLE OF SCIENCE IN THE PROCESS OF SOCIAL REPRODUCTION IN THE TRANSMISSION OF AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE 310 CHAPTER 9 SOCIAL REPRODUCTION THROUGH AGRONOMY : THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF 'SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE' CHAPTER 10 CONCLUSIONS 382 APPENDIX 4-07 BIBLIOGRAPHY 410 XX X *#* LIST OF TABLES PAGE 1. Employment Among TBarriadat Community, 1957 25 2. Family Composition in the fBarriadat Community, 1957 25 3. Peruvian Demography, 1968 31 4. Results of the Elections for Organising Committees 34 5. Composition of the Delegates on the Cooperative Assemblies 35 6. Distribution of the Residual Gross Income of the Sugar Cooperative of Tuman 37 7. Exemption Limits 40 8. Property Structure of Land, 1961 41 9, Evaluation of the Private Division of Land in the Valley of Cariete from 1964 - 9 42 10. Agricultural Credit, 1968 - 1973 51 11. Comparison of Agrarian Reforms 54 12. The Evolution of the Relative Value of Agricultural Exports 57 13. Investments of the Principal 44 Landowners 58 14. Fluctuations in the Price of Agricultural Products in the International Market 58 15. The Sugar Estates in Debt by 1969 59 16. Property Structure in Agriculture, 1961 63 17. The Adjudications up to 31st May, 1975 64 18. Donations to U.N.A. 1973 - 74 166 19. Research Contracts, 1972 - 74 168 20. Research Contracts in Food and Agricultural Production, 1972 - 74 169 21. Research Contracts in the General Area of Agronomy, 1972 - 74 170 5 6 PAGE 22. Grants Received by CIP (1974) 179 23. Beneficiaries of Research Projects into Popular Foods 133 24. Beneficiaries of All Research Contracts into Food and Agricultural Produce 133 25. Beneficiaries of Research Contracts in the General Area of Agronomy 1$31 26. Principle Beneficiaries of the Staff Research in the General Area of Agronomy 188 27. Principle Beneficiaries of the Student Agronomy Theses' U.N.A., 1972 — 74 1!9 28. Principal Beneficiaries of the Technical Assistence Projects in the Area of Agricultural Production 193 29. Principle Beneficiaries of the Courses, Seminars, Informal Sessions and Conferences Provided as Technical Assistence in the Area of Agricultural Production 194 30. Fathers Employment among Agronomy Students (using aceres/ Data) 223 31. Fathers Employment among Agronomy Students, Questionnaire and Caceres' Data compared 224 32. Allocation of Student Grants from 1st January, '73 to March, '74, U.N A 225 33. Reported Family Income Among Agronomy Students 22k 34. Social Profile of Agronomy Students 230 35. Expected Employment and Fathers Employment 236 36. Desired Employment and Fathers Employment 23 37. Expected Employment Against Urban/Rural Background 235 38. Desired Employment Against Urban/Rural Background 238 39. Expected and Desired Employment Among Agronomy Students from a 'Professional' Background 235 40. Expected and Desired Employment Among Other Agronomy Students 240 41. Expected and Desired Employment Among Agronomy Students from an Urban Environment 240 7 PAGE 42. Expected and Desired Employment Among Agronomy Students from a Rural Environment 210 43. Postulants and Successful Applicants in Relation to Fathers' Occupation 2IS 44. Postulants and Successful Applicants in Relation to Fathers' Education 216 45. Postulants and Successful Applicants in Relation to Mothers' Education 24‘ 46. Relative Success in Each Examination in Relation to Fathers' Occupation, August, 1967 249 47. Relative Success in Each Examination in Relation to Fathers Occupation, March, 1968 250 48. Relative Success in Each Examination in Relation to Fathers' Occupation, August, 1968 25) 49. Number and Proportion of Students Entered in Relation to the Fathers Occupation, 1967 — 68 25+ 50. Number and Proportion of Students Entered in Relation to the Fathersi Occupation, 1973 — 74 254 51. Entrance Examination Weighting in Relation to the Students' Specialisation, 1974 255 52. Distribution of Languages Among the Library Books at U.N A 257 53. Proportion of Agronomy Students at U.N A 25d 54. Employment Expectations and Aspirations Among Agronomy Students 240 8 PAGE 55. Model 1 : The Process of Control - Cultural and Social Reproduction 3T7 $6. Model 2 : The Role of Agronomy in the Process of Control - The Reproduction of Power Relations Through the Teaching of Agronomy 31 57. Programa Academico de Agronomia 4108 56. Relacion de Cursos para las Orientaciones y Campos Complementarios de Agronomia ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr. Charles Posner, for his support and insights over the years, the SSRC and the Institute of Education for their financial assistence, and Mary Basing for typing the thesis. I owe many people in Peru a debt of gratitude for their invaluable support, friendship, and trust. I would also like to thank my parents for making this work possible, and my wife, Janette,for making the possible practical. 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The basic problem I am addressing in this thesis is the relation- ship between the system of classification of knowledge underwriting the structure and organisation of the university and the wider process of social control, selection and social reproduction. I am concerned with the process whereby despite any changes in curriculum and pedagogy designed to meet the social needs of the new 'Revolutionary Peru', these actually represent changes *1 in thabitust, not in function. So although there has been a change in the distribution of occupations people go into, this has not changed the way people use their knowledge. I am therefore concerned with the classroom as a microcosm of social organisation and I shall be examining the process of control that results in the relationship between the micro and macro levels. *2 #3 Various writers such as Bernstein and Bourdieu have been concerned respectively with the way in which the transmission of knowledge produces social positioning and how the structure of educational systems leads to social reproduction. My intention is to draw on and apply the theoretical arguments and concepts developed in their work to examine a concrete situation - the teaching of agronomy at the National Agrarian University (U.N.A.) in Peru, 1975/6. In examining the educational process within its social context with reference to social control, I am not attempting to discuss or 11 broaden the debate over the relative autonomy or dependence of educational institutions. While I shall indicate areas of apparent autonomy and dependence the point of departure for the thesis is this:- given that the educational process involves both a degree of autonomy and dependence, how then is the dependence organised and controlled? What are the social origins, mechanisms, implications and consequences of this aspect of social control? In order to explore these questions I will draw on both recent sociological theory and also examine the taken-for-granted elements of social influence and control. *4 If the main thrust of the sociology of knowledge from the 1970's has been that subtle controls within the process of teaching, course organisationl selection, assessment and validation can reproduce aspects of power relations, then in practical terms what is the relationship between these 'subtle' or covert controls and the overt controls and influences? If a social analysis of agronomy education is to be undertaken, then both these aspects of the social context must be considered in relation to each other. In effect there are a number of influences and elements in the process of social control that limit the apparent degree of autonomy.