186 Brooke Zobrist and Patrick McCormick
be able to make greater demands of the central government related to the
provision of education.
Synthesis: Institutional Culture and Limits for Change
Having reviewed our findings, we now step back to view the larger
context in which our findings make sense. We draw out aspects of the
larger institutional culture of the Ministry of Education, in the sense of
shared practices and understandings. The institutional culture or “ethos”
of education provides some insight into the shared beliefs, values, goals,
and priorities of people working in the Ministry of Education. We have
drawn up this depiction based on our observations and discussions,
and is meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive or definitional. In
the course of our interviews, views and beliefs common to many began
to emerge.
Interviewees took their work and responsibilities seriously and were
concerned with providing an education to as many children as possible.
As alluded to above, government plans often include vague terms and
slogans such as:
Our Vision: “To create an education system that will generate a learning
society capable of facing the challenges of the Knowledge Age.”
Our Motto: “Building a modern developed nation through education.”^38Our interviewees’ statements reflected such slogans, with people speaking
of education as a way to advance and develop the nation and the people.
There was a widespread concern with providing education to children
of poor families. Many spoke in abstract terms about improving or
modernizing the nation, but gave little concrete indication of what that
would mean in terms of the school system, curricula, or teaching practices.
As once principal put it:
We’re bringing up students so that they will try hard. However poor they
are, they must be in school. They must try hard. They have to know that
they are Burmese. They must not betray their country. They must love
their country. That’s how we are raising our students.When asked about hopes for the future, responses tended towards
concrete terms of hopes for filling specific gaps and needs and providing