Pedagogical discourses in Bhutanese school system

In this article we distinguish between three pedagogical discourses in our analysis of the Bhutanese school system. The results point to the dominance of the traditional cognitive discourse, but occasionally the teacher's unilateral control of the teaching-learning process is shared with the students. On a value basis the teachers agree with the pedagogical ideal of student centered learning which is in line with an experiential learning discourse. In addition students tell about how they go to the better students, rather than to the teacher, for help. This behavior, where peers are used as ‘teachers’, points to a third understanding of how learning is undertaken, which builds on the social ressources of the local community of practice. Despite these smaller variations, the overall picture is that the underlying discourse of the Bhutaneese school system is in accordance with a traditional cognitive approach to learning. The consequences of that in terms of student’s personal development of professional, personal and social competences and the consequences in terms of development of society are examined. We conclude the article by discussing whether there could be some positive benefits of supplementing the traditional cognitive discourse with more experiential and social cultural pedagogical discourses and what the challenges of such a development might be.