1. Politics of Education
1.1. Conservative
1.1.1. Individuals and groups must compete in the social environment in order to survive.
1.1.1.1. They must solve problems on their own.
1.1.1.2. Can solve problems without government intervention.
1.1.2. Human progress is dependent on individual initiative and drive.
1.1.3. Argues that with competition, free market capitalism allows for
1.1.3.1. Maximizes
1.1.3.1.1. Economic Growth
1.1.3.1.2. Individual Liberty
1.1.3.2. Minimizes
1.1.3.2.1. Potential Abuse
1.1.4. Traditional
1.1.4.1. Visions tend to view the schools as necessary to the transmission of the the traditional values of U.S. society.
1.1.4.1.1. Hard Work
1.1.4.1.2. Family Unity
1.1.4.1.3. Individual Initiative
1.2. Liberal
1.3. Neo-Liberal
1.4. Radical
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. 1779- "Bill for More General Diffusion of Knowledge" proposed by Thomas Jefferson.
2.1.1. Believed that the safeguard for democracy is literacy.
2.1.2. Free Education for the first 3 years of elementary school.
2.1.2.1. Free education at all was a huge deal.
2.2. 1837- Horace Mann became Secretary of the BOE in Massachusetts.
2.2.1. Argued that universal public education was the best way to turn children into responsible citizens.
2.2.2. Trained professional teachers, preparing them to teach.
2.3. 1932- Roosevelt's New Deal Education Programs.
2.3.1. Taught more technical skills.
2.3.1.1. To help learn things you will have a career in. (Trades such as welding, nursing, etc.)
2.4. 1954- Brown vs. BOE
2.4.1. Overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson
2.4.1.1. Seperate is not equal.
2.4.1.2. Segregation in schools and all other forums was unconstitutional.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Theoretical Perspectives
3.1.1. Interactional Theory
3.1.1.1. Attempt to make the commonplace strange by turning on their heads everyday taken-for-granted behaviors and interactions between students and students, and between students and teachers.
3.1.2. Functional Theory
3.1.2.1. Stresses interdependence of the social system; researchers examine how well the parts are integrated with each other.
3.1.2.2. They view society as a kind of machine.
3.1.2.2.1. One part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work.
3.1.2.3. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
3.1.2.3.1. Believed that education, in virtually all societies, was of critical importance in creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmony
3.1.2.3.2. Emphasis on values and cohesion set the tone for how present-day functionalists approach the study of education.
3.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
3.2.1.1. Sociologists of education strongly disagree about the relative importance of schooling in terms of what knowledge and attitudes young people acquire in school.
3.2.1.2. Generally found that the higher the social class background of the student, the higher his or her achievement level.
3.2.1.3. More years of schooling leads to greater knowledge and social participation.
3.2.2. Employment
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Existentialism and Phenomology
4.1.1. Generic Notions
4.1.1.1. Existentialism
4.1.1.1.1. Pose questions as to how their concerns impact on the lives of individuals.
4.1.1.1.2. Believe that individuals are placed on this earth alone and must make some sense out of the chaos they encounter.
4.1.1.2. Phenomonology
4.1.1.2.1. Focus on the phenomena of consciousness, perception, and meaning, as they arise in a particular individual's experience.
4.1.1.2.2. Concerned with the way in which objects present themselves to people in their consciousness, and how people order those objects.
4.1.2. Key Researchers
4.1.2.1. Martin Buber
4.1.2.1.1. Wrote about an I-Thou approach.
4.1.2.1.2. Student and teacher learn cooperatively from each other in a nontraditional, nonthreatening, "friendship".
4.1.2.2. Soren Kierkegaard
4.1.2.2.1. Existentialism dates back to this European philosopher.
4.1.2.2.2. Proposed a "great leap of faith" in hopes that individuals might accept the existence of God.
4.1.2.2.3. Rallied against the scientific, objective approach to existence.
4.1.2.3. Jean Paul Satre
4.1.2.3.1. "Existence precedes essence"
4.1.2.3.2. Attempting to sort out meaning in a world that supported inhumane behavior.
4.1.2.3.3. Rejected the idea of God
4.1.2.4. Maxine Greene
4.1.2.4.1. Being "wide awake"
4.1.2.4.2. Talks about morals of life
4.1.3. Goal of Education
4.1.3.1. Existentialism
4.1.3.1.1. Should focus on the needs of individuals, both cognitively and affectively.
4.1.3.1.2. Education should stress individuality.
4.1.3.1.3. Include discussion of the non-rational as well as the rational world.
4.1.3.2. Phenomonology
4.1.3.2.1. Emphasize the notion of possibility.
4.1.4. Role of Teacher
4.1.4.1. Teachers should understand their own "lived worlds" as well as that of their students in order to help their students achieve the best "lived worlds" they can.
4.1.4.2. Teachers must take risks.
4.1.4.2.1. Expose themselves to the resistant students.
4.1.4.2.2. Work constantly to enable their students to become "Wide Awake".
4.1.4.3. Enable students to become in touch with their worlds and to empower them to choose and to act on their choice.
4.1.4.4. THE ROLE OF A TEACHER IS AN INTENSELY PERSONAL ONE THAT CARRIES WITH IT A TREMENDOUS RESPONSIBILITY.
4.1.5. Method of Instruction
4.1.5.1. Each child has a different learning style and it is up to the teacher to discover what works for each child.
4.1.5.2. The teacher rediscovers knowledge, the student discovers knowledge, and together they come to an understanding of past, present, and future; Particularly a future ripe with possibilities.
4.1.5.2.1. Posing questions
4.1.5.2.2. Generating activities
4.1.5.2.3. Working together
4.1.6. Curriculum
4.1.6.1. Heavily biased toward the humanities.
4.1.6.2. Literature
4.1.6.2.1. Is able to evoke responses in readers that might move them to new levels of awareness.
4.1.6.3. Encourage personal interaction.
4.1.6.3.1. Art
4.1.6.3.2. Drama
4.1.6.3.3. Music
4.1.6.4. Exposing students at early ages to problems as well as possibilities, and to the horrors as well as accomplishments humankind is capable of producing.
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. Degree of "Openness"
5.1.1. Organized usually as:
5.1.1.1. Elementary (Grades K-5/6)
5.1.1.2. Middle School (Grades 6-8)
5.1.1.3. Junior High (Grades 7-9)
5.1.1.4. High School (Grades 9-12)
5.1.2. The school system is designed to give students as many opportunities for advancement as possible.
5.1.2.1. Some students will graduate with advanced diploma.
5.1.2.2. Some will graduate with basic diploma.
5.1.2.3. Some will drop out.
5.2. Governance
5.2.1. Federal
5.2.1.1. Very little money comes from the federal portion when it comes to education.
5.2.1.2. Very little authority when it comes to the governance of the public school system
5.2.2. State
5.2.2.1. Gives more money to public schools than the federal government does.
5.2.2.2. Helps to mandate curriculum, qualifications for teaching, and safety codes
5.2.3. Community/District
5.2.3.1. Taxpayers give the majority of funding to the schools by paying property taxes annually.
5.2.3.2. Mandates made by the state are usually required to be carried out by citizens of a particular school district.
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. What do the schools teach?
6.1.1. Schools teach a specific curriculum, one that is mandated by the state education department and implemented in an organized manner within the schools.
6.1.2. This view defines the curriculum as an objective and organized body of knowledge to be transmitted to students.
6.1.3. Unfortunately, such a view simplifies the complexity of the curriculum and ignores the social and political dimensions of what is taught in schools.
6.2. The Politics of the Curriculum
6.2.1. The history of the US curriculum may be understood in terms of different models of school knowledge.
6.2.2. QUESTIONS ASKED:
6.2.2.1. Another question: Whose values are represented and how do groups manage to translate their values into the subjects that are taught in school?
6.2.2.2. The central question in politics: Who shapes the curriculum?
6.2.3. ANSWER:
6.2.3.1. Professional educators are not a cohesive interest group, so many of the most heated curriculum debates involve disagreements within this group about the nature and purpose of the curriculum.
6.3. The Sociology of the Curriculum
6.3.1. Sociologists of curriculum have focused on not only what is taught but why it is taught.
6.3.2. They reject the objectivist notion that curriculum is values neutral; they view it as a reflection of particular interests within a society.
6.3.3. The believe that the school curriculum includes both what is formally included as the subject matter learned-the formal curriculum- as well as the informal and hidden curriculum.
6.3.3.1. Hidden curriculum: what is taught to students through implicit rules and messages, as well as through what is left out of the formal curriculum.
6.3.4. Functionalists argue that the school curriculum represents the codification of the knowledge that students need to become competent members of society.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Life Outcomes
7.1.1. Class
7.1.1.1. Students with different social classes have different experiences.
7.1.1.1.1. The wealthier the family the better the education.
7.1.1.1.2. Teachers expect more from the middle and upper class and give them more attention.
7.1.1.1.3. Children from working class and underclass families are more likely to underachieve, drop out, and resist curriculum.
7.1.1.1.4. Higher chance of middle and upper class students going to college and receiving a degree.
7.1.2. Race
7.1.2.1. Has direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve.
7.1.2.2. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites.
7.1.2.2.1. Rewards for education attainment are significantly less.
7.1.2.2.2. Minorities SAT scores are typically lower than whites.
7.1.3. Gender
7.1.3.1. Female
7.1.3.1.1. Less likely to drop out of school.
7.1.3.1.2. Better at reading and writing subjects.
7.1.3.1.3. More likely to go to college in general.
7.1.3.2. Male
7.1.3.2.1. Better at mathematics
7.1.3.2.2. More likely to score higher on SATs
7.1.3.2.3. More likely to attend a higher college
7.2. Students with special needs
7.2.1. Too many students have been labeled and placed into Special Education classes. This has resulted in lifetime sentences that have limited their educational opportunity.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Do schools reproduce inequality?
8.1.1. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face significantly different problems in their communities due to factors such as:
8.1.1.1. Racism
8.1.1.2. Poverty
8.1.1.3. Social & Institutional Processes
8.1.2. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have significantly lower life chances before entering schools.
8.1.2.1. Often attend schools that are inferior and have significantly less funding.
8.1.2.2. Encounter school processes that limit educational chance.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (BUSH)
9.1.1. Has historically underserved low-income and minority children through curriculum tracking, poor instruction, and low-quality teachers in urban schools.
9.1.2. Mandates the uniform standards for all students in order to reduce and eventually eliminate the social class and race achievement gap by 2014.
9.1.3. Key Components:
9.1.3.1. Annual testing is required of students in grades 3-8 in reading and math. Plus one test in grades 10-12; science testing to follow.
9.1.3.2. States and districts are required to report school-by-school data on student test performance. This is to be broken down by race, special education, ELLs, and/or low income.
9.1.3.3. States must set adequate yearly process (AYP) goals for each school.
9.1.3.4. Schools that don't meet AYP for two years are labeled "in need of improvement".
9.1.3.4.1. Schools must offer students the option to go to another public school and/or the to receive federally funded tutoring.
9.1.3.4.2. Funds are also made available for teacher professional development.
9.1.3.4.3. If future AYP targets aren't met, schools are subject to go through "restructuring" (firing teachers and principal; state takeover; private company takeover; etc.).
9.1.3.5. Schools must have "highly qualified" teachers for the "core academic subjects" by 2005-2006.
9.1.4. SEE THIS VIDEO ATTACHED
9.2. Race to the Top (OBAMA)
9.2.1. Many states adopted the common core standards, expanded the number of charter schools, and developed new principal/teacher evaluation tools.
9.2.2. Grants will aid states as they work to meet the NCLB mandates, improve student outcomes, and eliminate achievement gaps.