1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Idealism
1.1.1. Goal of Education-to search for truth through ideas rather than through the examination of the false shadowy world of matter, and to encourage students to search for truth as individuals and share that truth to enlighten others.
1.1.2. Role of Teacher-teachers should analyze and discuss ideas with students in order for students to be changed, should play an active role in discussion, posing questions, selecting materials, and establishing an environment, and should see themselves as a role model in the classroom.
1.1.3. Curriculum-traditional core such as science, math, reading, writing, and the humanities, and rejects the use of electives because of cost and practicality.
1.1.4. Method of Instruction-discussion, question and answer, and group and individual research.
1.1.5. Key Researchers-Plato and Socrates, St. Augustine, Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant, and George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1.1.6. Purposes of Schooling are Economic, Intellectual, and Social
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Alabama, Jackson County
2.1.1. State Senators-Jefferson Sessions and Richard Shelby
2.1.2. House of Representatives-Ritchie Whorton District 22
2.1.3. State Superintendent-Tommy Bice
2.1.4. Representative on State School Board-Mary Scott Hunter
2.1.5. Local Superintendent-Dr. Bart Reeves
2.1.6. Local School Board-John Lyda, Cecil Gant, Kenneth Storey, Chad Gorham, and Charles West
2.2. Great Britain
2.2.1. Before the 19th century all schools were private and it was considered the parents responsibility to educate students
2.2.2. The Educational system is more open and less stratified than it was a quarter century ago.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Historical Curriculum
3.1.1. Humanist Curriculum
3.1.1.1. Reflects the idealist philosophy that knowledge of the traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of an educated citizenry.
3.1.1.2. Purpose of education is to present to students the best of what has been thought and written.
3.1.1.3. Curriculum model dominated nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century U.S. education.
3.1.1.4. Purpose of schooling was to transmit a common body of knowledge in order to reproduce a common cultural heritage.
3.2. Sociological Curriculum
3.2.1. Funtionalist Curriculum
3.2.1.1. Functionalists argue that school curriculum represents the codification of the knowledge that students need to become competent members of society.
3.2.1.2. General functionalist theory was concerned with the role of schools in combating the social and moral breakdown initiated by modernization.
3.2.1.3. Derived by the work of Emile Durkheim in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
4. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Educational Achievement and Attainment of Women
4.1.1. Females achieve at slightly higher levels in mathematics at age 9
4.1.2. Females have outperformed males in reading since 1973
4.1.3. 87.6 percent of females graduated from high school and 29.8 percent received a bachelor's degree
4.1.4. Females achieve at higher levels in reading at ages 9, 13, and 17
4.2. Response to Coleman Study
4.2.1. James Coleman received an extremely large grant to study the relationship between the organizational characteristics of schools and student achievement.
4.2.2. Ron Edmonds argued that all students could learn and that differences between schools had an impact on student learning.
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Sociological Explanation
5.1.1. Cultural Deprevation
5.1.1.1. Suggests that working-class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage.
5.1.1.2. Middle-class culture values hard work and initiative, the delay of immediate gratification for future reward, and the importance of schooling as a means to future success.
5.1.1.3. This deprivation results in educationally disadvantaged students who achieve poorly because they have not been raised to acquire the skills and dispositions required for satisfactory academic achievement.
5.2. School-Centered Explanation
5.2.1. Gender and Schooling
5.2.1.1. Although the feminist movement in the United States dates back to the mid-nineteenth century,, the second wave of feminism began in the 1960s.
5.2.1.2. Feminists agree that schooling often limits the educational opportunities and life chances of women in a number of ways.
5.2.1.3. Given the role that schools play in reproducing gender inequalities, feminists argue that school organization, curriculum, and pedagogic practices need to be changed to address more adequately the needs of females.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Liberal Perspective
6.1.1. Role of the School: balancing the needs of society and the individual in a manner that is consistent with a democratic and meritocratic society.
6.1.2. Unequal Educational Performance: Individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances and therefore some groups have significantly more advantages that others.
6.1.3. Educational Problems: 1.) Schools have too often limited the life chances of poor and minority children. 2.)Schools place too much emphasis on discipline and authority. 3.)The differences in quality and climate between urban and suburban schools and between schools with students of low socioeconomic backgrounds and high socioeconomic backgrounds is a central problem related to inequalities. 4.) Traditional curriculum leaves out the diverse cultures of the groups that comprise the pluralistic society.
6.1.4. American Dream: Liberals believe that schools have been successful in extending public education to the masses and providing more opportunity for mobility than any other system in the world.
6.2. Progressive Vision
6.2.1. View schools as central to solving social problems, as a vehicle for upward mobility, as essential to the development of individual potential, and as an integral part of a democratic society.
6.2.2. Encompass the left liberal to the radical spectrum.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Brown v. The Topeka Board of Education
7.1.1. On May 17, 1954, in a landmark decision in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, the Supreme court ruled that state-imoosed segregation of schools was unconstitutional.
7.1.2. The Supreme Court reversed the "separate but equal" doctrine enshrined in the Plessy case.
7.1.3. This decision marked both a symbolic and concrete affirmation of the ethos of democratic schooling.
7.2. A Nation at Risk
7.2.1. In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence issued its now famous report, A Nation at Risk.
7.2.2. This report provided a serious indictment of U.S. education and cited high rates of adult illiteracy, declining SAT scores, and low scores on international comparisons of knowledge.
7.2.3. Offered five recommendations: 1. "New Basics"-four years English, three years of mathematics, three years science, three years social studies, and a half year computer science. 2. High schools expect higher achievement and colleges raise their admission requirements. 3. more time devoted to teaching the new basics. 4. Preparation of teachers be strengthened and teaching profession be more respected and rewarded. 5. Citizens require their elected representatives support and fund these reforms.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Functional Theory (Theoretical Perspective)
8.1.1. Views society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work.
8.1.2. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) recognized that education had taken different forms at different times and places, but he believed that education was of critical importance in creating moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmony
8.1.3. Functionalists tend to assume the consensus is the normal state in society and that conflict represents a breakdown of shared values.
8.2. Three Effects of Schooling
8.2.1. Employment- Graduating from college will lead to greater employment opportunities. There is a relation between educational level and income level
8.2.2. Teacher Behavior-Teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior. In a study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968), teachers' expectations of students were found to directly influence student achievement.
8.2.3. Knowledge and Attitudes-The actual amount of time students spend in school is directly related to how much they learn.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School-Based Reform
9.1.1. In the 1990s, school-business partnerships became incorporated into school-to-work programs.
9.1.2. Intent was to extend what had been a vocational emphasis to non-college-bound students regarding skills necessary for successful employment and stress the importance of work-based learning.
9.1.3. Three Core Elements
9.1.3.1. 1.) School-based learning
9.1.3.2. 2.) Work-based learning
9.1.3.3. 3.) Connecting activities
9.2. Societal, Economic, Community, and Political Reform
9.2.1. Full Service and Community Schools
9.2.1.1. Another way to attack education inequity is to examine and plan to educate not only the whole child, but also the whole community.
9.2.1.2. Full service schools focus on meeting students' and their families educational, physical, psychological, and social needs in a coordinated and collaborative fashion between school and community services.
9.2.1.3. Specifically designed to target and improve at-risk neighborhoods, full-service schools aim to prevent problems, as well as to support them.