1. Sociological Perspectives
1.1. Theoretical Perspectives
1.1.1. Functional Theories
1.1.1.1. They believed that society is held together by shared values alone. In a highly integrated, well-functioning society, schools socialize students into the appropriate values, and sort and select students according to their abilities.
1.1.2. Conflict Theories
1.1.2.1. They do not see the relation between school and society as unproblematic or straightforward. They emphasize cohesion in explaining social order, conflict sociologists emphasize struggle. As for schools, they are similar to social battlefields, whereas students struggle against teachers, teachers against administrators, and so on.
1.1.3. Interactional Theories
1.1.3.1. It is an extension of functional and conflict perspectives. They believe people should take a closer look at the everyday life between students and teachers. They try to provide an interpretable snapshot of what schools are like on the every day level.
1.2. 5 Effects of Schooling
1.2.1. Teacher Behavior
1.2.1.1. Plays a huge role in students learning and behavior. Teachers are models for students and, as instructional leaders, teachers set standards for students and influence student self-esteem and sense of efficacy.
1.2.2. Student Peer Groups and Allienation
1.2.2.1. Student cultures play an important role in shaping students' educational experiences. Students culture idealizes athletic ability, looks, and that detached style that indicates "coolness." When student culture conflicts with adult and administrators culture it leads to alienation and even violence.
1.2.3. De Facto Segregation
1.2.3.1. Racially mixed schools benefit minorities and do not suppress white achievement. African-American students who attended integrated schools were less likely to be arrested by the police, more likely to live in desegregated neighborhoods, and women were less likely to have a child before the age of 18.
1.2.4. Gender
1.2.4.1. Gender discrimination reproduce inequalities in our schools. Women and men do not share equally in our society. Gender discrimination is rooted in the values and organization of society; schools in some ways only reflect these societal problems.
1.2.5. Sociology and the Current Educational Crisis
1.2.5.1. There are so many of our children growing up with such disadvantages. The sociology aspect of it shows us what is and what can be when one tries to imagine schools and school systems that meet the challenges that are facing today's children. The current educational crisis is complex, and solutions to the pressing problem are difficult to find. With that being said, the sociologists are willing to find the truth about the relationship between school and society.
2. Philosophy of Education
2.1. Pragmatism
2.1.1. Is a philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends.
2.1.1.1. A Pragmatic schema
2.1.1.1.1. Problem --> speculative thought --> action --> results
2.2. Generic Notions
2.2.1. The school became an "embryonic community
2.2.2. Educators start with the needs and interest of the child.
2.2.3. All the child to participate in planning course of study.
2.2.4. Employ project method
2.2.5. Group learning
2.2.6. Depend heavily on experiential learning.
2.3. Key Researchers
2.3.1. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
2.3.2. John Locke (1632-1704)
2.3.3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
2.3.4. John Dewey (1859-1952)
2.3.4.1. It has been Dewey's work that had the most profound intellectual and practical influence on U.S. progressive education.
2.4. Goal of Education
2.4.1. To provide students with the knowledge of how to improve the social order.
2.4.2. The primary role of education was growth.
2.4.3. The role of the school was to be "a lever of social reform."
2.5. Role of the Teacher
2.5.1. Assumes the peripheral position of facilitator.
2.5.2. Encourage students
2.5.3. Offer suggestions
2.5.4. Questions
2.5.5. Help plan and implement courses of study.
2.6. Methods of Instuction
2.6.1. Problem solving or Inquiry method
2.6.2. Nontraditional
2.6.3. Indvidualized study
2.6.4. Project method
2.7. Curriculum
2.7.1. Core or Integrated curriculum
2.7.2. The curriculum should be related to the needs and interest of the child.
2.7.3. "The curriculum of expanding environments."
3. Schools as Organiztions
3.1. State Senators
3.1.1. Richard Shelby
3.1.2. Jefferson “Jeff” Sessions
3.2. House of Representative
3.2.1. Rep. Mo Brooks
3.3. State superintendent
3.3.1. Michael Sentance
3.4. Representatives on the State School Board
3.4.1. District 1: Matthew S. Brown, J.D.
3.4.2. District 2: Betty Peters
3.4.3. District 3: Stephanie Bell
3.4.4. District 4: Yvette Richardson, Ed.D., Vice President
3.4.5. District 5: Ella B. Bell
3.4.6. District 6: Cynthia Sanders McCarty, Ph.D.
3.4.7. District 7: Jeffrey Newman
3.4.8. District 8: Mary Scott Hunter, President Pro Tem
3.5. Huntsville City Schools Superintendent
3.5.1. B.T. Drake
3.6. Huntsville School Board
3.6.1. District 1: Laurie Bone McCaulley
3.6.2. District 2: Beth Wilder
3.6.3. District 3: Beth Wilder
3.6.4. District 4: Walker McGinnis
3.6.5. District 5: Mike Culbreath
3.7. Elements of Change within School Processes and School Cultures
3.7.1. Conflict is a necessary part of change. Conflicts allow previously hidden problems, issues, and disagreements to surface.
3.7.2. New behaviors must be learned. Because change requires new relationships we must learn how to trust, communicate, collaborate and solve conflict together.
3.7.3. Team building must extend to the entire school. You must be able to share information with one another and allow on-going attention to relationships withing the rest of the school's staff before issues surface.
3.7.4. Process and content are interrelated. The process a team uses in going about its work is as important as the content of educational changes it attempts. You must be able to be open-minded and trust one another.
4. Politics of Education
4.1. 1) The role of the school
4.1.1. I chose the liberal perspective because it believes in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all.
4.2. 2) Explanations of Unequal Educational Performance
4.2.1. I chose the liberal perspective because they understand that not all children have the same up bringing. Therefore some groups have significantly more advantages than others.
4.3. 3) Definition of Educational Problems
4.3.1. I chose liberal perspectives because it sees many of the problems with the educational system and the injustice it produces.
4.4. Four Purposes of Education
4.5. The Intellectual purpose of schooling is the development of mathematical and reading skills.
4.6. The Political purposes of schooling is the assimilation of immigrants.
4.7. The Social purposes of schooling the development of social and moral responsibility.
4.8. The Economic purposes of schooling is to help students obtain the skills and knowledge required to attend college or to get a job.
5. History of U.S. Education
5.1. I chose the progressive and traditional reform movement because it focus not only on the process of education but on its goals. The debates that were centered around this reform questioned the type of education children should receive and whether all children should receive the same education. Although many of these debates focused on curriculum and method, they were associated with the question of equity and excellence.
5.2. I chose the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision. This case was perhaps the most important one in the twentieth century judicial history because it spawned the legal movement for equal rights in virtually all spheres of American life.
6. Curriculum & Pedagogy
6.1. Curriculum Theory
6.1.1. Social meliorism
6.1.1.1. Social Meliorists believed that education is a tool to reform society and create change for the better. This socialization goal was based on the power of the individual's intelligence, and the ability to improve on intelligence through education. Therefore, an individual future was not predetermined by gender, race, socio-economic status, heredity or any other factors.
6.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
6.2.1. The Mimetic
6.2.1.1. The mimetic tradition is based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Therefore, the best method of doing this is through what is termed the didactic method. A method that commonly relies on the lecture or presentation as the main form of communication.
6.2.2. The Transformative
6.2.2.1. The transformative tradition rests on a different set of assumptions about the teaching and learning process. This tradition believe that the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally. They do not see the trans-dimensional theory of teaching like the mimetic tradition.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Educational Outcomes
7.1.1. Class- studies show that families from the upper and middle class are more likely to finish school, whereas working and underclass families often have lower expectations for their children.
7.1.2. Race- studies show that even today race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve. Between the ages 16-24, 5.2% of whites drop out, 9.3% of African Americans drop out, and 17.6% of Hispanics drop out.
7.1.3. Gender- studies show that in today's world, women are less likely to drop out of school and women are also more likely to higher reading and writing scores. The one area that men outperform women is in mathematics.
7.2. Coleman Study from 1982
7.2.1. The Coleman study showed the differences among schools account for a variety of student outcomes. It studied the relationships between the organizational characteristics of schools and student achievement.There were two major responses to Coleman's findings. On one hand, others sociologists examined and reexamined Coleman's data. On the other hand, a group of minority scholars, led by Ron Edmonds and Harvard University, set about the task of defining those characteristics of schools that made them effective. Edmonds argued strongly that all students could learn and that differences between schools had a significant impact on student learning. In other words, where an individual goes to school has little effect on his or her cognitive growth or educational mobility.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Cultural Deprevation
8.1.1. Intellectual skills is the development of your reasoning skills and shows your developing ideas and concepts you learn throughout the years. Cultural deprivation theorists argue that working class homes may lack the resources needed to stimulate a child's development such as books or activities.
8.1.2. 2. Social skills- deals with ones ability to interact and communicate with others
8.2. School centered explanations for educational inequality
8.2.1. 1. Flexibility for teachers and administrators to experiment and adapt to new situations and problems.
8.2.2. 2. A high degree of instructional time on task, where teachers spend a great deal of their time teaching and students spend a great deal of their time learning.
8.2.3. 3. The monitoring of student learning.
8.2.4. 4. Accountability processes for students and teachers.
8.2.5. 5. Strong and effective leadership by a principal or school head.
8.2.6. 6. A climate of high expectations for students by teachers and administrators.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. Schools & Reforms
9.1.1. Privatization- are for-profit companies that come in and take over failing schools. They replace traditional school districts, with school operated by a combination of providers, including Management Organizations (EMO).
9.1.2. School-Business Partnership- is a program that produces the kinds of graduates necessary for revitalization of the U.S. economy. The included scholarships for poor students to attend college and programs where businesses "adopt" a school
9.2. Reforms
9.2.1. Harlem Children's Zone- is a program that provides quality early childhood education helps minority and low-income children to be successful, rather than further behind, when they begin formal schooling.
9.2.2. Full Service and Community Schools- is a plan to educate not only the whole child, but also the whole community. Specifically designed to target and improve at-risk neighborhoods, full-service schools aim to prevent problems, as well as to support them