My Foundations of Education
Plan your projects and define important tasks and actions
1. Sociological Perspectives
1.1. Functionalism - stresses the interdependence between school and society; focuses on how bound the two are to each other. Functionalists view society as a machine, where one part directly affects the other. Schools teach students how to function in society, and they are expected to function properly when they leave a classroom after graduation. This leads functionalists to put the blame on societal problems on the classroom because of the belief of how school and society work together.
1.1.1. Dependencies
1.1.2. Milestones
1.2. Conflict Theory - views the bounds that holds society together as economic, political, cultural, and military power. Focuses on the will of more powerful groups of people to be able to dominate and manipulate subordinate groups of people. Conflict sociologists focus on the disorder and struggle as means that create society. The struggle between power within the hands of students, teachers, and administrators stack up, and based on the school attended, the student is more likely or less likely to function well in society. For example, a child from a prep school has more of a chance of succeeding than a child from a low income school.
1.2.1. Schedule
1.2.2. Budget
1.3. Interactionalism - examines the microsociological perspectives that Functionalists and Conflict Theorists overlook; examines the details of every day school life rather than focusing on the big picture of society and school. Focuses on themes that might help the structure of society day by day within the classroom.
1.3.1. KPI's
1.4. 5 effects of schooling
1.4.1. Knowledge and Attitudes: schools with strong academic programs yield better educated students. A study by Heyns (1978) shows that students who went to summer school, used the library, and read a great deal in the summer made greater gains in knowledge than students who did not study in the summer. Schools that provide extra ways to educate students change the attitudes students have when it comes to education, and are more likely to produce well rounded educated students.
1.4.2. Teacher Behavior: Teachers that demand more from their students and praise them more yield students who learn more and feel better about themselves. Teacher's attitudes towards all students correlate to student achievement and perceptions of self.
1.4.3. Student Peer Groups and Alienation: Students create their own subculture within schools. Being detached or "cool" does not correlate with the goal of teachers to educate, therefore causing problems in education. This culture created by students within schools plays an important role in shaping student's experience while attending school.
1.4.4. Education and Inequality: Social stratification creates a hierarchy between individuals related to class, income, gender, etc. This creates a false sense of class that may stir a low income student for example to not try as hard in school because of their ideals and beliefs related at home, while a high income student might strive for success more often because of their ideals and beliefs at home. Inequality in income creates social classes which distinguish differences between students in school, which could possibly alienate students and lessen their education experience.
1.4.5. Gender: Gender plays a huge role in stratification and alienation. For example, within schools most teachers are female while most administrators are male. This may alienate female students to believe that they are not equal to the male gender, which is untrue. By the end of high school, females are more often to have low aspirations and low self esteem possibly because of this subliminal message that males are more likely to succeed than females because of this division in gender among administration and teachers. It is important to seek equality within administration as well as staff in order to keep school culture from being biased based on gender.
2. Philosophy of Education
2.1. Existentialism
2.1.1. Generic Notions
2.1.1.1. Pose questions as how to their concerns impact the lives of individuals. Focus on the phenomena of consciousness, perception, and meaning as they arise in a particular person's experiences. Individuals are put on earth alone and must make sense out of the chaos they encounter.
2.1.2. Goal of Education
2.1.2.1. Focuses on the needs of individuals, both cognitively and affectively. Believe that education should stress individuality. Emphasize the notion of possibility, since the individual changes in a constant state of becoming.
2.1.3. Role of the Teacher
2.1.3.1. Teachers should understand their own "lived worlds" as well as that of their students in order to help students achieve the best "lived worlds" that they can. Teachers must expose themselves and take risks in order to reach students.
2.1.4. Methods of Instruction
2.1.4.1. Learning is intensely personal. Belief that every child has their own learning style and it is up to the teacher to discover these styles and teach towards them. Teacher and student are in a nonthreatening "friendship" where both learn subject matter together.
2.1.5. Curriculum
2.1.5.1. Heavily biased towards humanities. Anything that encourages personal interaction.
3. Equality of Opportunity
3.1. Impact on Educational Outcomes
3.1.1. Class - Different social classes have different kinds of educational experiences. School is expensive, so school favors wealthier families. Class is directly related to success and achievement gap.
3.1.2. Race - a student's race directly correlates with how much education he or she is likely to achieve. It is extremely difficult to separate race from class.
3.1.3. Gender - historically gender relates to educational attainment. There are different pros and cons for each gender relating to education, such as drop out rates, literacy, etc.
3.1.4. Coleman Study Outcomes:
4. Politics of Education
4.1. Purposes of education: intellectual, political, social, economic
4.2. Educational problems (conservative perspective) - For greater equality in schools, Conservatives believe that academic standards have been reduced and refer to this as decline of standards. Schools watered down traditional curriculum on multicultural heritage, conservatives refer to this as decline of cultural literacy. In response to schools losing their traditional role of teaching moral standards and values, conservatives have started referring to this problem as decline of values. In response to schools losing their traditional disciplinary function, conservatives have referred to this loss as decline of authority. Because schools are state controlled, they are often stifled by bureaucracy. Conservatives believe that schools should be ran locally and not completely controlled by the state.
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. Stakeholders in Alabama
5.1.1. Senator Paul Bussman
5.1.2. Rep Robert Aderholt
5.1.3. Superintendent Michael Sentance
5.1.4. District 8 Rep Mary Scott Hunter
5.2. Elements of Change
5.2.1. Conflict - efforts to democratize schools allow previously hidden problems, issues, and disagreements to surface.
5.2.2. New Behaviors - process of change includes developing communication and trust, enabling leadership and initiative to emerge
5.2.3. Team building must extend to the entire school.
5.2.4. Process and content are interrelated. Processes of change must be developed.
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Humanist Curriculum - traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of an educated citizenry. Purpose of education is to present students with the best of education throughout history.
6.2. Dominant traditions in teaching
6.2.1. Mimetic - purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Follows didactic method, and relies on lecture or presentation.
6.2.2. Transformative - purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
7. History of U.S. Education
7.1. Race to the Top - through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, President Barack Obama implemented the Race To The Top Fund. In short, this was aimed to help states in meeting previously established parts of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. It involves a grant program that awards states for closing achievement gaps and improving student outcomes by developing plans in adopting students for college success, building data systems that measure student growth, improving how teachers and principals instruct students, recruiting capable teachers and principals where they are needed most, and turning around the lowest achieving schools. I believe this has had the most influence on education because it is the most modern movement.
7.1.1. Materials
7.1.2. Personel
7.1.3. Services
7.1.4. Duration
7.2. The Democratic-Liberal School - this is a historical interpretation of U.S. Education which involves equality for all students from diverse backgrounds in order to make the U.S. the most educated school across all boundaries of race and ethnicity. Contrary to the Conservative interpretation, which leans towards education for the privileged and focuses on an elitist point of view of education, this interpretation clings to ideals of equality and excellence (through the flaws that harbor within education) and has an optimistic viewpoint on future education. Democratic-liberals see the Common School Era as a victory. In short, this interpretation aims to provide equal education for all students, not just the elite.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
8.1.1. Suggests that some students arrive at school without the necessary intellectual knowledge because of their social status.
8.2. Cultural Difference Theory
8.2.1. suggests that being a part of a specific minority affects intellectual knowledge.
8.3. School-Centered Explanations of Inequality
8.3.1. Financing - funding affects education quality
8.3.2. Effective School Research - nonadequate research between school to school or school to student will not yield effective results for positive change
8.3.3. Between school differences: Curriculum and Pedagogy - school climates effect academic performance
8.3.4. Gender - limits because of gender effect schooling.