1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Pragmatism (or progressivism) encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends.
1.1.1. Key Researchers: John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey
1.1.2. Generic Notions: implemented through instrumentalism and experimentalism, the school is an "embryonic community", children learn skills from books and traditional information to integrate into a democratic society
1.1.3. Goal of Education: schools are responsible for not only academic education but social education. The goal is to integrate children into a democratic society
1.1.4. Role of the Teacher: the teacher facilitates learning rather than acting as an authoritarian
1.1.5. Method of Instruction: problem-solving or inquiry method
1.1.6. Curriculum: progressive teachers are not wedded to a fixed curriculum. The curriculum changes with social order changes, children's interests, and needs.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Four Elements of Change
2.1.1. 1) Conflict: In order for schools to bring about the best in change, old and new issues must be drug to the surface and dealt with accordingly. It is the duty of the school staff to seek out, deal with, and resolve issues.
2.1.2. 2) Behavior: Change causes the development of new types of relationships and new behavior to go along. Change cannot be effective without communication, trust, collaboration, and leadership.
2.1.3. 3) Team Building: To decrease resistance to change and help the larger population rather than a select few, there must be a sense of community and teamwork when implementing change.
2.1.4. 4) Process and Content: How change comes about is just as important as what the change is.
2.2. Major Stakeholders:
2.2.1. House of Representatives: Mo Brooks
2.2.2. Senate: Ricahrd C. Shelby and Jeff Sessions
2.2.3. Governor: Robert Bentley
2.2.4. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance
2.2.5. State School Board Representative: Ella Bell
2.2.6. Local Superintendent (Hartselle, AL): Vic Wilson
2.2.7. Local School Board: Randy Sparkman, Venita Jones, James Joy, Jennifer Sittason
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Dominant Traditions of Teaching:
3.1.1. Mimetic:
3.1.2. Transformative: Education's purpose is to somehow transform the student.
3.2. The developmentalist curriculum relies on the interests and needs of the children rather than the current needs or interests of society. Based off of writings by Dewey and Piaget, this is a student-centered teaching approach.
4. Equality and Opportunity
4.1. Class: Those of a wealthier class are better catered to in early childhood in preparation for good education. They are also given more feasible opportunities to learn and further their education as they age. However, lower income families often do not have the resources, whether financial, location, or merely time, to prepare a young learner or further education.
4.2. Race: The years of segregation are not far behind us. Sadly, teachers and organizations still often show racial preference. Especially in the south, racial barriers run rampant. After having fought for the right to equal education, many people of color are still not provided equal opportunity, partially due to the effects of class barriers.
4.3. Gender: Throughout history, women have also had to fight for the right to education. It has often been assumed that men are/were more capable in higher education. However, tables have turned in some situations where women and girls are expected to perform better in the classroom than their counterparts. Teachers often show preference among gender.
4.4. Coleman Study of 1982
4.4.1. Private schools often perform better than public schools, especially in the case of low income students.
4.4.2. Students attend schools mostly similar to their own socioeconomic background and race, but the overall racial and socioeconomic background of the school determines the academic performance of the students more so than an individual's background.
5. Educational Reform
5.1. School-Based Reforms:
5.1.1. Vouchers (School-Based): Implemented in the 1990s and again in 2002, many states began offering vouchers to schools. This gave recipients of the vouchers opportunity to attend a school outside of their district should there be enough room for students.
5.1.2. Privatization: In an effort to raise the quality of education, some schools are privatized. This can allow administration to change the way the school is set up and change the focus of students. There are mixed results in privatization.
5.2. Economic, Community, Societal, and Political Reforms:
5.2.1. Community (Full Service) Schools: Especially in areas of high need and low income, there is a push to teach the whole child and the whole community. Services of such a program include after-school care, mental and physical health services, job training, tutoring services, adult education, and drug and alcohol programs.
5.2.2. Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE): in New York in 1993, there was a push for more adequate funding in the schools. Through a 16 year process of appeals, the NYC public schools system received more funding from the state.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. 4 Purposes of Schooling:
6.1.1. Intellectual: To instill basic cognitive skills and encourage higher thinking skills like synthesis, analysis, and evaluation.
6.1.2. Political: To prepare students to participate in political order, encourage political alliance, and encourage conformity to cultural and political norms.
6.1.3. Social: To encourage social unity and uniformity and to help resolve social issues.
6.1.4. Economic: To train and prepare students for the workforce.
6.2. Unequal educational performance has been unavoidable due to the varying backgrounds of numerous students and the predispositions of their skills and motivation.
6.3. The role of the school is to provide necessary educational aids and training while also providing necessary work training and socialization skills.
6.4. Educational problems will never cease to occur as society changes and new changes are implemented within educational systems. Problems include the decline of standards, cultural literacy, values of civilization, and authority to name a few.
7. History of US Education
7.1. One of the most important reforms of education occurred following the decision in Brown vs Topeka Board of Education in 1954. this declared the act of states enforcing segregation in schools unconstitutional and marked the beginning of equality as a goal of schools everywhere.
7.2. Historically, the conservative interpreters of education have argues that the lofty aims for socialization and equalling the playing field have actually diluted the curriculum, causing students to not have the well rounded education exemplified by many other countries.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Functionalism is concerned with the ways that societal and institutional forces create a collective conscience based on shared values.
8.2. Conflict theory does not see the relationship between school and society as unproblematic or straightforward. Society is held together by economic, political, cultural, and military power.
8.3. Interactionalism changes the view of commonplace and contemplates the everyday interactions between teacher and student.
8.4. 5 Effects of Schooling on Individuals:
8.4.1. Employment: Attendance and excellence in school often leads to better job opportunities in the future.
8.4.2. Teacher Behavior: Many times, it is obvious the way a teacher feels about her students and her job. If a teacher shows lack of caring, so will the students.
8.4.3. Student Peer Groups and Alienation: There is conflict within the student of wanting to fit in. This can lead to less focus on school as some individuals work to be part of the cool crowd or violent outbursts or emotional damage of those feeling alienated.
8.4.4. Gender: Throughout schooling, girls begin to show signs of nonliving up to their potential and begin losing confidence. They also show lower aspirations than their male counterparts.
8.4.5. Inadequate Schools: Often times, education in the urban setting is not the same quality of that in rural or either of their counterparts. Children in less wealthy school systems suffer from inadequate facilities and supplements to their education.
9. Educational Inequality
9.1. Cultural Deprivation theory:
9.1.1. Type 1: Due to the lack of access to quality early childhood education, learning stimuli, and books in the years leading up to traditional schooling, children coming work working-class and nonwhite families living in poverty.
9.1.2. Type 2: Middle class families often believe schooling and hard work are means to success and believe in delayed gratification. However, lower class families, often working-class and/or nonwhite, strive for instant gratification and do not view hard work and schooling as a means to achieve success.
9.2. School Centered Explanations:
9.2.1. Financing: Schools in poor areas often have extremely low financing, and no means by which to provide for students' excess needs where as high income ares often have high financing and have an excess with which to provide for students' fewer needs.
9.2.2. Effective Research: If school employees, administrators, and educators do not look at new theories and practices as they are working on other schools and as they may be implemented in their own, the schools can never grow and evolve.
9.2.3. Climate: Schools must create a safe and nurturing yet challenging environment where students are encouraged to takes risks and learn. Students who are hungry or scared cannot effectively perform academically.
9.2.4. Ability Grouping or Tracking: Students may be encouraged to work with peers who are closest to their skill level. On the small scale, such as during classroom activities, this can be effective. However, on large scale, this is considered tracking. Tracking traps students into one path and decimated academic and later social and economic mobility.