1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Pragmatism- Comes from the Greek word pragma meaning work. "Pragmatism is a philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends."
1.1.1. Dewey's Pragmatism:Generic Notions
1.1.1.1. "Dewey's ideas were influenced by the theory of evolution and by an eighteenth century optimistic belief of progress" "He rested in the notion that children were active, organic beings, growing and changing, and thus required a course of study that would reflect their particular stages of development."
1.1.2. Goal of Education
1.1.2.1. Dewey's goal of schools and education was rooted in the social order. He stressed the importance of giving the students a school to implement, challenge and restructure so they could learn how to improve the social order.
1.1.3. Key Reasearchers
1.1.3.1. John Dewey, George Sanders Peirce, William James, Frances Bacon, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1.1.4. Role of Teacher
1.1.4.1. The Teacher is no longer the main source of knowledge. Instead he/she provides the course of study.
1.1.5. Method of Instruction
1.1.5.1. "Dewey believed that the children should start their mode of inquiry by posing questions about what they want to know." He suggested students leaning both individually and in groups. Formal instruction was abandoned and books, field trips, and projects were implemented. They even got new desks and furniture to make it possible to in class learning groups.
1.1.6. Curriculum
1.1.6.1. Core Curriculum or intrgrated Curriculum- Students use math, science history, reading, writing, music, and art to solve problems about a specific subject matter.
2. Equality of Opportunity
2.1. Impact on Educational Outcomes
2.1.1. Class
2.1.1.1. Education is extremely expensive! The longer a student stays in school, the more likely he/she needs financial support. Obviously this favors the wealthier families, and because lower class families are unable to afford it, they have lower expectations for their children.
2.1.1.2. Studies show that teachers tend to favor children that are able to speak "standard" English, and lower class students are often unable to do so.
2.1.1.3. Studies show that class is related to achievement on reading and basic skills tests.
2.1.2. Race
2.1.2.1. 5.2% of white students drop out of school, 9.3% of African-American students drop out, 17.6% of Hispanic-American students drop out of school.
2.1.2.2. Minorities have, on average, lower SAT scores which has a direct impact on being admitted to college, and being awarded scholarships.
2.1.3. Gender
2.1.3.1. In the last 20 years, gender differences have decreased, but there are still significant advantages for men when competing for the most prestigious academic prizes.
2.2. Responses to the Coleman Study of 1982
2.2.1. #1 Alexander and Pallas argue that the catholic schools are not educationally superior, but have trivial advantages, especially for the low income.
2.2.2. #2 Borman and Dowling argue that differences in schools do matter and educational reform must focus on eliminating the high-level of segregation.
3. Politics of Education
3.1. Four purposes of education
3.1.1. Intellectual- to teach basic cognitive skill such as reading, writing, and mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge.
3.1.2. Political- to teach inculcate allegiance to the existing political order; to prepare all citizens who will participate in this political order.
3.1.3. Social- to help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions, such as the family and the churchto ensure social cohesion.
3.1.4. Economical- to prepare students for their later occupational goals and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
3.2. Explanation of Unequal Educational Performance
3.2.1. Liberal Perspective- The belief that students start school with different advantages due to life chances (or the lack thereof). Therefore, society, individual schools, and teachers are required to try to give every student equality through materials, programs, and policies.
3.2.2. Radical Perspective- Like Liberals, Radicals also believe that students start school with different advantages/disadvantages, but it is due to economical issues, not educational issues. Furthermore, they believe that the only way to fix this is to make changes in the political-economical structure.
4. Schools as Organizations
4.1. Stakeholders in my District-Cullman County
4.1.1. State Senator-Paul Bussman
4.1.2. House of Representatives-Ed Henry, Corey Harbison, Randall Shed
4.1.3. State Superintendent- Shane Barnette
4.1.4. Local School Board-Wendy Crider,Jason Speegle, Kenny Brockman, James Thompson, Gene Sullins, Mike Graves, Chris Carter
4.2. Elements of change
4.2.1. Conflict-To have successful change, schools allow or require previously hidden problems, issues, and disagreements to surface so they can be resolved.
4.2.2. Learning New Behaviors-The change process must include building communication and trust, enabling leadership and initiative to emerge, and learning techniques of collaboration, communication, and conflict resolution.
4.2.3. Team Building-Becoming a team is crucial because otherwise, issues of exclusiveness and imagined elitism may surface.
4.2.4. Interrelated Process and Content-The content depends on the degree of trust and commitment from the team, and the process will influence future commitments from the staff and others involved. Both or very important!
5. Curriculum & Pedagogy
5.1. Curriculum Theory
5.1.1. Social Efficiency Curriculum-"This theory was rooted in the belief that different sets of students, with different sets of needs and aspirations, should receive different types of schooling." This theory emerged from John Dewey's progressivism which I love!
5.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
5.2.1. The Memetic Tradition- Based on the view point that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students through the didactic method. the didactic relies on lecture or presentation as the main form of communication.
5.2.2. Transformative Tradition-Proponents of this tradition believe that the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
6. History of U.S Education
6.1. Education for All: The Emergence of the Public High School
6.1.1. Important quotes from Exploring Education: "Prior to 1875, fewer than 25000 students were enrolled in public high schools." "Yet, between 1880 and 1920, 2,382,542 students attended public high schools, and by 1940, about 6.5 million students attended high school."
6.1.2. The reason this reform made such an impact on high schools and the reason I think it has had one of the biggest impacts on education, is because it made it mandatory for anyone under sixteen to attend school. The reason I think that was so beneficial is because now students could not quit elementary school to stay home and work (like my grandparents were made to do), and students that were not dedicated or determined still had to go and received some education.
6.2. The Democratic-Liberal School
6.2.1. "Democratic-liberals believe that the history of the U.S. education involves the progressive evolution of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all." Democratic-liberals are optimistic about education and what it can be. They strive for excellence and equality for all. Although they realize how far U>S> education has came, they are not satisfied and want it to continue getting better.
7. Sociological Perspectives
7.1. Theoretical perspectives
7.1.1. Functional Theories
7.1.1.1. Functionalist are researchers who view society as a machine, where certain parts work together to make the necessary energy for the society to work.
7.1.2. Conflict Theories
7.1.2.1. Conflict sociologists emphasize struggle, problems,and battles with the school and society; shown through students against teachers, teachers against administrators, and so on.
7.1.3. Interactional Theories
7.1.3.1. Interactional sociologist focus on day-to-day activities, interactions, and processes on a mild or general level.
7.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
7.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes
7.2.1.1. Research that questions how much differences of schools (consistent discipline, academic subjects, summer school, the use of the library, technology, etc.) effects the students on an academic level.
7.2.2. Employment
7.2.2.1. Research that shows that student want to get a higher level of education so they can get a better job that pays more. However, it is proven that schools do not provide significant job skills for their students. People develop job skills by working not by going to school.
7.2.3. Education and Mobility
7.2.3.1. This research shows that most Americans think that more education leads to economic and social mobility. It also emphasizes the difference between educational amount and educational route. (How long a student is in school vs. where the education was obtained.)
7.2.4. Student Peer Groups and Alienation
7.2.4.1. This research explains how students at both the high school and college levels are faced with labels such as nerds, jocks, or unconnected placed on them by their peers, and even teachers. How students are perceived by others can sometimes lead to alienation and/or violence.
7.2.5. Inadequate Schools
7.2.5.1. Like some of the other researches mentioned before, inadequate schools may be the most obvious way schools reproduce inequalities. Students that attend private schools recieve a better educational experience and have a higher social value of their diploma than students who attend
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
8.1.1. 1.)Working class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books, and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school with a significant disadvantage.
8.1.2. 2.) Compensatory education programs such as Project Head Start were developed in order to provide the necessary foundation for learning. These programs involve the parents in their children's schooling and to help them develop parenting and literacy skills.
8.2. School-centered explanations for educational inequalities
8.2.1. 1.) School Financing- The majority of funding for public schools comes from state and local taxes, with local property taxes a significant source. Property taxes depends on the value of the property; Therefore, the more affluent communities are able to raise more money for their schools.
8.2.2. 2.) Gender and Schooling-Research shows that the gender gap in achievement has diminished greatly, if not disappeared. In fact, females have began to outperform males in almost all academic areas, and policy maker have begun to analyze the "boy problem".
8.2.3. 3.) Effective School Research- Because there are so many factors to figure when researching academic success such as teacher effectiveness, school-school differences, teacher-student relationships, etc. it is difficult to produce accurate results, and find and eliminate the exact problem.
8.2.4. 4.) Between-School Differences- Bernstein suggests that schools in working-class neighborhoods are far more likely to have authoritarian and teacher-directed pedagogic practices, and to have vocationally or socially efficiency curriculum at the secondary level. Schools in the middle class communities are more likely to have less authoritarian and more student-centered pedagogic practices and to have humanistic liberal arts college preparatory curriculum at the secondary level. Upper-class students are more likely to attend elite private schools, with authoritarian pedagogic practices and a classical-humanistic college preparatory curriculum at the secondary level.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School Based Reforms
9.1.1. 1.) Privatization- For-profit Educational Management Organizations (EMO) have took over failing traditional district schools under privatization.
9.1.2. 2.) Teacher Quality-School improvement reformers have stressed the existence of teacher tenure and seniority-based transfers and layoff provisions in union contracts as a primary factor in preventing an improvement of teacher quality.
9.2. Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms
9.2.1. School Finance Reforms-In addition to school-based programs, such as early childhood programs, summer programs and after-school programs, this also calls for economic programs to reduce income inequality and to create stable and affordable housing, and the expansion of school community clinics to provide health care and counseling.
9.2.2. Full Service and Community Schools-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 needs.