1. Politics of Education
1.1. The Purposes of Education:
1.2. intellectual purposes- to teach basic cognitive skills, transmit specific knowledge, and help students acquire higher-order thinking skills
1.3. economic purposes- to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
1.4. political purposes- to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order; to prepare who will participate in this political order; to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order; and to teach children the basic laws of the society.
1.5. social purposes- to help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions; to socialize children into the various roles, behaviors, and values of the society.
1.6. The Role of School:
1.7. Liberal Perspective- stresses the school's role in providing necessary education to ensure that everyone gets an equal opportunity to succeed in society; stresses the school's role in teaching respect for diversity; school's role is to enable the students to develop his/her talents, creativity, and sense of self.
1.8. Explanation for Unequal Educational Performance:
1.9. liberal perspective- individual students or groups of students begin schooling with different life chances and therefore some have significantly more advantages than others.
1.10. Definition of Educational Problems:
1.11. conservative perspective- a decline of standards in the 1960s and 1970s; a decline of cultural literacy because of a watering down of the traditional curriculum; a decline of values or of civilizations because of loss of teaching moral standards and values; a decline of authority from the loss of traditional disciplinary function; schools are stifled by bureaucracy and inefficiency.
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. Educational Reaction, Reform, and The Standards Era: 1980s-2012
2.1.1. The movement started after President Reagan's Secretary of Education, Terrel Bell, issued the now famous report, "A Nation At Risk". In the report, it showed serious concerns for the U.S. Education System because of declining SAT scores, low scores on international comparisons of knowledge, and a high rate of adult illiteracy. To solve this problem, many Governors headed the role of setting a reform agenda for education. However, educators had a tough time having any say in these reforms. Reforms like President Clinton's Goals 2000, President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind, and President Obama's Rise to the Top have had the most visibility of these reforms, but no one is sure of the exact outcome of these reform movements. These could be the most important reforms because it has and will shape the past and future of the U.S. Educational System.
2.1.1.1. Historical Interpretations of U.S. Education
2.1.1.1.1. The Democratic-Liberal School- Believers in this interpretation of education see a progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all. Historians of this view suggest that each period of educational expansion involved the attempts by liberals to expand educational opportunities to larger segments of the population. Popular Historians that represent this view are Ellwood Cubberly, Merle Curti, and Lawrence A. Cremin.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. The Theoretical Perspective
3.1.1. Functionalism- a view of society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy to make society work. Emile Durkheim invented the view point of functionalism relating to society and education. He believed that education, in virtually all societies, was of critical importance in creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmony. Today, functionalists assume that consensus=normal and conflict=breakdown of shared values. Reform is supposed to create structures, programs, and curricula that are advanced, rational, and encourage social unity.
3.1.1.1. Conflict Theory- a view of society where the social order is not based on some collective argument, but on the ability of dominant groups to impose their will on subordinate groups through force, cooptation, and manipulation; the glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power. Conflict sociologists emphasize struggle. Schools are similar to social battlefields, where students struggle against teachers, teachers against administrators, and so on. Karl Marx is the founder of this theory of school.
3.1.1.1.1. Interactionalism- is primarily a critique and extensions of functionalism and conflict theory. The critique comes from the observation that functional and conflict theories are very abstract, and emphasize structure and process at a very general level of analysis.
3.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes- research indicates that differences between schools in terms of their academic programs and policies do make differences in student learning. Ron Edmonds is the pioneer of the effective schools movement. He proved that academically oriented schools do produce higher rates of learning. Education is also related to individuals' sense of well-being and self-esteem. So even taking into account the importance of individual social class background when evaluating the impact of education, more years of schooling leads to greater knowledge and social participation.
3.2.2. Employment- most research has shown that the amount of education is only weakly related to job performance. it is clear that schools act as gate-keepers in determining who is employed by high-status occupations but schools do not provide significant job skills for their graduates. A higher education gets you more money starting out in your job, but does not provide the skills for the job you may obtain.
3.2.3. Education and Mobility- the belief that occupational and social mobility to start in schools is a crucial part of the American ethos. Some people do not believe in this civil religion, but most Americans believe that more education leads to economic and social mobility. This means individuals rise and fall on their merit. This is called contest mobility.
3.2.4. Teacher Behavior- Teachers must wear many different occupational hats: instructor, disciplinarian, bureaucrat, employer, friend, confidant, educator, and so on. So a role strain can be place on teachers where, the teacher does not feel comfortable in any role because of the strain from all the roles. Teachers' expectations of students were found to directly influence student achievement. The labels teachers apply to children can influence actual performance.
3.2.5. Inadequate Schools- students who attend suburban schools and private schools get a better educational experience. Students who attend the most elite private schools obtain substantial educational benefits, both in terms of their actual educational experience and the social value of their diploma.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Pragmatism- Created by George Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey
4.2. Pragmatism encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends
4.2.1. Generic Notions- Dewey's ideas on education were progressive. He proposed that educators start with the needs and interests of the child in the classroom, allow the child to participate in planning his or her course of study, employ project method or group learning, and depend heavily on experiential learning. This progressive look rested on 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.
4.2.2. Goal of Education- Dewey believed that growth was the primary role/goal of education. He wanted their to be constant social progress and improvement.
4.2.3. Role of the Teacher- the teacher is the facilitator. They encourage, offer suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses of study. They also write curriculum and must have a command of several disciplines in order to create and implement curriculum.
4.2.4. Method of Instruction- Dewey believed students should learn individually and in groups. He believed children should start their mode of inquiry by posing questions about what they want to know.
4.2.5. Curriculum- Dewey believed in a core or integrated curriculum. This means curriculum changes as the social order changes and as children's interest and needs change