1. Politics of Education
1.1. Four Purposes of Education
1.1.1. Intellectual This purpose to make sure that the students know how to read, write, and do basic math.
1.1.2. Political This purpose is to basically teach the students common laws.
1.1.3. Social This purpose is to make sure that the students know how to communicate to another person correctly. Know what to say when and where appropriately.
1.1.4. Economic This purpose is to teach the children what the real world is like. Help prepare them for what is to come.
1.2. The Role of the School I think that I would have to go with the liberal perspective. The liberal perspective believes that all the students should have equal opportunity to succeed, and I also believe that.
1.3. Explanations of Unequal Performance Again, I will have to go with the liberal perspective. I think that all students come from different points in life. They all have the same chance to do well, but some have an advantage from the help of family members that are willing to help them get to where they need to be.
1.4. Definition of Educational Problems Liberal perspective won me over again. I can not agree more when they talked about the schools limiting the children that are poor and the minority children. I think that these students should still have the same opportunities that all the other students have. Yes, they may not have the same resources and things that the "rich" students have, but they can still achieve the same goal. You have some "poor" and "minority" students that are smarter than the "rich: kids.
2. History of the U.S. Education
2.1. The one reform movement that I think has had the most influence on education is the Education for Women and African-Americans. I chose this one because I am and a woman, and I am also African-American. Without this, I would not be in the place I am now. It allowed us, as women, to have a voice and opportunities.
2.2. One historical interpretation of the U.S. Education is The Democratic-Liberal School. This school allowed the students to have equal opportunities. They did not just cater to the wealthy families and leave the "poor" families wandering. All the students that went to school had the same academic goals to reach.
3. Educational Inequality
3.1. Cultural Deprivation
3.1.1. Intellectual Development: cultural deprivation theorists claim that students from working -class and under-class families do not provide books and other tools that will allow for the student to be successful upon beginning school. That is so a disadvantage.
3.1.2. Values- cultural deprivation theorists claim that working-class and underclass parents do not put a strong emphasis on education. This lack of the parents can lead to the students disadvantage for becoming successful
3.2. Educational Inequality
3.2.1. School Financing: It is explained that much of a school's finding comes from state and local taxed. Property taxes are based off if the value of property in local communities and this are a proportional tax. Property values are higher in more affluent communities, so the taxes are lower for the property value is lower and the school fund is also lower.
3.2.2. Curriculum and Pedagogic Practices- It is stated that a schools climate, or the way it is ran, affects the academic performance of it's students.
3.2.3. Gender and Schooling- Looking through history one can see that men and women see the world differently. Due to this, there is much debate on how the educational system should be.
4. Educational Reform
4.1. School-based Reforms
4.1.1. School-Business Partnerships Many business leaders show constant concern for the nation;s schools not producing graduates that were needed for the U.S. economy. This quickly kick-started school-business partnerships.
4.1.2. Teacher Quality: Teacher quality is important in education. While NCLB require schools to have high quality teachers, many times the high quality teachers in one field may be placed in a classroom where they are less qualified.
4.2. Reform
4.2.1. Community Reforms- Dryfoo's model of full service schools and Canada's Harlem Children's Zone are two examples of community-based reform in which an effort is made to educate the whole community, rather than just the child, to fight against education inequity.
5. Philosophy of Education
5.1. Existentialism Existentialism is rather a modern philosophy. Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers, Jean Pail, Sartre, and Maxine Greene were some of the key researchers for this specific view. Because existentialism is an individualistic philosophy, many of its adherents argue that it is not a particular school of philosophy at all. It is to focus on the need of each individual, and not as a whole. Teachers must also take risk and expose themselves to resistant students; and work constantly to enable their students to become more aware of what is going on. They view learning as intensely personal. They believe that each child has a different learning style and it is up to the teacher to discover what works for each child. Existentialists would choose curriculum heavily biased toward the humanities.
6. Sociology of Education
6.1. Relationship between school and society
6.1.1. Functionalism Functionalists view society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work. Functionalists tend to assume that consensus is the normal state in society and that conflict represents a breakdown of shared values.
6.1.2. Conflict Theory In this view, the glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power. The conflict theory offers important insights about the relation between school and society.
6.1.3. Interactionalism Interactional theories about the relation of school and society are primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives.
6.2. Effects of schooling on individuals
6.2.1. Knowledge and Attitude I think this is important because how a student feel inside the school will affect how they are in school. If they come to school everyday and have a good attitude, you, as the teacher, will get more out of them and they will be able to apply their prior knowledge to what is being taught and build on that to learn more.
6.2.2. Inside the Schools I think that what is inside of the schools also play a role in student's education. The . curriculum, is it being taught the right way? Are we, the teachers, making sure that the students understand it, or are we just teaching it and moving on because that is what we are suppose to do? Also, if you notice a student not doing well in school or just not doing what they are capable of, talk to them. Be a mentor, somebody that they can trust and talk to. They may not be getting attention at home, so the only other place that they can get it is at school.
6.2.3. Teacher Behavior This is a big one. If you have a negative attitude everyday to your students, do you think they will want to come to your class? No. That will also drive t he students to not listen to you, and lead to disrupting the class. Have a positive attitude everyday.
6.2.4. Student Peer Groups Who students hang out with can also affect the way they do in school. If they hang out with people that do not have any push at home to do homework and do not get any discipline, they will soon end up just like that.
6.2.5. Inadequate Schools Students can not help where they live. Maybe where they live is all that the family can afford. Like the lower income students going to a low income school. The students have no control over that. I think teachers should still give them the love ans support that they need to be able to succeed. Still teach them everything that they need to know.
7. Schools as Organizations
7.1. Major Stakeholders in my District
7.2. State Senators: Bill Hotlzclaw, Paul Sanford, Steve Livingston, Arthur Orr, and Clay Scofield
7.3. House of Representatives: Mike Ball, and McCutcheon
7.4. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance
7.5. Representative on State School Board: Stephanie Bell
7.6. Local Superintendent: Matt Massey
7.7. Local School Board: Dave Weis
7.8. Elements of Change within School Process and School Culture
7.8.1. Political compromises that result from social reality
7.8.2. Schools have authority structures that are vulnerable. Thus keeping the school in a state of equilibrium
8. Curriculum and Pedagogy
8.1. Developmentalist Curriculum Theory
8.1.1. Focuses heavily on the child, rather than society
8.1.2. Developmentalist curriculum centers around the student's needs and capabilities. How and what is taught is ultimately determined by the students. The child's developmental needs are carefully considered.
8.1.3. The emphasis is put in ensuring that the children can connect what they are learning in the classroom to the world around them.
8.2. Dominant Traditions in Teaching
8.2.1. Mimetic Tradition: The purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Best method to do this is through didactic method- commonly relies on the lecture or presentation as the primary for communication of knowledge to the students
8.2.2. Transformative Tradition: Purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way by either intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and/or emotionally. While this may require the use of the didactic method, it would be the primary goal to get active participation from the students.
9. Equality of Opportunity
9.1. Impact on Educational Outcomes
9.1.1. Class: School steadily gets more expensive as it gets higher and higher into education, but lower class students are at a disadvantage because it gets harder and harder to afford thing for the classes. With middle and upper class families being able to afford more books, students are able to practice their reading and language skills in their own households, whereas the children from lower class families can not.
9.1.2. Race: Studies have shown that African-American and Hispanic students are more likely to drop out of school.
9.1.3. Gender: It is said that men tend to do better in Mathematics and on the SATs than females.While the gap in female and male education is slowly gowing smaller, there are still arguments as to why and the reason the gap is growing smaller.
9.2. Coleman Study from 1982 Responses
9.2.1. The Coleman Study sparked much outrage and controversy over the application that should be made based on the findings. They found that there is no significant difference in the level of achievement between public ad Catholic schools, when there really is.
9.2.2. Geoffrey Borman and Martiza Dowling applied the findings to crate a correlation between class, race, and gender and academic achievement. Borman and Dowling determined that it is important that education focus on desegregation in schools in order for the student's success.