My Foundations Of Education

1. Sociological Perspectives

1.1. Theoretical Perspectives

1.1.1. Functionalism

1.1.1.1. Interdependence of the social system; often examining how well the parts are integrated with each other

1.1.1.2. Views society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce they dynamic energy required to make society work.

1.1.1.3. Tend to assume that consensus is the normal state in society  and that conflict represents a breakdown of shared values

1.1.1.4. Educational reform is supposed to create structures, programs, and curricula that are technically advanced, rational, and encourage social unity.

1.1.1.5. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

1.1.1.5.1. Virtually invented the sociology of education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

1.1.1.5.2. Major works include:  Moral Education (1962), The Evolution of Educational Thought (1977), and Education and Sociology (1956).

1.1.1.5.3. Durkheim recognized that education had taken different forms at different times and places, and he believed that education, in virtually all societies, was of critical importance in creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmoney.

1.1.1.5.4. Moral values were the foundation of society

1.1.2. Conflict Theory

1.1.2.1. The social order is not based on some collective agreement, but on the ability of dominant groups to impose their will on subordinate groups through force and manipulation

1.1.2.2. In this view, the glue of society is economic, political, cultural, and military power.

1.1.2.3. Conflict sociologists do not see the relation between school and society as unproblematic or straightforward.

1.1.2.4. Emphasis on struggle - Schools are similar to social battlefields,, where students struggle against teacher, teachers against administration, and so on.

1.1.2.5. The achievement ideology disguises the real power relations within the school, which in turn, reflect and correspond to the power relations within the larger society.

1.1.2.6. Karl Marx (1818-1883)

1.1.2.6.1. Intellectual founder of the conflict school in the sociology of education

1.1.2.6.2. His analytic imagination and moral outrage were sparked by the social conditions found in Europe in the mid-19th century.

1.1.2.6.3. Believed that the class system, which separated owners from workers and workers from the benefits of their own labor, made class struggle inevitable.

1.1.3. Interactionalism

1.1.3.1. Primarily a critique and extension of the functional and conflict perspectives

1.1.3.2. The critique arises from the observation that functional and conflict theories are very abstract, and emphasize structure and process at a very general (macro-sociological) level of analysis.

1.1.3.3. Attempt to make the commonplace strange by turning on their heads everyday taken-for-granted behaviors and interactions between students and students, and between students and teachers.

1.1.3.4. Basil Bernstein (1990)

1.1.3.4.1. Argued that the structural aspects of the educational system and the interactional aspects of the system reflect each other and must be viewed wholistically

1.1.3.4.2. Examined how speech patterns reflect students' social class backgrounds and how students from working-class backgrounds are at a disadvantage in the school setting because schools are essentially middle-class organizations.

1.1.3.4.3. Combined a class analysis with an interactional analysis, which links language with educational processes and outcomes.

1.2. 5 Effects of schooling on individuals that have had the greatest impact on students

1.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes

1.2.1.1. More highly educated people are also more likely to take part in politics and public affairs

1.2.1.2. Education is related to individuals' sense of well-being and self-esteem

1.2.1.3. More years of schooling leads to greater knowledge and social participation

1.2.2. Employment

1.2.2.1. Graduating from college will lead to greater employment opportunities

1.2.2.2. Research has shown that large organizations, such as corporations, require high levels of education for white-collar, managerial, or administrative jobs.

1.2.2.3. Schools act as gatekeepers in determining who will get employed in high-status occupations, but schools do not provide significant job skills for their graduates - People learns how to do their jobs by DOING them.

1.2.3. Curriculum

1.2.3.1. Curriculum expresses culture

1.2.3.2. Cultural transmission and the selective channelling of opportunity

1.2.4. Teacher behavior

1.2.4.1. Jackson (1968) found that teachers have as many as 1,000 interpersonal contacts each day with children in their classrooms.

1.2.4.2. Teachers are models for students and, as instructional leaders, teachers set standards for students and influence student self-esteem and sense of efficacy.

1.2.4.3. In a study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968), teachers' expectations of students were found to directly influence student achievement

1.2.4.4. Self-fulfilling prophecy - indicates that teachers' expectations play a major role in encouraging or discouraging students to work to their full potential.

1.2.4.5. Persell (1977) found that when teachers demanded more from their students and praised them more, students learned more and felt better about themselves

1.2.5. Inequality

1.2.5.1. Inadequate schools - students who attend suburban schools and private schools get a better educational experience than other children.

1.2.5.2. De Facto Segregation -  most of the evidence indicates that racially mixed schools benefit minorities and do not suppress white achievement.

1.2.5.3. Gender discrimination

2. Educational Reform

2.1. Describe Two School-Based Reforms

2.1.1. The educational reforms from the 1980's to today consisted of two waves of reform

2.1.1.1. First wave: Marked by the reports of the early and mid-1980's, and the educational initiatives directly responding to them, were concerned primarily with the issues of accountability and achievement. Responding to the call for increased academic achievement, many states increased graduation requirements, toughened curriculum mandates, and increased the use of standardized test scores to measure student achievement.

2.1.1.2. Second wave: Was targeted at the structure and processes of the schools themselves, placing far more control in the hands of local schools, teachers, and communities. This type of reform was more decentralized to the local and school levels.

2.1.2. What these two waves had in common: What the Governors Conference emphasized as the "triple theme of achievement, assessment, and accountability."

2.2. Describe Community & Political Reforms

2.2.1. Political Reform - State take-overs are credited with the following:

2.2.1.1. Reducing nepotism within a school district's decision-making process

2.2.1.2. Improving a school district's administrative and fiscal management practices.

2.2.1.3. Removing the threat of teachers' strikes within a school district.

2.2.1.4. Upgrading the physical condition of schools.

2.2.1.5. Implementing innovative programs within a school district, such as small schools programs and cooperative arrangements between schools and social service agencies.

2.2.2. Community Reforms - Another way to attack education inequality is to examine and plan to educate not only the whole child, but also the whole community

2.2.2.1. Three models of community-based reforms: Dryfoos's model of full service schools, Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, and Newark's Broader Bolder Approach

2.2.2.2. 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 services.

2.2.2.3. Schools service as community centers within neighborhoods that are open extended hours to provide a multitude of services such as adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after-school programs, mental health services, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services.

2.2.2.4. Specifically designed to target and improve at-risk neighborhoods, full-service schools aim to prevent problems, as well as to support them.

3. History of Education

3.1. Most influential Educational Reform

3.1.1. Horace Mann of Massachusetts led a reform for free public education.  Massachusetts legislature created one in 1837, and Horace Mann became its first secretary for the preceding 11 years.

3.1.2. Mann's arguments for the establishment of the common school reflects both the concern for stability and order and the concern for social mobility - both of which were to be addressed through free public education

3.1.3. Mann spoke of school as a preparation for citizenship as well as the "balance wheel" - "the great equalizer of the conditions of men."

3.2. Historical Interpretation of U.S. Education

3.2.1. Conservative Perspective - Due to progressive/liberal movements in education, academic quality and traditional goals of education have suffered.

3.2.1.1. Diane Ravitch (1977) - Supported the democratic-liberal goal of equality of opportunity and mobility through education, and also believed that the historical pursuit of social and political objectives resulted in significant harm to the traditional academic goals of schooling

3.2.1.1.1. The Troubled Crusade (1983)

4. Philosophy of Education

4.1. Pragmatism - an American philosophy that developed in the latter part of the 19th century

4.1.1. Generic notions

4.1.1.1. Greek word, pragma, meaning work

4.1.1.2. A philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends.

4.1.1.3. More interested in contemporary issues and in discovering solutions to problems in present-day terms.

4.1.1.4. Action-orients; Experimentally grounded

4.1.1.5. Important emphasis on environment and experience

4.1.2. Key researchers

4.1.2.1. George Sanders Pierce

4.1.2.2. William James

4.1.2.3. Charles Darwin

4.1.2.4. John Dewey

4.1.2.4.1. Instrumentalism and Experimentalism

4.1.2.4.2. Influenced by the theory of evolution and by an 18th century optimistic belief in progress.

4.1.2.4.3. For Dewey, this meant the attainment of a better society through education

4.1.2.4.4. 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 experimental learning.

4.1.2.4.5. Children are active, organic beings, growing and changing, and thus required a course of study that would reflect their particular stages of development.

4.1.2.4.6. The school should reflect the community in order to enable graduating students to assume societal roles and to maintain the democratic way of life.

4.1.3. Goal of education

4.1.3.1. The school as a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructured, with the goal of providing students with the knowledge of how to improve the social order

4.1.3.2. Provide "conjoint, communicated experience" and function as preparation for life in a democratic society

4.1.3.3. Attempt to balance the social role of the school with its effects on the social, intellectual, and personal development of individuals.

4.1.3.4. Balance the needs of society and community on one hand and the needs of the individual on the other.

4.1.3.5. Schools had to play a key role in creating a modern form of cohesion by socializing diverse groups into a cohesive democratic community.

4.1.3.6. Integrate children into not just any type of society, but a democratic one,

4.1.3.7. The school is an embryonic democratic society where cooperation and community are desired ends.

4.1.3.8. Dewey believed that if schools instilled democratic and cooperative values in children, they would be prepared as adults to transform the social order into a more democratic one.

4.1.4. Role of teacher

4.1.4.1. Facilitator - encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses of study

4.1.4.2. Writes the curriculum and has a command of several disciplines in order to create and implement that curriculum.

4.1.5. Method of instruction

4.1.5.1. Children learn both individually and in groups

4.1.5.2. Problem-solving or inquiry method - asking questions about what they want to know

4.1.5.3. Table and chairs that could be grouped as needed

4.1.5.4. Children can converse quietly with one another, stand up and stretch if needed, or pursue independent study or group work.

4.1.5.5. Individualized study, problem solving, and the project method

4.1.6. Curriculum

4.1.6.1. Integrated curriculum - a particular subject matter under investigation by students would yield problems to be solved using math, science, history, reading, writing, music, art, wood or metal working, cooking, sewing - all the academic and vocational disciplines in an integrated, interconnected way.

4.1.6.2. Start with contemporary problems and work from the known to the unknown.

4.1.6.3. "The curriculum of expanding environments"

4.1.6.4. Curriculum changes as the social order changes and the children's interests and needs change.

4.2. Problem -> Speculative thought -> Action -> Result

5. Curriculum and Pedagogy

5.1. Developmentalist Curriculum

5.1.1. Related to the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society

5.1.2. Curriculum emanated from the aspects of Dewey's writings related to the relationship between the child and the curriculum,

5.1.3. Developmental psychologist, Piaget, emphasized the process of teaching as well as its content.

5.1.4. Student-centered teaching and concerned with relating the curriculum to the needs and interests of each child at particular developmental stages.

5.1.5. Stressed flexibility in both what was taught and how it was taught, with the emphasis on the development of each student's individual capacities.

5.1.6. Stressed the importance of relating schooling to the life experiences of each child in a way that would make education come alive in a meaningful manner.

5.1.7. The teacher is a facilitator of student growth

5.2. Two dominant traditions of teaching

5.2.1. Mimetic - coincides with the traditional (conservative) model

5.2.1.1. Based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students.

5.2.1.2. Didactic method - commonly relies on the lecture or presentation as the main form of communication.

5.2.1.3. At the heart of this tradition is the assumption that the educational process involves the relationship between the knower (the teacher) and the learner (the student), and that education is a process of transferring information from one to the other.

5.2.1.4. This model stresses the importance of rational sequencing in the teaching process and assessment of the learning process (i.e., a clear statement of learning goals and a clear means to assess whether students have acquired them).

5.2.2. Transformative - coincides with the progressive model

5.2.2.1. 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.

5.2.2.2. Transformative educators do not see the transmission of knowledge as the only component of education and thus they provide a more multi-dimensional theory of teaching.

5.2.2.3. Transformative educators reject the authoritarian relationship between teacher and student and argue instead that teaching and learning are inextricably linked.

5.2.2.4. The process of teaching involves not just the didactic transfer of information but the conversation between teacher and student in such a way that the student becomes an integral part of the learning process.

5.2.2.5. Although the lecture may be used in this tradition, the dialectical method, which involves the use of questioning, is at the core of its methodology.

5.2.2.6. Transformative educators believe that all teaching begins with the active participation of the student and results in some form of growth.

5.2.2.7. Tends to reject the scientific model of teaching and instead views teaching as an artistic endeavor.

5.2.2.8. Belief that the purpose of education is to change human consciousness and in doing so begin to change society - these perspectives view teaching as a political activity; its goal is to transform students' minds as the first step in radical social transformation.

6. Equality of Opportunity

6.1. How class, race, and gender impacts educational outcomes

6.1.1. Class

6.1.1.1. Education is expensive, so lower-class/under-class citizens have a harder time paying for education

6.1.1.2. Wealthier families are more able to put children in college

6.1.1.3. Higher expectations from parents of the wealthier class to finish school.

6.1.1.4. Working-class and under-class children do not speak middle-class English

6.1.1.5. Direct correlation between parental income and children's performance on achievement tests, as well as placement in ability groups and curriculum track in high school.

6.1.1.6. Higher the class, higher the chances of enrolling in college and receiving a degree.

6.1.1.7. More elite colleges tend to only enroll upper/upper middle-class students.

6.1.2. Race

6.1.2.1. Difficult to separate race from class

6.1.2.2. Minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities than white students

6.1.2.3. Drop-out rate:  5.2% (White), 9.3% (African American), and 17.6% (Hispanic American)

6.1.2.4. Minorities, on average, score lower SAT scores

6.1.3. Gender

6.1.3.1. Historically, gender is directly related to educational attainment

6.1.3.2. Even though women are often rated as being better students than men, in the past, women are less likely to attain the same level of education.

6.1.3.3. Today, females are less likely to drop-out and have a higher level of reading proficiency and writing ability than males.

6.1.3.4. The behavior of classroom teachers give the impression that women are not as good at mathematics than men.

6.1.3.5. Males are more likely to score higher on SATs than females.

6.1.3.6. Many post-secondary institutions that women attend are less academically and socially prestigious than those post-secondary institutions attended by men.

6.1.3.7. Gender difference on educational attainment has been reduced in the last 20 years.

6.1.3.8. Liberals - believe that the increases demonstrate the success of educational reforms aimed at improving achievement.

6.1.3.9. Conservatives - believe that the decline in male achievement and attainment is a result of the "feminizing" of this classroom

6.2. What were the 2 responses to the Coleman Study from 1982?  The Coleman Study argued that there WERE differences between private schools and public.  The study found that private schools were more effective with higher achievements from the students.

6.2.1. First Response - Jencks (1985)

6.2.1.1. Jencks (1985) used Coleman's findings to compute the estimated yearly average achievement gain by public and Catholic school students.  He estimated that the annual increment attributable to Catholic schools was tiny.  Jencks found that the differences that do exist between public and Catholic schools are statistically significant, but in terms of significant differences in learning, the results are negligible.

6.2.2. Second Response - Geoffrey Borman and Maritza Dowling (2010)

6.2.2.1. Geoffrey Borman and Maritza Dowling used the most sophisticated tools to evaluate educational data, and were able to partially confirm both Coleman's original data from 1966 and his 1982 study.  Borman and Dowling found that students who attend a high-poverty school or a highly segregated African American school has a profound effect on a student's achievement outcomes, above and beyond the effect of individual poverty or minority status.  They also found that both the racial/ethnic and social class composition of a student's school are 1 3/4 times more important than a student's individual race/ethnicity or social class for understanding educational outcomes.  It was concluded that where an individual goes to school is often related to her race and socioeconomic background, but the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a greater effect on student achievement than an individual's race and class.  Borman and Dowling argued that race and class are predictors of academic success.

7. Educational Inequality

7.1. Two Types of "Cultural Deprivation" theory

7.1.1. Popularized in the 1960's and suggests that working-class and non-white families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage.

7.1.1.1. Compensatory education programs, such as Project Head Start - a preschool intervention program for educationally and economically disadvantaged students - are based on the assumption that because of the cultural and familial deprivation faced by poor students, the schools must provide an environment that makes up for lost time.

7.1.2. According to Deutsch (1964), deprivation results in educationally disadvantaged students who achieve poorly because they have not been raised to acquire the skills and dispositions required for satisfactory academic achievement.

7.2. Four School-Centered Explanations for Educational Inequality

7.2.1. School-centered explanations focused on both between-school processes (Curriculum and Pedagogic practices) and within-school processes (Curriculum and Ability grouping).

7.2.2. School processes are central to understanding unequal educational performance.

7.2.3. School-centered literature focuses the idea that children from different classes also attend different types of school, which often vary in terms of school climate, quality, and outcomes.

7.2.4. School-centered explanations stress the role of schools

8. Schools as Organizations

8.1. Major stakeholders in MY district

8.1.1. AL State Senators

8.1.1.1. Richard Shelby

8.1.1.2. Jefferson Sessions

8.1.2. AL State House of Representatives

8.1.2.1. 105 members representing  an equal number of districts, each with at least 42,380 citizens

8.1.3. AL State Board of Education

8.1.3.1. Governor Robert Bentley, President

8.1.3.2. Michael Sentance, Secretary and Executive Officer

8.1.3.3. Jeffrey Newman, District 7

8.1.3.4. Yvette Richardson, Ed.D., Vice President, District 4

8.1.3.5. Matthew S. Brown, J.D., District 1

8.1.3.6. Betty Peters, District 2

8.1.3.7. Stephanie Bell, District 3

8.1.4. State Superintendent

8.1.4.1. Michael Sentance

8.1.5. Local Superintendent

8.1.5.1. Tom Drake

8.1.6. Local School Board

8.1.6.1. Laurie Bone McCaulley, District 1

8.1.6.2. Beth Wilder, District 2

8.1.6.3. Eliza Ferrell, District 3

8.1.6.4. Walker McGinnis, District 4

8.1.6.5. Mike Culbreath, District 5

8.2. Elements of change within school processes and school cultures

8.2.1. Conflict is a necessary part of change

8.2.1.1. Efforts to democratize schools do not create conflicts, but they allow (and to be successful, require) previously hidden problems, issues, and disagreements to surface.

8.2.2. New behaviors must be learned

8.2.2.1. Since change requires new relationships and behaviors, the change process must include building communication and trust, enabling leadership and initiative to emerge, and learning techniques of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution.

8.2.3. Team building must extend to the entire school

8.2.3.1. Shared decision-making must consciously work out and give on-going attention to relationships within the rest of the school's staff.  Otherwise, issues of exclusiveness and imagined elitism may surface, and perceived "resistance to change" will persist.

8.2.4. Process and content are interrelated

8.2.4.1. The process a team uses in going about its work is as importance as the content of educational changes it attempts.  The substance of a project often depends upon the degree of trust and openness built up within the team and between the team and the school.  At the same time, the usefulness and the visibility of the project will influence future commitments from and the relationships among the staff and others involved.

9. Politics of Education

9.1. Four Purposes of Education

9.1.1. Political

9.1.1.1. Instill patriotism

9.1.1.2. Prepare citizens who will participate in political order

9.1.1.3. Assimilate diverse cultural groups into one political order

9.1.1.4. Teach children the basic laws of their society

9.1.2. Social

9.1.2.1. Help solve social problems

9.1.2.2. Work as one of many institutions (church/synagogue) to ensure social cohesion

9.1.2.3. Socialize children into the various roles/behaviors/values/of their society

9.1.3. Economic

9.1.3.1. Prepare students for their future occupations

9.1.3.2. Select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor

9.1.4. Intellectual

9.1.4.1. Teach basic cognitive skills like reading, writing, and math

9.1.4.2. Transmit specific knowledge

9.1.4.3. Help students acquire higher-order thinking skills such as analysis and evaluation

9.2. Conservative Perspective

9.2.1. Origins

9.2.1.1. Origins in the 1800's and is based on the evolutionary ideas of Charles Darwin.  Developed originally by the sociologist William Graham Summer - Individuals must compete in the social environment in order to survive, and human progress is dependent on individual initiative and drive

9.2.2. Role of the School

9.2.2.1. Schools provide the necessary educational training to ensure that the most talented and hard-working individuals receive the tools necessary to maximize economic and social productivity.

9.2.2.2. Schools socialize children into adult roles

9.2.2.3. Schools should provide a place for individual merit to be encouraged and rewarded

9.2.3. Explanation of Unequal Performance

9.2.3.1. Conservatives argue that individuals or groups of students rise and fall on their own intelligence, hard work, and initiative

9.2.3.2. Achievement is based on hard work and sacrifice

9.2.4. Definition of Educational Problems

9.2.4.1. Decline of Standards

9.2.4.2. Decline of Cultural Literacy

9.2.4.3. Decline of Values or of Civilization

9.2.4.4. Decline of Authority

9.2.5. Educational Policy and Reform

9.2.5.1. Return to the basics and strengthen reading, writing, and other forms of traditional learning

9.2.5.2. Return to a traditional academic curriculum

9.2.5.3. Accountability - minimum standards of performance and knowledge

9.2.5.4. School privatization