My Foundations of Education

1. Curriculum and Pedagogy

1.1. Curriculum Theory: an academic discipline devoted to examining and shaping educational curricula.

1.2. 1. The Social meliorist curriculum has continued to influence curriculum since the 1930's. It is active in our changing world and helps students to become aware of societal problems. page 285. This is the theory that I advocate.

1.3. 2. Two dominant traditions of teaching are culturally responsive teaching which helps lead to socially responsible actions by bringing new ways of knowing and communicating into schools. Another i think is hands on or collaboration where students can work together or with a partner in the classroom. This builds communication skills and team building. This is a good interactive learning tradition.

2. Schools as Organizations

2.1. State Senators: Richard Shelby and Luther Strange

2.2. House of Representative: Mike Ball and Mac McCutcheon

2.3. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance

2.4. Governor Kay Ivey: State Board of Education

2.5. Local Superintendent: Matthew Akin

2.5.1. The element of change among within school processes and school cultures is very difficult because schools are so deeply political, effecting change withing them. page 231 Conflicts are resolved through negotiation. Changing the cultures if schools requires patience, skill, and good will. Conflict is a necessary part of change. page 232 When change occurs than new behaviors must be learned. Change requires new behaviors and actions. Team building must extend to the entire school. Communication is important, and shared decision making.

3. Philosophy of Education

3.1. Education is shaped by practice rather than by theory.

3.2. Dialectic method is customary in the discipline of philosophy, issues are often resolved by posing questions and offering answers

3.3. Examining thought patterns

4. Sociological Perspectives

4.1. Weber asked "What should be the goal of education-training individuals for employment or for thinking. page 118 Collins said that diplomas are merely symbols and not indicators of actual achievement.

4.2. How much is a student learning and the role of the teacher.

4.3. Education serves several functions in society including socialization and social integration and social placement.

5. Educational Inequality

5.1. Cultural Deprivation is certain types of skills and attitudes within society aren't there. Two types are 1. attitudes and values. Parents attitudes and values are a key factor to their child's success. 2. Language Depending on what language skills a child is learning at home can influence their language at school and how they are learning.

5.2. Describe at least four school-centered explanations for educational inequality.

5.2.1. 1. school financing: public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources. 2. Effective school research: monitoring of student learning, flexibility for teachers, strong leadership skills. 3. Gender and schooling: differences between men and women are cultural, not biological, and that women deserve equality. 4..Effective school literature: literature can effect a students ability to learn properly improved and accurate information.

6. Educational Reform

6.1. 2 School Based Reforms: school-to work program is important because it provides the skills needed for particular career as demonstrated in a working environment. It provides valued credentials, establishing industry-standard benchmarks and developing education and training standards that ensure that proper education is received for each career. School-Business Partnerships were formed during the 1980s but the best part that has come out of this is scholarships.

6.2. Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms. Two are school finance reforms and full service and community schools.

7. Politics of Education

7.1. Identify and describe the four purposes of education. The four purposes are intellectual, political, social, and economic. Intellectual purposes of schooling teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and math. Political purposes of schooling are to inculate allegiance to the existing political order (patrionism) Social purpose of schooling are to help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions, such as the family and the church to ensure social cohesion; and to socialize children into various roles. Economic purposes of schooling are to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the devision of labor.

7.2. Role of the school: The role of the school is a central focus of each of the perspectives and is at the heart of their differing analyses. Schools socialize children into the adult roles necessary to the maintenance of the social order. Diane Ravitch, historian of education, summarizes the liberal view of education: To believe in education is to believe in the future, to believe in what may be accomplished through the disciplined use of intelligence, allied with cooperation, and good will. (page 27 of Exploring Education) Explanations of Unequal Performance: Certain groups perform differently based on hard work and sacrifice. Definition of educational problems: Schools lowered academic standards and reduced educational quality. This is referred to by conservatives as decline of standards. It is a critical issue that schools have often limited the life chances of poor and minority children Schools put too much emphasis on discipline and authority which limits their role in helping students develop as individuals.

8. History of U.S. Education

8.1. Major historical periods in the U.S. educational history: the common school era, the progressive era, and the modern era.

9. Equality of Opportunity

9.1. Describe how class, race, and gender each impact educational outcomes. When a family from a racial minority or lower class do not have a family history of higher education than that child is less likely to have grown up having an adult in the house read to them or help them with homework. This can be a disadvantage when place in a class where children have been read to or taught at home. Gender can have an impact because of the differences in learning. Boys and girls learn differently, but curriculum puts everyone learning the same things sometimes which may impact someones ability to learn.

9.2. James S. Coleman 1926-1995 One response was that yes schools do make a difference in terms of students outcomes because schools that are more academically oriented are better learning environments for students. Another response is private schools seems to "do it better". Differences among schools do make a difference.