1. Politics of Education
1.1. Purpose of Education
1.2. 1) The Intellectual purpose of education are to teach basic cognitive skills to transmit specific knowledge
1.3. 2)The Political purpose of education is to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order; to prepare citizens to participate in this political order.
1.4. 3)The Social purpose of education is to help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions, such as family and the church to ensure social cohesion and to prepare students.
1.5. 4) The economic role of education is to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
1.6. Role of the School
1.6.1. The role of the school is a central focus of each of the perspectives and is at the heart of their differing analyses. The school's role in the broadest sense is directly concerned with the aims, purposes, and functions of education in a society.
1.6.2. I think the role of the school could be one of the most important figures in an adolescence life, considering just how much time for the first eighteen years of his/her life will be spent here. So with that in mind it would be best for all educators and school staff to seriously take in consideration the molding and impact they will be having on not just a child's life at that point in time but also for their future moving forward.
2. History of Education
2.1. I think this push of reform for Women and African-American had an impact on education. But it would not even be considered up until recently now that there has been an equality still for women but more specifically African-Americans, and this would probably always be argued without a true right/wrong answer showing. But with an attempt to finally provide equal education to minorities and women alike aside from the white male; I believe that our education system would be developing for the best and allowing the best possible education to all those under it's wings.
2.2. Democratic-Liberal-Interpretation.
2.2.1. Democrats/liberals believe that the history of US education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all. This is to include: the expansion of opportunity and purpose. Liberals believe that the US educational system must continue to move closer to each, without sacrificing one or the other too dramatically.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Functional sociologists view society as s 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.
3.2. Conflict Theorist do not believe that society is held together by shared values alone. These sociologists argue that 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, cooperation, and manipulation.
3.3. Interactionlism Theory Social interactionist theory is an explanation of language development emphasizing the role of social interaction between the developing child and linguistically knowledgeable adults.
3.4. 5 Effects of Schooling on Individuals. 1- Knowledge and Attitude. Generally, it is found that the higher the social class background of the student, the higher his or her achievement level. 2- Employment. Most students believe that graduation from college will lead to greater employment opportunities, and they are right. The amount of education is only weakly related to job performance. 3- Teacher Behavior. Teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior. Teachers have as many as 1,000 interpersonal contact each day with children in their classroom. 4- Student groups. When you reflect back on your high school and junior high experiences, you undoubtedly have strong memories of your fellow students and the various social groups they created. The student sub-culture is important with identifying and recognizing students and possible future outcomes and plans of actions. 5- Education and Inequality. Social class differences are not only reflected in differences in income but in other social characteristics such as education, family and child-bearing practices, occupation, place of residence, political involvement, health, consumer behavior, and religious belief. In short, if you know about a family's or individuals's class position, you have a good idea about their life-style and life chances.
4. Schools as Organizations
4.1. District 4
4.1.1. Senator- Richard Shelby
4.1.2. House of Represenative- Mo Brooks
4.1.3. State Superintendent- Mike Sentance
4.1.4. Represenative of State School Board- Robert Bentley
4.1.5. Local Superintendent- Jonathen Hatton
4.1.6. Local School Board- Lauderdale County Board of Education
4.2. School Conflict
4.2.1. Conflict is a necessary part of change for school. Staff involvement in school restructuring must be prepared to elicit, manage, and resolve conflicts
4.3. New Behaviors
4.3.1. New behaviors must be learned. Becasue change requeires new relationships and behaviors, the change process must include building communication and trust, enbabling leadership and initiate to emerge
4.4. Team Building
4.4.1. Team bulding must extend to the enitre school. Shared decision making must consciously work out and give on-going attention to relationships within the rest of the school staff
4.5. Process and Content
4.5.1. Process and content are interrelated. The process a team uses in going about its work is as important as the content of educational changes it attempt. The substance ofa project often depend upon the degree of trust and openness build up within the teams.
5. Equality of Opportunity
5.1. Educational Outcomes
5.1.1. Class
5.1.1.1. Students in different social classes have different kinds of educational experiences. There are several factores that can influence these class-based expereiences. From a cultural point of view, schools represent the values of the middle and upper classes. Children from lower class homes are more likely to dropout and quite school. While kids from middle and upper class are more likely to achieve secondary schooling.
5.1.2. Race
5.1.2.1. Despite the Civil Right's legislation of the 60's, U.S. society is still highly stratified by race. An individuals race has direct impact on how much education he/she is likely to achieve.
5.1.3. Gender
5.1.3.1. Historically, an individual's gender was directly related to his/her educational attainment. Even though women are often rated as being better studens than men, in the past they were less likely to attain the same level of education. In the last twenty years, gender differences between men and women, in terms of educational attainment, have been reduced.
5.2. Coleman Study Responses 1982
5.2.1. Studies showed and found that kids exposed to a private education outscored students who were exposed to low-income or public school education
5.2.2. Studies showed and found that where an indiviual goes to school is often related to her race and socioeconmoic background, but the reacial and socieoeconmic composition of a school has a greater effect on student achievement than an individuals' race and class.
6. Philosophy of Education
6.1. Existentialism- Is a rather modern philosophy. Although its roots can be traced back to the Bible, as a philosophy that has relevance to education, one may date existentialism with the nineteenth-century European philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
6.2. Generic Notions- Because existentialism is an individualistic philosophy, many of its adherents argue that it is not a particular school of philosophy at all. Existentialists pose questions as to how their concerns impact on the lives of individuals. Existentialists believe that individuals are placed on this earth alone and must make some sense out of the chaos they encounter.
6.3. Goal of Education- Believe that education should focus on the needs of individuals, both cognitively and affectively. They also believe that education should stress individuality; that it should include discussion and non-rational as well as the rational word; and that the tensions of living in the world-in particular, anxiety generated through conflict should be addressed.
6.4. Role of Teacher- Teachers should understand their own "lived worlds" as well as that of their students in order to help their students achieve the best "lived worlds" they can. Teachers must take risks; expose themselves to resistant students; and work constantly to enable their students to become in Greene's (1979) words, "wide-awake".
6.5. Methods of Instructions- 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. The teacher constantly rediscovers knowledge, the student discovers knowledge, and together they come to an understanding of past, present, and future, particularly a future ripe with possibilities. Thus, the role of the teacher is to help students understand the world through posing questions, generating activities, and working together.
6.6. Curriculum- Existentialists would choose curriculum heavily biased towards the humanities. Literature especially has meaning for them since literature is able to evoke responses in readers that might move them to new levels of awareness, or, in Greene's (1978) words, "wide-awakeness." Art, Drama, and Music also encourage personal interaction. They believe in exposing students at early ages to problems as well as possibilities, and to the horrors as well as accomplishments humankind is capable of producing.
7. Curriculum and Pedagogy
7.1. Curriculum Theory
7.1.1. Is an academic discipline devoted to sharpening education curriculum.
7.1.2. Develop-mentalist Curriculum is related to the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society This approach is student centered and concerned with relating the curriculum to the needs and interest of each child at particular developmental stages.
7.2. Teaching Traditions
7.2.1. Mimetic tradition is based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Thus, the best method of doing this is through what is termed the didactic method, a method that commonly relies on the lecture or presentation as the main form of communication
7.2.2. Transformative tradition rests on a different set of assumptions about the teaching and learning process. Proponents of this tradition beleive that the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including, intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Cultural Deprivation
8.1.1. 1960's when cultural deprivation was popularized. Working class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other education stimuli, and thus arrive at school severely at a significant disadvantage.
8.1.2. Another criticism of cultural deprivation theory concerned the relative failure of many of the compensatory education programs that were based on its assumptions about disadvantaged children have lower levels of achievement than more advantaged children.
8.2. Explanations for School centered inequaltiy
8.2.1. School Financing is related to money being drawn in from areas. So this explains why poorer areas offer a lesser education. And prominent wealthy areas have more money incoming so they are better able to educate.
8.2.2. Curriculum and Pedagogic Practices. Studies show and support students who attend school in higher socioeconomic area compared to low-income living are better students.
8.2.3. Curriculum and Ability Grouping. Within School Difference. Students are divided both by ability and curriculum, with different groups of students often recieving considerably different types of education within the same school.
8.2.4. Gender and Schooling. Many argue schooling often limits the educational opportunities and life chances of women in that the organization of school reinforces gender roles and gender inequality.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School Based Reforms
9.1.1. Teacher Quality.Recruitment and retaining high quality teachers in the American education is one of the hardest difficulty facing today. Ex. Right now 1 out of 5 H.S. teachers teaching a (math, science, history, English,) are taught by teachers without teaching degrees.
9.1.2. Teacher Education. The emergence and development of teacher education as an educational problem was a response to the initial debates concerning the failure of the schools. If schools were not functioning properly, perhaps teachers were not teaching.
9.2. Reforms
9.2.1. School Finance Reform. Educational reforms have demonstrates the potential to improve schools for low-income and minority children, especially in urban areas, by themselves they are limited in reducing the achievement gaps. Unless they also address the factors outside of schools responsible to educational inequalities substantial change will not be seen.
9.2.2. Harlem Children Zone. Geoffrey Candanda makes it a case and point to argue that long-term change can also be seen by not just trying to remove kids from low-income areas for their education. But also by try to positively effect the neighborhood at the same time.