1. 4. Sociological Perspectives
1.1. 1. Define the theoretical perspective concerning the relationship between school and society: functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionalism.
1.1.1. Functionalism: This is were society is seen as a machine and each part much work with the group to succeed. Emile Durkheim believed education was important to creating moral unity for social cohesion and that moral values were the foundation of society.
1.1.2. Conflict Theory: This theory emphasizes struggle of power. Those with power are constantly pushing down those without. In schools for example students struggle against teachers who struggle against administrators. Karl Marx believed the class system made class struggle inevitable. Randall Collins argues educational credentials are really just status symbols used to dominate groups.
1.1.3. Interactionalism: Interactional Theories make known taken-for-granted behaviors and interactions between students and their peers and students and teachers. When something is not questioned, it is often the problem like labeling children.
1.2. 2. Identify and describe 5 effects of schooling on individuals that you think have the greatest impact on students as explained in the book (there are 10 between pages 121-128).
1.2.1. 1) Employment: Students tend to believe that higher education equals more income. Employers also expect more and more education over time even though research shows education has very little to do with actual job skills. People tend to learn from on the job training rather than school. Studies show college graduates earn roughly twenty grand more than high school only graduates and that men typically make more than women. Education alone does not account for the differing levels of income.
1.2.2. 3) Gender: Even though girls tend to start school socially and cognitively ahead of boys, by high school they tend to develop self esteem issues and no longer reach for their potential. Discrimination goes through out not just textbooks but the administration as well. Most teachers are female while most administrators are male. In the last two decades the gap between the sexes has begun to close.
1.2.3. 4) Teacher Behavior: Teachers play a big role in a students learning environment. They also play the role of friend, disciplinarian, employer, ect. This can lead to role strain where the teacher can feel burnt out. Teacher's belief in a students ability can often make a student do better because it gives them confidence in their own ability. The self fulfilling prophecy goes both ways however. If a student doesn't believe in themselves they are more likely to fail.
1.2.4. 5) De Facto Segregation: Although segregation should not be a issue in this day and age it still shows in schools. Black kids who go to a segregated school are more likely to be arrested and less likely to graduate then their counterparts and are also more likely to have children before the age of 18.
1.2.5. 2) Inadequate Schools: Schools have come a long way but they still are not perfect. There are still inequalities among different school systems such a rural and urban schools, private and public, elite and minority schools.
2. 5. Philosophy of Education
2.1. Describe the particular world view of one of student-centered philosophy of education (pragmatism or existentialism). Include the following information: generic notions, key researchers, goal of education, role of teacher, method of instruction, and curriculum
2.1.1. Pragmatism: The best way to describe pragmatism would be problem, speculative thought, action, results.
2.1.2. Francis Bacon, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Dewey were all key researchers for pragmatism.
2.1.3. Generic Notions: John Dewey believed in a better society through education. This led to children learning from books and skills experimentally which allows them to work together in a democratic society. Dewey was thought of as progressive and he believed children should be a part of planning their own education because they were growing beings that needed their education to grow with them.
2.1.4. Goal of Education: Dewey believed that schools need to balance the need of the individual with that of the needs of society. Schools played a key role in creating a cohesive community by socializing diverse groups. Dewey also believed the main goal of education was growth.
2.1.5. Role of Teacher: With pragmatism the role of the teacher is to write curriculum, encourage, offer suggestions, question, and implement course study.
2.1.6. Methods of Instruction: Dewey proposed the inquiry method which is where child start the learning process with questions about what they want to learn. Books written by teachers, field trips, and projects were all considered a part of the learning process. Old traditional schools were replaced with less formal ones that focused on pedagogy.
2.1.7. Curriculum: Dewey believed in a core curriculum that integrated all the disciplines rather than keeping them separate. Curriculum should change as society and children's needs change.
3. 6. Schools as Organizations
3.1. Identify major stakeholders in YOUR district by name (state senators, House of Representatives, state superintendent, representative on state school board, local superintendent, and local school board)
3.1.1. State Senator is Richard Shelby. District 8 House of Representative is Terri Collins. State Superintendent is Michael Sentance. Representative on State School Board for District 6 is Cynthia Sanders McCarty. Dan Brigman the local supertintendent for Decatur but there are new candidates being looked at. Karen Duke is the School Board president, Doonnie Lane is the vice-president, Melanie Maples is chief financial officer, and the remaining board members are Peggy Baggett, Dwight Jett Jr., and Michele King.
3.2. Identify and describe the elements of change within school processes and school cultures.
3.2.1. There are four elements of change within the school process and school cultures: Conflict, new behaviors, team building, and last process and content. Conflict is a necessary part of change where as they allow disagreement, issues, and hidden problems to come out of the woodwork and to be taken care of to allow people to work better together. New behaviors must be learned such as building communication and trust, learning techniques of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution, and enabling leadership to emerge. Team building must involve the entire school otherwise issues of exclusiveness might arise. The process a team uses to work is just as important as the content they go over.
4. 8. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Describe how class, race, and gender each impact educational outcomes.
4.1.1. Social class and level of educational achievement are closely related. Different social classes have varying kinds of educational experiences. Education can be expensive and the longer a student stays in school, the more likely they are to need parental financial support. People in the upper classes have a higher expectation of going to college and graduating where as people of lower classes are expected to have higher rates of drop outs. Race still has a direct impact on how much schooling a student is likely to finish. Ethnic students have a much higher rate of drop outs and their reading proficiency levels are dramatically below that of white students. Race is supposed to go hand in hand with class as far as lower classes receiving fewer educational opportunities. Gender used to have a major impact in the educational outcomes but as women's rights continue to grow, women rise in education. Today women score higher on tests and have a lower rate of drop outs than their male counterparts. Women are now more likely not only to go to college but to graduate. Liberal argue that the rise of women in education is linked to the "feminizing" of the classroom.
4.2. What were the two responses to the Coleman Study from 1982?
4.2.1. 1) The first response to the study was a mix of voices who both agreed and disagreed with his findings. Jencks showed that Catholic schools did not show significant progress over public schools in academics. Chubb and Moe agree with Coleman saying that private schools "do it better" especially when it came to low income students. It was said that the private schools were getting more elite however, and might not serve the low income students as well in the future. 2) The second response to the study was that where a student goes to school is more likely to affect them than their race or class, however the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school has a bigger effect on a child's progress than their race or class. Borman and Dowling argue that segregation is responsible for student under achievement rather than the school itself. The say reform in education needs to focus on segregation in order to see ethnic students achieve more.
5. 2. Politics of Education
5.1. 1. Identify and describe the four purposes of education.
5.1.1. 1) Intellectual purposes of schooling are to teach skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic and to pass on knowledge on science, history, and literacy. It also helps students develop thinking skills such as evaluation, synthesis, and analysis
5.1.2. 2) Political purposes of schooling are to promote allegiance to the country, prepare students to be citizens, blend culture into society, and to teach kids the laws of the country.
5.1.3. 3) Social purposes of schooling are to promote social cohesion and to socialize kids so they can function well in society. This process is called socialization.
5.1.4. 4) Economic purposes of schooling are basically to prepare students for their future careers.
5.2. 2. Choose and describe a perspective for the following: 1) the role of the school; 2) explanations of unequal performance; and 3) definition of educational problems.
5.2.1. 1) Role of the School from the conservative perspective: Conservatives see school as a way to raise, train, and socialize kids to provide society with productive adults who will benefit our economy and social productivity.
5.2.2. 2) Explanations of unequal performance from a liberal view: Liberals explain unequal performance by the fact that all students are born with certain advantages and disadvantages and it is up to the school system to even the playing field.
5.2.3. 3) Definition of Educational Problems from a radical perspective: Radicals believe the school system has failed minorities, women, the poor, and gays by being sexist, racist, homophobic, and classiest. They also believe schools have left out the real history and cultures of minorities and oppressed.
6. 3. History of U.S. Education
6.1. 1. Choose and describe a reform movement that you think has had the most influence on education.
6.1.1. I cannot honestly say that any reform has had the most influence on education. They were all important and diverse however the reform I choose to describe is the rise of the common school. Reformers in the 1800's believed the road to paradise was through education only many men and women were never given one. There were very few schools and very little schooling material to go around. In 1837 Horace Mann lobbied for and started a state board of education. Mann pushed the idea of free publicly funded schools.
6.2. 2. Choose and describe one historical interpretation of U.S. Education.
6.2.1. The Democratic-Liberal Interpretation of U.S. Education: The Democratic-Liberals believe that U.S. education consisted of a school system that was focused on providing opportunity and equality for everyone. Liberal reformers were supposedly behind each attempt to expand educational opportunities for the public not just the elite. More culturally diverse students started going to school longer while the curriculum also became more diverse. Cremin said that the American education system provides a place for every one who wants it and yields the most educated populace in the world.
7. 7. Curriculum & Pedagogy
7.1. 1. Explain a curriculum theory which you advocate (humanist, social efficiency, developmentalist, or social meliorist).
7.1.1. I would have to advocate the Social Efficiency curriculum theory which states that different groups of students have different needs and should receive different types of schooling. This perspective emerged from Dewey about the need of flexible and individualized curriculum. Intelligence and reading test were assigned in Elementary schools to place students in groups based on their ability and standardized test were assigned to secondary level students. These were originally meant to be used to place children on different curriculum based tacks based on their scores but this eventually led radicals to say it was showing discrimination.
7.2. 2. Identify and describe the two dominant traditions of teaching.
7.2.1. The two dominant traditions of teaching are the mimetic tradition and the transformative tradition. The mimetic tradition suggests the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. The best way of doing this is by using the didactic method which uses lecture as the main form of communication. The transformative tradition suggests the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way such as creatively or emotionally.
8. 9. Educational Inequality
8.1. Explain the two types of cultural deprivation theory.
8.1.1. 1) Working class and non-white families often lack cultural resources such as books and other education stimuli so they arrive with a disadvantage when going to school. 2) The poor have a deprived culture, one that lacks the values of the middle class culture. Middle class culture values hard work, delayed gratification, and importance of schooling while lower class values instant gratification, lack of hard work, and dropping out to get a job. Disadvantaged students were not raised to acquire the skills for academic achievement.
8.2. Describe at least four school-centered explanations for educational inequality.
8.2.1. 1) School Financing: Kozol compares the funding between public schools in suburbs and those in poor inner cities. More often than not, funding is much higher per student in the suburbs than in the cities. Part of this funding gap is the use of property taxes to fund the schools. The city properties have lower taxes due to smaller property values making the funding less. Foundation aid programs can help with the difference but not change it completely. Due to this imbalance, it was determined that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were not receiving equality of opportunity. 2) Effective School Research: Stedman listed characteristics of unusually effective schools which supposedly helps explain why their students achieve academically. The characteristics are: high expectation of the students, strong leadership by the principal, accountability for both students and teachers, monitoring of learning done by students, Teachers spend most of their time teaching while the students learn, Flexibility of teachers to try new ways to go about teaching. School who did not have these characteristics were less likely to succeed. 3) Between-School Differences: These are differences between the actual schools themselves. A privately funded school simply has more to offer students than a poorly state funded school. Boarding or private school provide their students with a top off the line education that includes small class sizes, good extracurricular activities, tutoring, the newest technology, counseling, and college advisement. A poor urban school often has overcrowded classrooms, few counselors, no technology, and large class size. 4) Gender and Schooling: Feminist believe boy and girls are socialized differently in school. School curriculum often stereotypes men and women's roles. Tradition curriculum omits a lot of women's roles in history. Hidden curriculum often reinforces traditional gender roles through class interactions such as male dominated discussion. Organization of school reinforces gender roles like more women teaching elementary and more men teaching secondary schooling.
9. 10. Educational Reform
9.1. Describe two school-based reforms (school-based, school-business partnerships, privatization, school-to-work programs, teacher education or teacher quality)
9.1.1. 1) Privatization: Since the 1990s, private education companies have become more and more involved in public education. For-profit companies such as the Edison Company have started to take over the management of failing schools. For-profit companies such as Kaplan now have the majority of tutoring contracts under NCLB. There is no evidence of the private companies leading to better efficiency yet. In some cities, portfolio models of education have replaced the traditional school districts with schools being run by a combination of providers. 2) School Business Partnership: These partnerships are where a business basically adopts a school in return for things such as higher test scores or scholarships for poor students to attend college. Some individual groups and entrepreneurs have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars towards primary and secondary schools but there is little evidence saying school business partnerships have significantly improved school reform.
9.2. Describe at least two societal, economic, community, or political reforms.
9.2.1. 1) Full Service and Community Schools: This idea would focus on educating not only the child but the community. Full service schools focus on a student and their families physical, educational, and social needs by functioning as community centers that provide health clinics, adult education classes, job placement and many more things. A full service school is meant to prevent problems along with helping existing ones. 2) Harlem Children's Zone: The Harlem Children's Zone is a program created by Geoffrey Canada to help both the students and parents of Harlem New York. This program educates parents of infants on how to raise their child with a better educational background from the beginning so they will succeed in school down the road. "Baby College" is a popular program that parents can attend before having their children that can help provide the basics they need.