My Foundations of Education

1. Philosophy of Education Chapter 5

1.1. Existentialism is an individual philosophy. They believe that individuals are placed on this Earth alone and must make some sense out of the chaos they encounter. The amount of freedom and responsibility people have is awesome. Key researchers include Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers, Jean Paul Sartre. and Maxine Greene. Existentialists believe that education should focus on the needs of an individuals and should stress individuality. They see education as an activity liberating the individual from a chaotic, absurd world. The role of the teacher is an intensely personal one that carries with it a tremendous responsibility. They should understand their own lived worlds and that of their students, and work to enable their students to become "wide awake". Method of instruction for Existentialists is very personal, as every student has a different learning style and it's up to the teacher to discover what works for each student. Their curriculum would be heavily based on humanities. Art, drama, and music encourage personal interaction.

2. Politics of Education Chapter 2

2.1. Intellectual purpose is to transmit specific knowledge, help students acquire higher-order thinking skills.

2.2. Political purpose is to teach patriotism,prepare citizens involved in political power, to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into common political order, and teach children basic laws of society.

2.3. Social purpose is to help solve social problems, to work together to make sure there is social cohesion, and to socialize children into various roles, behaviors and values of the society. ( key to stable society)

2.4. Economic purpose of education is to prepare students for jobs and to train and allocate people into the division of labor.

2.5. Conservative Perspective: 1) Providing necessary educational training to most talented hard working individuals. 2)Individual rise or fall on their own. 3) Decline of: Values, Authority, and Standards.

2.5.1. Liberal Perspective: 1) All students equal opportunity. 2) Certain groups have advantages over other groups. 3) Poor not expected to succeed and too much authority.

2.5.1.1. Radical Perspective: 1) Upward mobility for all people and CHANGE. 2) Disadvantage to groups and blame but no solutions. 3) System promotes problem (school and society).

3. Schools as Organizations Chapter 6

3.1. Stakeholders- Federal AL Senators- Luther Strange and Richard Shelby, Federal House of Representative Mo Brooks, State Senator Paul Sanford, State House of Representative is currently vacant but Laura Hall and Howard Sanderford both represent Madison County, State Superintendent Ed Richardson, Representative on the state school board Mary Scott Hunter, Local Superintendent Matt Massey, All members of the local school board Nathan Curry, Angie Bates, Mary Louise Stowe, Dave Weis, and Shere Rucker.

3.2. Elements of Change- School process- Schools are political so change is difficult. conflicts are resolved in negotiation. School Culture- Conflict, new behaviors being learned, team building through entire school, Process and content are interrelated.

4. History of U.S. Education Chapter 3

4.1. 1) Education for Women and African- Americans has had most influence on education. In the early 19th century most women had limited education, and African-Americans had even less. As the movement grew for woman to go to school, African-Americans were still fighting because Southerners believed education led to insubordination and revolution. In 1865 the first state university admitted woman, and in 1868 the Freedman's Bureau helped establish black colleges.

4.2. 2) Democratic-Liberal School: Involves progressive evolution, provides equality of opportunity for all. Interpret educational history optimistically. Two related processes: popularization and multitudinousness (Cremin,1988).

5. Curriculum and Pedagogy Chapter 7

5.1. Developmentalist- Curriculum that is related to the needs and interest of the student rather than the needs of society. The teacher is facilitator of student growth rather than the provider of student knowledge. Influential in private and alternative schools.

5.2. Mimetic tradition- the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Mostly lecture and presentations. Knowledge is held by teacher and passed to student. Means memorization. Transformative Tradition- Education is to change the student in some meaningful way. Student must be involved in the learning not just a receiver.All teaching begins with the active participation of the student and results in some type of growth. Results are difficult to assess.

6. Equality of Opportunity Chapter 8

6.1. CLASS-School is expensive, working class and underclass families often have lower levels of expectations. Schools represent the values of the middle and upper classes. Classes lead to labeling. Class is related to scores on achievement tests. RACE- has a direct impact on how much education the student will achieve. Minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities than white students. GENDER- women are less likely to drop out and have higher level of reading proficiency than males. Males have higher math proficiency. which could be because the teachers assume women will not do as well. More women attend post-secondary school.

6.2. Responses- 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. 2) Catholic schools seem to advantage low-income minority students, especially in urban areas.

7. Educational Inequality Chapter 9

7.1. Cultural differences- First, Ogbu argues that African-American children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class and caste structure. He believes students must deny their own cultural identities and accept the dominant culture of the schools, which is a white middle-class model. Second theory- Working class and nonwhite students are resisting the dominant culture of the school. These students reject the white middle-class culture.

7.2. School centered inequality- school financing- property taxes are based on the values of property in local communities and therefore is a proportional tax. Property values are higher so they can raise more money. School climates- theorists argue that there are significant differences between the culture and climate of schools in lower socioeconomic and higher socioeconomic communities. Expectations- Students in private school have higher academic expectations. Students in public schools are not pushed as hard or expected to do as well. Curriculum- Catholic schools produce significantly better levels of academic achievement because of their more rigorous academic curriculum.

8. Educational Reform Chapter 10

8.1. School based reforms- Privation-starting in the 1990s private education companies became more involved in public education. For-profit companies took over management of failing schools and districts. Corporations saw the multi-billion-dollar education industry as a lucrative market. Bilkley, Henig, and Levin (2010) concluded that the success of these types of reforms has been mixed. Vouchers- provide low income parents with the same choices as middle-class parents, leading to increased parental satisfaction with their children's school. charter and voucher schools will provide better learning environments for low-income students, resulting in higher student achievement. Due to the competitive market, urban public schools will be forced to improve or close their doors.

8.2. Community- Full service and community schools- To repair the larger social and economic problems of society as a means of improving of improving public education. Target and improve at-risk neighborhoods, full service schools aim to prevent problems, as well as to support them. NO evidence that is affects school achievement. Harlem Children's Zone- keep student's where they are but change them and their neighborhood. Children positively contaminate their neighborhood. Get students involved in high-quality programs and start talking about college. Students begin to think maybe that's something they could do too.

9. Sociological Perspectives Chapter 4

9.1. Functionalism: View society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy to make society work.

9.2. Conflict Theory: Schools are similar to social battlefields. Students struggle against teacher, teacher against administrators, and so on.

9.3. Interactionalism: Helps understand education in the "big picture".

9.4. 1) Teachers behavior: Teachers are models for students, and self-fulfilling prophecy shows that teachers expectations play a major role. 2)Student peer groups and alienation: Labels and various social groups can lead to conflict and even violence. Student cultures play an important role in shaping students' educational experiences. 3) Knowledge and Attitudes: Education is related to individuals' sense of well-being and self-esteem. 4) Inadequate Schools: The way students are taught today will not prepare them for productive and fulfilling lives in the future. Differences between schools and school systems reinforce existing inequalities. 5) Gender: By the time girls graduate high school they have lower self-esteem and lower aspirations than boys do. They begin showing signs of not living up to their potential in high school.