1. Historical Interpretation
1.1. The Democratic Liberal historical interpretation of education is that the American school system has worked towards providing the same opportunities for everyone progressively over time, but they realized that this is only an ideal that the US education system has to continually work toward.
2. Politics of Education
2.1. Purposes
2.1.1. 1. Intellectual- to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics to transmit specific knowledge and to help students acquire higher-order thinking skills like analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
2.1.2. 2. Political- to instill allegiance to the existing political order, prepare citizens who will participate in the political order, help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order, and to teach children the basic laws of society.
2.1.3. 3. Social- to help solve social problems, work one of many instiutions like the family and church to to ensure social unity, and socialize children into various roles of society.
2.1.4. 4. Economic- to prepare students for their job roles later in life and to select, train, and allocate individual people into the division of labor.
2.2. Perspectives
2.2.1. 1. The Role of the School- Liberal Perspective- The role of the school is to balance the needs of society and individuals in a way that coincides with democratic and meritocratic views. Your status as an adult should be based off of your achievements rather than your social class, that all citizens should receive a fair opportunity for economic wealth, political power, and social status.
2.2.2. 2. Explanations of Unequal Performance- Liberal Perspective- all students begin school with different chances based on their background and the way they grew up. Because of this, all students have different chances when it comes to education, so it is the responsibility of the school to make sure that every child, regardless of their socioeconomic status, has an equal chance. to succeed.
2.2.3. 3. Definition of Educational Problems- Radical Perspective- The radical perspective says that the educational system has failed mostly everyone except rich white men. In general, the educational system promotes inequality of both opportunity and results.
3. History of U.S. Education
3.1. Reform Movement
3.1.1. I believe Education for women and African-Americans was one of the most important reform movements. This reform movement involved African Americans and women being able to get an education in schools and also lead to many colleges opening that were strictly for women and African Americans.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Pragmatism- A philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends.
4.1.1. Key Researchers-including Jean-Jacques Rosseau, John Dewey, Frances Bacon, and John Locke
4.1.2. Generic Notion-The methodology that Dewey had rested on the generic notion that children were active, organic beings, growing and changing, and thus required a course of study that would reflect their particular stages of development.
4.1.3. Goal of Education-It was believed that the goal of education was 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. It was also believed that the role of the school was to integrate children into a democratic society.
4.1.4. Role of Teachers-In this worldview the role of the teacher was no longer to be an authoritarian figure. The teacher should take the peripheral position of facilitator which encourages, questions, plans, and implements courses of study.
4.1.5. Method of Instruction-The methods of instruction that were pushed were that children should learn individually and in groups. Also that students should ask questions about things they want to know. This is called the inquiry method. Books, field trips, and projects were used with this method of instruction.
4.1.6. Curriculum-The curriculum within this worldview was to be related to the needs and interest of the child.
5. Schools as Organizations
5.1. Stakeholders in MY District
5.1.1. Federal Alabama Senators-Luther Strange, Richard Shelby, House of Representative- Robert Aderholt, Alabama State Senator-Paul Bussman, Alabama House of Representative- Ed Henry, Corey Harbison, Randall Shedd, Alabama State Superintendent- Michael Sentence, Representative on State School Board-Cynthia Sanders McCarthy, Cullman County Superintendent- Shane Barnette, Members of Local School Board- Wayne Myrex, Chris Carter, Jason Speegle, Kenny Brockman, Heath Albright, Mike Graves, Gene Sullins.
5.2. Elements of Change
5.2.1. School Processes
5.2.1.1. Elements of change within school processes would include changing the way the students change classes, or changing the way the schools goes about making the students complete their work or projects. Teachers and administrations must work toward the change of school processes, and every individual must take part. It is a process to change the process, and it take time, effort, intelligence, and good will.
5.2.2. School Cultures
5.2.2.1. Elements of change within the school culture would include changing things such as a child sitting in the same class for 40 or 50 minutes, or making every child read the same textbook,
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy
6.1. Curriculum Theory
6.1.1. Social efficiency- This theory believes that every student has specific needs and that curriculum should be designed for each students needs.
6.2. Dominant Traditions of Teaching
6.2.1. Mimetic- The purpose of teaching is to transmit specific knowledge to students. It stresses the importance of rational sequencing in the teaching process and assessment of learning practices.
6.2.2. Trans-formative- The purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way which could be intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
7. Equality of Oppurtunity
7.1. Educational Outcomes
7.1.1. Class- Its expensive the longer a child is in school the more parental financial support they need. The working class has lower expectations for their kids and all of these causes contribute to kids dropping out of school. Race- minority students receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities than white students. They have lower SAT and reading scores and have fewer rewards for educational attainment. Gender- In mathematics men are proven better due to teachers thinking men are automatically better in the subject. Men also have higher SAT scores.
7.2. Coleman Study
7.2.1. Two Responses 1. Private schools were more effective learning environments than public schools. 2. Private schools demand more from their students.
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. School Centered Explanations
8.1.1. School financing- public schools are financed through revenues from local, state, and federal sources. The majority comes from local property taxes. Therefore, in a town with buildings of lesser value there will not be as much revenue in property taxes.
8.1.2. Curriculum and pedagogic practices- The types of schooling corresponds to the social classes of students in a particular school. Working class neighborhoods are more likely to have authoritarian and teacher directed pedagogic practices. Students from different social classes have different home lives and parents who have different pedagogic practices.
8.1.3. Gender and Schooling- Women are mistreated by their male counterparts. Women are socialized to be "caring" Schooling often limits the educational opportunities and life chances of women. Curriculum materials portray men and women roles often in stereotypical and traditional ways. It "silences" women.
8.1.4. Curriculum and ability grouping- Different groups of students in the same schools perform very differently. Heterogeneous groups are far more difficult to teach and result in teaching to the middles which results in losing those with lower abilities and boring those with higher abilities.
8.2. Cultural Differences Theory
8.2.1. African American children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class and cast structure.
8.2.2. Working class and non white students are seen as resisting the dominant culture of the schools.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. School-Based Reform
9.1.1. School-Business Partnerships- Business leaders became concerned that the nations schools were not producing the kinds of graduates necessary for a revitalization of the U.S. economy. The partnerships have been formed in several cities. However, only 1.5% of corporate giving was to public primary and secondary public schools.
9.1.2. Privatization- the traditional distinction between public and private education has become blurred with private education companies becoming involved in public education in a variety of ways.
9.2. Impact on Education
9.2.1. Full Service and Community Colleges- one way to attack education in equity is to plan to educate not only the whole child but also the whole community. 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.
9.2.2. School Finance Reforms- this reform helps with thorough and efficient education for all students in urban and rural areas.
10. Sociological Perspectives
10.1. Theoretical Perspectives
10.1.1. Functionalism-the theory that all aspects of society are necessary for he certain society to survive.
10.1.2. Conflict Theory- The conflict perspective in regards to society says that power relations between dominant and subordinate groups structured societies. in regards to school, it says that schools are similar to social battlefields, where students struggle against teachers, teachers against administration, and so on.
10.1.3. Internationalism- This is an extension of the conflict and fundamentalist theories. This theory attempts 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
10.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
10.2.1. Teacher Behavior- Teacher behavior is important because teachers play many different roles in their students lives, as well as set standards for them and influence their self esteem and sense of efficacy.
10.2.2. Student Peer Groups- I believe that student peer groups and alienation has a huge impact on students because if a student does feel alienated, it can lead to violence. These students may attack one another or even teachers. Students often put themselves into peer groups that alienate other students. This makes those students feel as though they do not belong which in turn can cause them to take out their anger in violence.
10.2.3. Inadequate Schools- This has an effect on schooling in a way that if schools are inadequate, it will not prepare the children for life outside of school. This is much more accurate when it comes to poor socioeconomic status's.
10.2.4. Gender- genders are very much discriminated against in schools. Girls start school cognitively and socially about boys, however, once they graduate girls have lower self esteem and lower aspirations than boys. Girls also begin to feel as though they are not living up to peoples expectations of them. Teachers unknowingly discriminate against female and male students, by expecting females to act a certain way. This has a very large effect on schooling individuals.
10.2.5. Tracking- This has a major effect on student mobility in the way that students are not always placed in certain courses because of their grades, but are actually put in certain courses because of their race or class. Working class students usually end up on a vocational track, whereas middle class students end up on an academic or educational track.