Foundations of Education

1. Sociological Perspectives

1.1. 1. Functional Theory- It stated to be in all societies, extremely important in creating the bond for unity and harmony. 2. Conflict Theory- In this theory, it is stated that it is government based that enforces its will on the others. 3. Interactional Theory- This theory is the relation of school and society that are about the changes and modifications of functional theory and conflict theory.

1.2. 1. Knowledge and Attitudes- Social background has a part in this. If one is from a high society then they are going to have high achievement levels. However, it is the opposite for low society children. Overall, the growth of the student comes from the schools academic policies and programs. 2. Employment- I believe this is an important one. Students who don't receive the proper information about jobs believe that the only way to make money is to go to college and get a degree. However, it states that well-educated employs don't always work harder than the ones that are not educated. 3. Teacher Behavior- Teachers have one of the biggest impacts on students. If one is, not only knowledgeable, but also inspiring, then the student has no motivation to further their education. 4. Student Peer Groups and Alienation- The students are being forced to choose either their comfortable life that they enjoy or choose between being cool or a nerd. Students are being alienated everyday because of who they are or what they're wearing and this leads to more altercations towards other students and even teachers. 5. Inadequate Schools- If the schools that students are attending are poorly funded and run-down, then they will not want to function and will have a mindset that they are the lowest of the low. However, this could always push students to try and get out of this type of schooling and want to change it one day.

2. Philosophy of Education

2.1. The world view of Pragmatism is simply working to achieve what you want in life. That goes for educational purposes or outside of education. John Dewey was an important researcher of Pragmatism. It states on page 187 in the fourth paragraph that "Pragmatism could not have existed without the work of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection." It is basically referring to how we, as humans, interact with our environment. Another important research to Pragmatism is Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He essentially focused on environment and experience, which makes him important to pragmatic thinkers. Dewey believed that the generic notation of pragmatism could make a better society. The students could learn "experientially as well as from books, in addition to traditional information." Dewey's goal of education was to challenge ideas, create ideas, and build upon other ideas. The role of the teacher in pragmatism is not that of an authority figure, but one that can help suggest and implements study material. The method of instruction that best fit pragmatism is that which the students learn by themselves or in groups. The curriculum in pragmatism is is the core curriculum. Simply put, it is learning everything such as math, reading, grammar, history, and some trade skills.

3. Schools as Organizations

3.1. 1. Federal Alabama Senators and House of Representative- Richard Shelby, Luther Strange, Bradley Byrne, Martha Roby, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Gary Palmer, Terri Sewell. 2. State Senator and House of Representatives- Richard Shelby, Phillip Petus, Lynn Greer, Marcel Black. 3. State Superintendent- Michael Sentance. 4. Representatives on State School Board- Kay Ivey, Stephanie Bell, and Dr. Cynthia McCarty. 5. Local Superintendent- John Hatton. 6. Members on Local School Board- Ronnie Owens, Jerry Fuller, Barbara Cornelius, Terry Holden, and Daniel Patterson.

3.2. 1. School processes and school cultures- are the schools qualities that stand out most to each student. It could be an object, a teacher, a smell, or even the culture itself. In our textbook it talks about how 12 schools were part of a project about school process and school cultures. They stated that there were four similarities between all schools, that in the end game, could apply to all schools. The four changes are conflict, new behaviors, team building, and process and content interrelated. The conflict was by wanting to use a democracy system within the schools, which then unearthed hidden problems. The new behaviors was how new relationships were forming and behaviors were changing. The team building was taking the whole school and voting on issues and problems. Lastly, the intertwining of process and content was important because how a team went about its work was just as important as the content of the work.

4. Equality of Opportunity and Educational Outcomes

4.1. 1. Students who are from a lower class family will have a harder time with education because it can be very expensive. Minorities have a harder time with education due to less educational opportunities. Genders impact on educational outcomes has been historic. Men have always been able to study while females have not. However, it is stated in our textbook in chapter eight in the section labeled "gender" that "In the last 20 years, gender differences between men and women, in terms of educational attainment, have been reduced."

4.2. 2. The first response argues that differences in learning between public and private schools were actually minuscule. The other response is about how the socioeconomic composition of a school has more effect on the students and what they achieve than the individuals race and class.

5. Educational Reform and School Improvement

5.1. 1. Two school-based reforms are school-business partnerships and privatization. School-business partnerships were created because certain businesses did not think that the schools were producing the kind of graduates that were need to boost The United States economy. Privatization was created by companies who took over failing schools and made them for profit.

5.2. 2. The first reform to impact education would be privatization. The privatization of schools meant that they would be paying for better education to get into better colleges. The second would be school-business partnerships. With this reform businesses can now somewhat influence the kind of graduates they are looking for to run the country some day.

6. Politics of Education

6.1. 1. Political Purpose- Is to help the children in school know the laws and to help the citizens who will help the political order. 2.Intellectual Purpose- Is to teach basic skills of education and to learn specific knowledge. 3. Social Purpose- is to help the children with their social life. To teach them how to work together and work in different roles and settings. 4. Economic Purpose- Is to prepare the students by finding what they're strong in so they can identify their future jobs.

6.2. 1. The role of the school- The Liberal Perspective: it believes in the government involvement to ensure fair treatment to all. 2. Explanations of unequal performance- The Conservative Perspective: it believes in the strongest survive; fight or flight. 3. Definition of educational problems- The Radical Perspective: it believes that in this perspective society has productivity to ensure a minimal standard of living.

7. History of U.S. Education

7.1. 1. Choose and describe a reform movement that you think has had the most influence on education. A: Education for women and African-Americans; it gave more educational opportunities to women and Afican-Americans and soon established historic black colleges.

7.2. 2. Choose and describe one historical interpretation of U.S. Education. A: Equality of opportunity; it gave service men and women the option of higher education after WW2. At this time as well even though they were given equal rights, African-Americans were still facing inequality when it comes to education.

8. Curriculum, Pedagogy, and the Transmission of Knowledge

8.1. 1. Social Efficiency Curriculum- The reason why I advocate this type of curriculum is because as much as I want every student to pass and well in school, I believe that not everyone is going to be able to handle the same type of learning. This type of curriculum is based on that all students are put into groups based on academic achievement and taught that way. I support this because why would you want to put someone who is not the best at school and needs extra help on the same class as someone who is good at school, at a class level that is above average and the same is true for the opposite way as well. The solution is that we group everyone and teach the same subject, but at a slower, moderate, or faster pace.

9. Explanations of Educational Inequality

9.1. 1. One cultural difference is how African-American students do not do well in school because of their oppressed lifestyle. Another difference is the microsociological perspective that suggests that the working-class students adapt to the unfair aspects of social class.

9.2. 2. One educational inequality is school financing. Against private schools, which spend their time on academics, public schools get their funding from the government, where private schools are privately funded and as I stated before focus on education not athletics. The second is school supplies. Public schools do not have the supplies and resources that private schools have and are given regularly. The third is the curriculum. Public school are told what they have to teach, whereas private schools are given different options of things to teach. The fourth is ability grouping. All school systems do this. They put the students into groups that are based on their academic achievement and then do class work within these groups. The problem with this is that there is going to be one or two groups that are below average when it comes to school and they are going to have a harder time with the class work.