1. Chapter 4: Sociological Perspectives
1.1. The Relationship Between School and Society
1.1.1. Functionalism
1.1.1.1. concerned with the ways that societal and institutional forces create, in Durkheim's terms, a collective conscience (society internalized in the individual) based on shared values. Functionalists view society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work.
1.1.2. Conflict Theory
1.1.2.1. concerned in the ways in which differences among groups at the societal level produce conflict and domination that may lead to change. From a conflict point of view, schools are similar to battle fields, where students struggle against teachers, teachers against administrators and so on.
1.1.3. Interactionalism
1.1.3.1. interactional theories about the relation of school and society are primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives. The critique arises from the observation that functional and conflict theories are very abstract, and emphasize structure and process at a very general level of analysis.
1.2. 5 Effects of Schooling on Individuals that have the Greatest Impact on Students
1.2.1. 1. Teacher Behavior
1.2.1.1. teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior. Teachers are extremely busy people but they also wear many different hats: instructor, disciplinarian, employer, friend, confidant, educator, and so on. Teachers set standards for students ad influence student self esteem and sense of efficacy.
1.2.2. 2. Inadequate Schools
1.2.2.1. Many have pointed out that the way in which children are educated today will not prepare them for productive or fulfilling lives in the future. Urban education, in particular, has failed to educate minority and poor children.
1.2.3. 3. Gender
1.2.3.1. Another way schools reproduce inequalities is through gender discrimination. Men and women do not share equally in the U.S. society and men are frequently paid more than woman for the same work. Women also have fewer occupational opportunities than men.
1.2.4. 4. Tracking
1.2.4.1. There is compelling evidence that within school tracking has a critical impact on student mobility. Tracking refers to the placement of students in curricular programs based on students abilities and inclinations. In reality, it has been found in many thorough studies that tracking decisions are often based on other criteria, such as students class or race.
1.2.5. 5. Employment
1.2.5.1. Most students believe that graduating college will lead to greater employment opportunities, and they are right. Research has shown that large organizations, such as corporations, require high levels of education for white-collar, managerial, or administrative jobs. Credential inflation has led to the expectation among employers that their employees will have an ever increasing amount of formal education.
2. Chapter 5: Philosophy of Education
2.1. describe the particular world view of one student centered philosophy of education (pragmatism or existentialism) Include the following information: generic notions, key researchers, role of etcher, method of instruction, and curriculum. Deweys Pragmatism
2.1.1. Generic Notions
2.1.1.1. Deweys progressive methodology rested on the 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. He advocated both freedom and responsibility for students, since those are vital components of democratic living.
2.1.2. Key Researchers
2.1.2.1. Sanders Pierce (1839-1914), William James (1842-19100, and John Dewey (1859-1952). However there are also European philosophers from earlier periods who might also be classified as pragmatists, such as Frances Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
2.1.3. Role of Teacher
2.1.3.1. In a progressive setting, the teacher is no longer the authoritarian figure from which all knowledge flows; rather the teacher assumes the peripheral position of facilitator. The teacher encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses of study. The teacher also writes curriculum and must have command of several disciplines in order to create and implement curriculum.
2.1.4. Method of Instruction
2.1.4.1. Dewey proposed that children learn both individually and in groups. He believed that children should start their mode of inquiry by posing questions about what they want to know. Today, we refer to this method of instruction as problem solving/inquiry method.
2.1.5. Curriculum
2.1.5.1. Progressive schools generally follow Deweys notion of a core curriculum, or an integrated curriculum. A particular subject matter under investigation by students, such as whales, would yield problems to be solved using math, science, history, writing, music, art, wood, or metal working, cooking, and sewing- all academic and vocational disciplines in an integrated interconnected way. Progressive educators are not wedded to a died curriculum either; rather, curriculum changes as the social order changes and as children's interests and needs change.
3. Chapter 9: Educational Inequality
3.1. Explain at least two types of cultural differences theory (page 424-427)
3.1.1. 1. John Ogbu argues that African-American children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class and caste structure.
3.1.2. 2. Ogbu's later work suggest that school success requires that African American students deny their own cultural identities and accept the dominant culture of the schools, which is a while middle-class model. African American students thus have the "burden of acting white" in order to succeed.
3.2. Describe at least four school-centered (not student-centered) explanations for educational inequality.
3.2.1. 1. School Financing - Jonathan Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities, compared public schools in affluent suburbs with public schools in poor inner cities. He documented the vast differences in funding between affluent and pro districts, and called or equalization in school financing. Public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources. Since property taxes are higher in more affluent communities they are able to raise more money for school compared to the poor inner city school districts.
3.2.2. 2. Effective School Research - the concern with unequal education performance of nonwhite and working-class students is at the heart of such inquiry. The finding that within-school differences are as or more significant than between-school differences raised questions about the common sense argument that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds do poor simply because the attend inferior schools.
3.2.3. 3.Between-School Differences: Curriculum and Pedagogic Practices- the effective school research points to how differences in what is often termed school climates affect academic performance. This research looked at differences between schools in inner city, lower socioeconomic neighborhoods in order to demonstrate that schools can make a difference in these communities.
3.2.4. 4. Within-School Differences: Curriculum and Ability Grouping: there are significant differences in educational achievement between schools but within schools, as well. The fact that different groups of students in the same schools perform very differently suggests that there may be school characteristics affecting these outcomes.
4. Chapter 10: Educational Reform
4.1. Describe two school-based reforms (school-based, school-business partnerships, privatization, school-to-work programs, teacher education or teacher quality)
4.1.1. 1. Education Equality Project, Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Public School and Reverend Al Sharpton seek to eliminate the achievement gap by "working to create and effective school for every child."
4.1.2. 2. The Broader Boulder Approach stresses that school level reform alone is necessary but insufficient, and that societal and community level reforms are necessary.
4.2. Describe at least two societal, economic, community, or political reforms that impact education.
4.2.1. 1. The No Child Left Behind Act is a landmark and controversial piece of legislation that had far-reaching consequences for education in the United States. Through this act annual testing is require of students in grades 3 through 9 in reading and math plus at least one test in grades 10 through 12; science testing to follow. Graduation rates are used as a secondary indicator for high schools.
4.2.2. 2. The Race to the Top Fund's primary goal was to aid stats in meeting the various components of the No Child Left Behind Act. The initial legislation provided $4.35 bullion for a competitive grant program that awards states for improving student outcomes and closing achievement gaps by developing plans.
5. Chapter 2: Politics of Education
5.1. The 4 Purposes of Education
5.1.1. 1. Intellectual
5.1.1.1. the intellectual purposes of schooling are to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge and to help students acquire higher order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
5.1.2. 2. Political
5.1.2.1. the political purposes of schooling are to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order (patriotism); to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order (e.g., in political democracies); to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order; and to teach children the basic laws of the society.
5.1.3. 3. Social
5.1.3.1. the social purposes of schooling are to help solve social problems to work as one of many institutions, such s the family and the church (or synagogue) to ensure social cohesion; and to socialize children into the various roles, behaviors, and values of the society.
5.1.4. 4. Economic
5.1.4.1. the economic purposes of schooling are to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor. The degree to which schools directly prepare students for work varies from society to society, but most schools have at least indirect roles in this process.
5.2. The Role of The School
5.2.1. The Conservative Perspective
5.2.1.1. sees the role of the school as providing the necessary educational training to ensure that the most talented and hard working individuals receive the tools necessary to maximize economic and social productivity.
5.3. Explanations of Unequal Performance
5.3.1. The Liberal Perspective
5.3.1.1. argues that the individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances and therefore some groups have significantly more advantages than others. Therefore, society must attempt through policies and programs to equalize the playing field so that students from disadvantaged backgrounds have a better chance.
5.4. Definition of Educational Problems
5.4.1. The Radical Perspective
5.4.1.1. 1. The educational system has failed the poor, minorities, women through classist, racist, sexist, and homophobic policies.
5.4.1.2. 2. The schools have stifled critical understanding of the problems of American society through a curriculum and teaching practices that promote conformity.
5.4.1.3. 3. The traditional curriculum is classist, racist, sexist, and homophobic and leaves out the cultures, histories, and voices of the oppressed.
5.4.1.4. 4. In general, the educational system promotes inequality of both opportunity and results.
6. Chapter 3: History of U.S. Education
6.1. What reform movement has had the most influence on education?
6.1.1. Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
6.1.1.1. emphasized the education of disadvantaged children. Second in the context of antiwar movement of the times, the general criticism of U.S. society, and the persistent failure of the schools to ameliorate problems of poverty and of racial minorities, a "new progressivism" developed that linked the failure of the schools to the problems in society.
6.2. Describe one historical interpretation of U.S. education.
6.2.1. The Democratic Liberal School
6.2.1.1. Democratic liberals believe that the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing quality of opportunity for all.
7. Chapter 6: Schools as Organizations
7.1. Identify major stakeholders in YOUR district by name (Federal Alabama senators and House of Representative, state senator and house of representative, state superintendent, representative on state school board, local superintendent, and all members on local school board)
7.1.1. -Senior Senator: Richard Shelby -Junior Senator: Luther Strange -Representatives (in order by district number): Bradley Byrne, Martha Roby, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Gary Palmer, and Terri Sewell State Superintendent: Michael Sentance -Representative on state school board: Kay Ivey, Stephanie Bell, Cynthia McCarty, Jackie Zeigler, Betty Peters, Yvette M. Richardson, Ella B. Bell, Jeffery Newman, Mary Scott Hunter, and Ed Richardson -Local Superintendent: Mike Daria -Local School Board Members (in order by district number): Eric Wilson, Rev. Matthew Wilson, Kendra Williams, Guy May, Patrick Hamner, Erica Grant, Marvin Lucas, Erskine Simmons.
7.2. Identify and describe the elements of change within 1. school processes and 2. school cultures.
7.2.1. 1. School Processes - Because schools are so deeply political, effecting change within them is very difficult. School processes are elusive and difficult to define, but all powerful nonetheless. This means that planned change requires new ways of thinking. IT is our contention that teachers must be at the forefront of educational change and, therefore, the very definition of the profession must be redefined.
7.2.2. 2. School Cultures - "The school is a unity of interacting personalities. The personalities of all who meet in the school are bound together in an organic relation. The life of a whole is in all its parts, yet the whole could not exist without any of its parts. The school is a social organism." School cultures are extremely vulnerable to disruption and that continuity is often maintained by the use of authority. If it wasn't for the students compliance, change would not happen. Changing the cultures of schools require patience, skill, and good will. It is not an easy task and students tend to arrive at a consensus.
8. Chapter 7: Curriculum and Pedagogy
8.1. Explain a curriculum theory which you advocate (humanist, social efficiency, developmentalist, or social meliorist).
8.1.1. I chose the developmentalist curriculum. I chose this curriculum because it focuses on the interests and needs of the students rather than the needs of society.
8.2. Identify and describe the two dominant traditions of teaching.
8.2.1. 1.The Mimetic Tradition - root term is the Greek word mimesis, from which we get "mime" and "mimic". It is named this way because it gives a central place to the transmission of factual and procedural knowledge from one person to another, through an essentially imitative process.
8.2.2. 2. The Transformative Tradition - the adjective transformative describes what this tradition deems successful teaching to be capable of accomplishing: a transformation of one kind or another in the person being taught - a qualitative change often of dramatic proportion, a metamorphosis.
9. Chapter 8: Equality of Opportunity
9.1. Describe how class, race, and gender each impact educational outcomes.
9.1.1. People are discriminated against based on gender, social class, and race yet public perceptions in the U.S. believe that individuals can overcome the effects of stratification. Because of this discrimination most individuals will remain in the social class into which they were born. Economic and political resources directly influence the climate of expectations and patterns of interactions within schools.The stratification will also include jobs the students are offered, their wages, and overall income.
9.2. What were the two responses to the Coleman Study from 1982? (There are several but focus on 1982 responses.)
9.2.1. 1. 'In the examination of effects on achievement, statistical controls on family background are introduced, in order to control on those background characteristics that are most related to achievement. The achievement differences between the private sectors and the public sector are reduced (more for other private schools than for Catholic schools) but differences remain."
9.2.2. 2. 'Formal decomposition of the variance attributable to individual background and the social composition of the schools suggest that going to a high poverty school or a highly segregated African American school has a profound effect on a students achievement outcomes, above and beyond the effect of individual poverty or minority status. Specifically, both of the racial/ethnic and social class composition of a students school are 1 3/4 times more important that a students individual race/ethnicity or social class for understanding education outcomes.'