1. School as an Organization Chapter 6
1.1. Major Stakeholders Within My District: Federal Level - Richard Shelby & Luther Strange, Local Level - Kay Ivey (State Superintedent), Mary Scott Hunter (Representative), Gale Satchel (Local Superintedent), Thomas Barnes,Thomas Burgess, Sandra James, Carrie Mitchell, Mary Moore, Ricky Saint (Local Board of Education Members)
1.1.1. Elements of Change Within School Processes and Cultures: Schools have been around for so long, that many of them still use the out-dated way of teaching. Schools have always had students to come in and learn the material from a book and lectures, and then take a test to reflect that knowledge. With technology becoming a bigger part of human life, schools are beginning to make the change in the way that they instruct students. More and more schools are incorporating technology into their classrooms to improve learning for the students. Sadly, many families are also experiencing the havoc of drugs, alcohol, and parent separation. These factors influence students who have to live through these situations, and teachers are making changes in their teaching methods to accomodate children who need more help with their learning.
2. Curriculum and Pedagogy Chapter 7
2.1. Humanist Curriculum Theory: Humanistic education has its roots in Renaissance philosophers who emphasised the study of the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy; these in turn built upon Classical models of education. This belief means that children should focus on the study of their grammar, history, etc. I agree that things such as grammar, history, moral philosophy, and others are important for a child to learn so that they may communicate correctly and be self-aware of their history and personal beliefs.
2.1.1. The Two Dominant Traditions of Teaching; One of the dominant traditions it teaching is focusing on progressive teaching strategies. Teachers and schools focus on teaching the class as a whole, so that they may all progress in their educational career. The second dominant tradition of teaching is focusing on individual student's needs and self-control. The focus is on each individual student and how they learn and progress in their educational career.
3. Equality of Opportunity and Educational Outcomes Chapter 8
3.1. Factors like class, gender, and race can have different factors on education. Some students come from a low-class family, and may not be able to afford books or supplies for school, or may not be able to access the internet at home to work on school work. This can cause them to fail in high school. This can also caused them to be bullied by other children who may come from a different class. Race can cause some problems in school, even though it should not. Many minorities struggle in school because of language, social, and financial boundaries. Minorities can also be bullied. Gender now days can cause more of a problem in school than before. With women identifying as men, and men identifying as men, these gender differences can cause bullying, confusion, and social isolation for many different students who identify their gender differently than others.
3.1.1. The Coleman Study: The Coleman Report was a national study of 600,000 students, 60,000 teachers, and 4,000 public schools, which attempted to relate family background and school equity variables to students' test results and their attitudes toward attending higher education. Coleman found that students' test outcomes were unrelated to the usual characteristics of schools. Instead, the improvement in academic results among minority children was significantly linked to the quality of the student body as measured by the proportion of students with encyclopedias in their home and the proportion with high aspirations.
4. Educational Inequality Chapter 9:
4.1. Two Cultural Differences Theories: Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication, developed by Geert Hofstede. It describes the effects of a society's culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior, using a structure derived from factor analysis. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of human learning describes learning as a social process and the origination of human intelligence in society or culture. The major theme of Vygotsky’s theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. Vygotsky believed everything is learned on two levels.
4.1.1. School Centered Explinations for School Inequality: Middle and Higher class students are normally seen as more talented or "gifted compared to lower class students. Special Education students have been found to receive insufficient education because they were reduced to lower standards of teaching. State conflicts such as low educational priority cause students in such states to receive poor education. School budget and funding can cause schools to be inadequate when trying to educate children.
5. Educational Reform Chapter 10
5.1. Two School-Based Reforms: School-business partnerships are a way for schools to receive funding and extra help for their students. One example would be a local bookstore partnering with a local school, and holding special book nights for the students or providing them with free books. Another reform would be privatization, which is where a public school becomes private. When this happens, it normally costs money for your child to attend this school. However, private schools usually have better resources and opportunities than public schools.
5.1.1. Economic Reform: When pertaining to school, an economical reform that a school may make would be re-budgeting their funds so that they may buy new books or supplies that are needed in the school. Societal Reform: When pertaining to school, a societal reform that a school would make would be getting the students and school more involved with the society and parents in the community. This would help them to become more cooperative with the parents and students, as well as raising awareness for the school.
6. History of U.S. Education Chapter 3
6.1. The Civil Rights movement had a huge impact on education. Not only did it open a whole new era of students and educators, but it also opened a new insight into different cultures, languages, and social standing between teachers and students.
6.2. Plessy v. Ferguson was not only a historical event that introduced "separate but equal" into public places, but also into schools and education.
7. Politics of Education Chapter 2
7.1. The Four Purposes of Education
7.1.1. Perspectives
7.1.2. 1. School leaders and leadership teams have a vital role in shaping the culture of a school and ensuring that effective policies, procedures and strategies are in place for responding to bullying and unacceptable behavior.
7.1.3. 2. Students do not all have the same learning abilities, or the same educational opportunities. Schools strive to create equal opportunities for every student to learn, and to break down the barriers of unequal performance.
7.1.4. 3. Teachers all over the world have different styles in which they teach. This makes it harder for education to be a universal thing, because everyone has their own way of teaching and learning. Therefore, what you may have learned one way in Alabama, may be taught a completely different way in New York.