1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Pragmatism
1.1.1. Generic Notions: The school became an embryonic community where children could lean skills both experientially as well as from books.
1.1.2. Key Researchers
1.1.3. Goal of Education: Dewey stressed the importance of the school as a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructure with the goal of providing students with the knowledge of how to improve the social order.
1.1.4. Role of teacher: the teacher is no longer the authoritarian figure from which all knowledge flows, but rather the teacher assumes the peripheral position of facilitator.
1.1.5. Method of Instruction: Children learn both individually and in groups.
1.1.6. Curriculum: Progressive schools usual use integrated curriculum which starts with contemporary problems and working from the known to the unknown.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. State senator: Richard Shelby House of Representatives: State superintendent:MIchael Sentence Representative on state school board: Bill Holtzclaw local superintendent: Robby Parker Local school board: Dr. Terri Johnson, Ms. Ranae Bartlett, Mrs. Connie Cox Spears, Mr. David Hergenroeder, Mr. Tim Holtcamp.
2.2. Schools as organizations: Conflict is a necessary part of change. Efforts to democratize schools do not create conflict, but they allow previously hidden problems, issues, and disagreements to surface. New behaviors must be learned. Because change requires new relationships and behaviors, the change process must include building communication, collaboration and conflict resolution. Team building must extend to the entire school. Shared decision making must consciously workout and give on-going attention to relationships within the rest of the school's staff. Process and content are interrelated. The process a team uses in going about its work is as important as the content of educational changes it attempts. The substance of a project often depends upon the degree of trust and openness built up within the team and between the team and the school.
2.3. State Senator: Richard Shelby
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Developmentalist's: Developmentalist theory focuses its attention on developing the child's emotional and behavioral attributes.They try and use the characteristics of children and youth to develop the curriculum.
3.2. Traditions of teaching: 1. Mimetic Tradtition is based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. 2. Transformative tradition rests on a different set of assumptions about the teaching and learning process.
4. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Race: Race can effect a students educational outcome because minority students have fewer oopportunities than non-minorities.
4.2. What were the two responses to the Coleman Study from 1982?: One response was where other sociologists examined and reexamined Coleman's data. The other was a group of scholars who set about the task of defining those characteristics of schools that made them effective.
4.3. Class:Class effects students educational outcomes because lower to middles class children will not have the financial support to finish school without having to take out loans or having to quit school to work. Where as upper class students will have the financial means to finish school without having to worry about loans or having a job.
4.4. Gender: Gender does not directly correlate with the education offered to a student, but statistics are what differentiate students by gender. For example, men out perform women in mathematics, but women out perform men in reading and writing. Also, women are more likely to attend a post secondary institution, but the post secondary institutions males attend are more prestigious.
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Explain the two types of cultural deprivation theory: 1. African American Children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class and caste structure. 2. More affluent families give their children access to cultural capital and social capital.
5.2. School Centered Explanations: 1. School financing Jonathan Kozol documents the vast differences between affluent ad poor districts and called for equalization in school financing. 2. Effective school Research: If student differences are more important than school differences then teachers cannot be blamed for lower academic performance of nonwhite and working class students. 3. Between School Differences: Much of 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. 4. Within School Differences: The fact that different groups of students in the same schools perform very differently suggests that there may be school characteristics affecting theses outcomes.
6. Politics of Education
6.1. Role of the School: A central focus of each others perspectives and is at the heart of their differing analyses.
6.2. Four Purposes of Education
6.2.1. Social: To work as one of many institutions, such as the family and the church to ensure social cohesion.
6.2.2. Economic: To prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
6.2.3. Intellectual: To teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics.
6.2.4. Political: To inculcate allegiance to the existing political order; to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order.
6.3. Explanations of Unequal Performance: Conservatives argue that individuals or groups of students rise and fall on their own intelligence, hard work, and initiative, and that achievement is based on hard work and sacrifice.
6.4. Definition of Educational Problems: Schools systematically lowered academic standards and reduced educational quality. Schools watered down the traditional curriculum. Schools lost their traditional role of teaching moral standards and values.
7. History of US Education
7.1. I believe the movement that Horace Mann started has had the most impact on education. He believed that more children should be able to be educated so he started public schools.
8. Sociological Perspectives
8.1. Conflict Theory: the belief that the social order is not based on some collective agreement, but on the ability of dominant groups to impose their will on subordinate groups through force, cooptation, and manipulation.
8.2. Functionalism: Views society as a kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to produce the dynamic energy required to make society work.
8.3. Interactionalism: Critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives.
8.4. Effects of Schooling on individuals
8.4.1. Knowledge and attitudes: Social classes and backgrounds of individuals can affect their schooling. Along with differences in schools academic success.
8.4.2. Employment
8.4.3. Education and Mobility: Where you attended school could possibly help or hinder you in future endeavors. i.e. a private school diploma could quickly escalate your social mobility.
8.4.4. Teacher Behavior can affect individuals because if the teachers do not care to properly teach, it will encourage the students that their education does not really matter.
8.4.5. Inadequate schools: Affect every student that attends the school because they may not have the necessary resources to properly educate their students.