My Foundations of Education

1. Chapter 2: Politics of Education

1.1. The Four Purposes of Education

1.1.1. The intellectual purpose of school is to teach cognitive skills, specific knowledge, and help students to achieve higher-order thinking skills.

1.1.2. The political purpose of school is to teach patriotism, help students be able to participate in politics, to diversify cultural groups into common politics, and to teach the basic laws of society.

1.1.3. The social purpose of school is to help teach children the importance of being a social part of society.

1.1.4. The economic purpose of school is to prepare children for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.

1.2. My Political Perspectives

1.2.1. I support the conservative views of the role of the school. I think that the role of  the school is to provide education as well as prepare students for the social roles they will serve as adults.

1.2.2. My view on the explanations of unequal educational performance is conservative as well. I believe that each student has the opportunity to succeed or fail based on the amount of hard work and effort they put into something.

1.2.3. When it comes to the definition of educational problems, I agree with the conservative perspectives. I agree that the schools have had a major decline in authority and values. I think that because of the idea that all cultures are the same as well as all students deserve freedom and individuality it has hurt the schools.

2. Chapter 5: Philosophy of Education

2.1. Pragmatism

2.1.1. Generic Notions: The idea of pragmatism is to keep the school somewhat of a democracy. Pragmatism is the idea that the interests of the child should be the center of education and the classroom.

2.1.2. Key Researchers: John Dewey is one of the main researchers in the idea of pragmatism.

2.1.3. Goal of Education: The goal of pragmatic education is to grow. Grow and become a vital part of society and never stop living life to its fullest potential.

2.1.4. Role of Teacher: The role of the teacher in pragmatism is to be a facilitator, encourager, and answer questions.

2.1.5. Method of Instruction: The method of instruction for the pragmatic philosophy of education is to integrate groups and individual learning into the school. Children are able to learn and discuss in groups rather than the idea of being alone in a single desk all day.

2.1.6. Curriculum: Pragmatic curriculum is generally a form of core curriculum where one subject, such as dogs, can be used to do math, science, and many others.

3. Chapter 6: Schools as Organizations

3.1. Stakeholders in My District

3.1.1. State Senator: Richard Shelby

3.1.2. House of Representatives has 105 members.

3.1.3. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance

3.1.4. Representative on State School Board: Ella B. Bell

3.1.5. Local Superintendant: Jason Adkins

3.1.6. Local School Board: Walker County

3.2. Elements of Change Within School Processes and Cultures

3.2.1. Conflict- Efforts to democratize schools do not create conflict, but bring up previous issues.

3.2.2. New Behaviors- These new behaviors must be learned because change creates new relationships.

3.2.3. Team Building- This must be extended throughout the entire school. Schools have to work together to make decisions.

3.2.4. Process and Content- These things are dependent on the team building part of change. These things depend on the trust and openness of the school.

4. Chapter 3: History of U.S. Education

4.1. Education for Women and African Americans

4.1.1. This is an important reform for education because it allowed culture to be introduced into education.

4.1.2. Before this movement females and African Americans were allowed very little education; during this movement they were finally allowed as much as a college education.

4.1.3. Major influencers in this movement were Emma Hart Willard, Catherine Esther Beecher, and Abraham Lincoln with his emancipation proclamation.

4.1.4. This reform started in the mid to late eighteenth century.

4.2. Democratic Liberal School

4.2.1. Education involves he expansion of education opportunities too larger parts of the population and not just the privileged groups and families.

4.2.2. The democratic-liberals view the history of education very optimistically.

5. Chapter 4: Sociological Perspectives

5.1. The Theoretical Perspectives

5.1.1. The Functional theorist say that parts of society are integrated into one another. In other words, each part of society functions so that another can function equally as well. These theorists think that schools are supposed to create  curricula that encourage social unity.

5.1.2. The Conflict theorist state the power is the driving force of society. These theorists think that schools are similar to social battlefields. They believe that in the school students struggle against teachers, teachers against administrators, and so on.

5.1.3. The Interactional theorists think that what is not questioned is the most problematic issue in the school. These theorists also think that people are less likely to create logical theories without meaning when they look at the microsociological aspects of school.

5.2. Five Effects of Schooling on Individuals

5.2.1. 1. Knowledge and attitude has a great impact on students. This has the greatest impact to me because without knowledge it is hard to move on in life. The more education and knowledge we have the more we can achieve in life.

5.2.2. 2. Employment is effected by education as well. The amount of education you have can effect the type of jobs students obtain. With higher education students are more likely to receive better jobs.

5.2.3. 3. Student peer groups effect the student as well. How the student fits into the subcultures in school effects how they perform as individuals in society. The "nerdy" smart student is probably gonna succeed more than the "rebellious" student who doesn't care about academics and disrespects the administration.

5.2.4. 4. Education and inequality shapes the individual as well. The social classes that we fall into shape the education and schooling we receive as young adults. The upper class "socialite" family is going to be able to obtain a better education than a low class "blue collar" family. Therefore inequality effects the education.

5.2.5. 5. Gender is another thing that effects education. This to is a form is a form of inequality in a round about way. Men are generally treated and held on a higher pedestal than women. This effects the way that women feel and think; although women start out more mentally mature than men by the end of school this issue has effected them to the point that they have lower self esteem than men. Therefore gender has a major effect on individual education.

6. Chapter 7: Curriculum and Pedagogy

6.1. Developmentalist Curriculum

6.1.1. This role of this curriculum is related to the needs and interests of students rather than of society.

6.1.2. This is a curriculum that is flexible, meaning that what is taught and how it is taught is not a set way, because each students developmental stages and capacity.

6.1.3. This is not a curriculum that is influential in U.S. schools, but is influential in teacher education programs and independent schools.

6.2. The Two Traditions of Teaching

6.2.1. Mimetic

6.2.1.1. In this tradition knowledge is transmitted from one person to another or one text to one student.

6.2.1.2. In this tradition knowledge is possessed by someone and then passed on.

6.2.1.3. This tradition contains a five step process for transmitting knowledge, one: test, two: present, three: perform, four(a): if performance is correct, reward (b) if performance is incorrect, remediate, five: advance.

6.2.2. Transformative

6.2.2.1. This tradition practices a transformation, both character and personality, of some kind in a person being taught.

6.2.2.2. This tradition is based on transformation in more of the psychological makeup of students.

7. Chapter 8: Equality of Opportunity

7.1. Class affects education because of many reasons.

7.1.1. It affects the length of education students can achieve. Some students may not be able to go to college because of cost; whereas, wealthy families have no problem sending their children to college.

7.1.2. Another way this affects the educations students receive is the way teachers and other educators treat higher class families. It is found that teachers treat higher and middle class families and students better than the lower class students.

7.2. Race affects education also.

7.2.1. The drop out rate for African-Americans and Hispanics is higher than that of Caucasian students.

7.2.2. Though it is cruel and unfair, some students of different race may also be treated differently by educators.

7.3. Gender affects the education students receive as well.

7.3.1. Gender affects education just the same as it does in the real world. Males are often times treated differently than females because men are often viewed as superior to women.

7.3.2. Although women score higher in areas such as reading and writing, men are thought to score higher in mathematics. Men are also thought to score higher on SAT's than women.

7.4. The Coleman Study of 1982

7.4.1. One response to this study was that the differences between public and private/catholic schools the differences in learning were almost negligible.

7.4.2. The second response to this study said that going to a high-poverty or highly segregated African American school does have a huge affect on the student's achievements and outcomes.

8. Chapter 9: Educational Inequality

8.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory

8.1.1. One type of the cultural deprivation theory explains that lower income, non-white, working class families lack cultural resources such as books and other educational stimuli.

8.1.1.1. They believe that because of this that these students are already at a disadvantage to students who have access to these things.

8.1.2. Another view of this theory is that the programs created to help these students, such as Project Head Start, is a failure. They believe that is a failure because these programs were designed based on the assumption of why these disadvantaged children have lower achievement levels.

8.2. School Centered Explanations for Educational Inequality

8.2.1. 1. School Financing

8.2.1.1. This a reason for educational inequality because often times there is more funding available to private schools than there is public schools.

8.2.2. 2. Effective School Research

8.2.2.1. This explanation for educational inequality states that at the research suggests that there are school-centered processes that help explain unequal educational achievement among different students.

8.2.3. 3. Curriculum and Pedagogic Practices

8.2.3.1. This theory states that each social class, working, middle, upper, and the schools they attend will have different teaching styles and pedagogic practices.

8.2.4. 4. Curriculum and Ability Grouping

8.2.4.1. This school centered view of inequality states that the students are grouped in to classes based on a number of things, but the curriculum is taught in different ways in each class. This view is concerned about the differences in education that students may receive in the same school and grade even.

9. Chapter 10: Educational Reform

9.1. School Based Reforms

9.1.1. 1. School Choice

9.1.1.1. This reform allows students to choose a school that they want to attend in a given district rather than forcing them to attend one particular school.

9.1.2. 2. Charter Schools

9.1.2.1. These schools are essentially public schools that are free from many of the rules and regulations that public schools have.

9.1.2.2. These schools are funded by tax dollars and are open to all students.

9.2. Societal, Political, Economic, and Community Reforms

9.2.1. 1. Full Service and Community Schools

9.2.1.1. This program is designed to educate the whole community, not just children.

9.2.1.2. This model allows schools to be a community center and stay open extended hours so that adult education, health clinics, and many other things can take place to impact a whole community and provide a better education for that community.

9.2.2. 2. Harlem Children's Zone

9.2.2.1. This is a program created by Geoffrey Canada in hopes to educate African-American children  so that they will not be behind when they start school. This program helps parents of these children well before they are born so that they, as parents, can spend the time read to and educate their children at home.