1. Politics of Education Ch. 2
1.1. Perspectives
1.1.1. Role of the School
1.1.1.1. It is the central focus of each of the perspectives and is at the heart of their differing analysis and is directly concerned with the aims, purposes, and function of education in a society
1.1.2. Explanations of Unequal Performance
1.1.2.1. 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 hardwork and sacrifice.
1.1.2.2. Liberals argue that individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances and therefore some groups have significantly more advantages than others.
1.1.3. Definitions of Education Problems.
1.1.3.1. Radicals believe the same as liberals, except that they believe that the conditions that result in educational failure are caused by the economic system, not the educational system.
1.2. Four Purposes
1.2.1. Intellectual
1.2.1.1. To teach basic cognitive skills such as reading and mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge
1.2.2. Political
1.2.2.1. To inculcate allegiance to the existing political order; to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order
1.2.3. Social
1.2.3.1. To help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions; such as the family and the church
1.2.4. Economic
1.2.4.1. To prepare students for thier later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor
2. History of U.S. Education Ch. 3
2.1. Child-Centered Reform
2.1.1. Schools should individualize instruction and attend to the needs and interest of the children they educate. This is important, because every child cannot learn the same. As teachers, we have to remember that what works for one child, may not work for another.
2.2. 1954
2.2.1. In Brown v The Topeka Board of Education, the US Supreme Court rules that separate but equal schools for black and white children is unconstitutional. This was one of the biggest moments in educational history, and US history in general.
3. Sociological Perspectives Ch. 4
3.1. Theoretical Perspective
3.1.1. Functionalism is concerned with the ways that societal and institutional forces create a collective conscience based on shared values.
3.1.2. Conflict Theory is concerned with the ways in which differences among groups at the societal level produce conflict and domination that may lead to change.
3.1.3. Interactional Theories about the relation of school and society are primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives.
3.2. Five effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.2.1. 1.Knowledge and Attitudes
3.2.1.1. Some research has indicated that the more education individuals recieve, the more likely they are to read newspapers, books, and magazines, and to take part in politics and public affairs.
3.2.2. 2. Employment
3.2.2.1. Students that graduate from college will be more likely to have greater employment opportunities.
3.2.3. 3.Teacher Behavior
3.2.3.1. Teachers are models for students and, as instructional leaders, teachers set standards for students and influence student self-esteem and sense of efficacy.
3.2.4. 4.Gender
3.2.4.1. Although girls start school cognitively and socially ahead of boys, by the end of high school, girls have lower self-esteem and lower aspirations than do boys.
3.2.5. 5.Tracking
3.2.5.1. Tracking refers to the placement of students in curricular programs based on students' abilities and inclinations.
4. Schools as Organizations Ch. 6
4.1. Major Stake Holders in Guntersville, Alabama
4.1.1. Alabama State Senator: Richard Shelby
4.1.2. House of Representatives: Ed Henry
4.1.3. State Superintendent: Michael Sentance
4.1.4. Representative on School State Board: Cynthia Sanders McCarty
4.1.5. Local Superintendent: Brett Stanton
4.1.6. Local School Board: David Mitchell, Claudette DeMuth, Jim Beard, Trey Giles, Laura Kappler Roberts
4.2. Elements of Change
4.2.1. Within School Processes
4.2.1.1. School process is identifying powerful cultural qualities of schools that make them so potent in terms of emotional recall, if not in terms of cognitive outcomes.
4.2.2. Within School Culture
4.2.2.1. Willard Waller wrote, "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 the whole is in all its parts, yet the whole could not exist without any of its parts. The school is a social organism"(1965),
5. Philosophy of Education Ch. 5
5.1. Pragmatism-comes from the Greek word "pragma", meaning work.
5.1.1. Generic Notions:The school became an "embryonic community" where children could learn skills both experientially as well as from books, in addition to the traditional information, which would enable them to work cooperatively in a democratic society.
5.1.2. Key Researchers: Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778); John Dewey (1859-1952): George Sanders Peirce (1839-1914); William James (1842-1910)
5.1.3. Goal of Education: Dewey believed that philosophy had a responsibility to society and that ideas required laboratory testing; hence, he stressed the importance of the school as a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructured.
5.1.4. Role of Teacher: The teachers encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement courses each day. The teacher also writes curriculum and must have a command of several disciplines in order to create and implement curriculum.
5.1.5. Method of Instruction: 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.
5.1.6. Curriculum: Dewey's notion was a core curriculum, or an integrated curriculum. A particular subject under investigation by students would include math, science, history, reading, writing, ect...It would include all academic and vocational disciplines in an integrated interconnected way.
6. Curriculum and Pedagogy Ch. 7
6.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
6.1.1. It emanated from the aspects of Dewey's writings related to the relationship between the child and the curriculum. It is related to the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society.
6.2. Two Dominant Traditions of Teaching
6.2.1. Mimetic Tradition
6.2.1.1. It is based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Thus, the best method of doing this is through what is termed the didactic method, a method that commonly relies on the lecture or presentation as the main form of communication.
6.2.2. Transformative Tradition
6.2.2.1. It rests on a different set of assumptions about the teaching and learning process. Although learning information makes the student different than he or she was before, this model defines the function of education more broadly and, according to some, more ambiguously.
7. Educational Inequality Ch. 9
7.1. Cultural Theories
7.1.1. Cultural Differences Theory
7.1.1.1. Cultural differences theorists argue that there are cultural and family differences between working-class and nonwhite students, and white middle-class students. Working-class and nonwhite students may indeed arrive at school with different cultural dispositions and without the skills and attitudes required by the schools.This is not due to the deficiencies in their home life but rather to being part of an oppressed minority.
7.1.2. Cultural Deprivation Theory
7.1.2.1. In light of the Coleman Report's findings that school differences and resources did not adequately explain unequal performance by working-class and nonwhite students, some educational researchers argues that these students came to school without the requisite intellectual and social skills necessary for school success.
7.2. School-Centered Explanations for Educational Inequality
7.2.1. School Financing: Public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal sources. However, the majority of funds come from state and local taxes, with local property taxes a significant source. Thus, more affluent communities are able to provide more per-pupil spending than poorer districts.
7.2.2. Effective School Research: The effective school research suggests that there are school-centered processes that help to explain unequal educational achievement by different groups of students. It supports the later work of Coleman and his colleagues.
7.2.3. Curriculum & Pedagogic Practices: Bernstein (1990), examined the situation in England and suggested that schools in working-class neighborhoods are far more likely to have authoritarian and teacher-directed pedagogic practices, and to have a vocationally or social efficiency curriculum at the secondary level.
7.2.4. Gender & Schooling: Feminists agree that schooling often limits the educational opportunities and life chances for women in a number of ways. The first is that curriculum portray men's and women's roles often in stereotypical and traditional ways. The second is that the traditional curriculum "silences women" by omitting significant aspects of women's history and women's lives from discussion. Third, the hidden curriculum reinforces traditional gender roles and expectations through classroom organization, instructional practices, and classroom interactions. Fourth, the organization of schools reinforces gender roles and gender inequality.
8. Educational Reform Ch. 10
8.1. School-Based Reforms
8.1.1. School-to-Work Program: In the 1990's, school-business partnerships became incorporated into school-to-work programs. Their intent was to extend what had been a vocational emphasis to non-college bound students regarding skills necessary for successful employment.
8.1.2. Teacher Education: The emergence and development of teacher education as an educational problem was a response to the initial debates concerning the failure of the schools. If the schools were not working properly, then teachers and teaching had to be looked at critically. Since the 1990's, a number of alternatives to traditional university-based teacher education emerged, such as Teach for America (TFA) and the New Teacher Project (NTP).
8.2. Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms
8.2.1. School Finance Reforms: The court ruled in 1990, stating that more funding was needed to serve the children in the poorer school districts. In order to provide a "thorough and efficient education" in urban districts", funding was equalized between urban and suburban school districts. It was also determined that extra funding was to be distributed to provide additional programs in order to eliminate disadvantages within poorer school districts.
8.2.2. Harlem Children's Zone: Geoffrey Canada grew up in the South Bronx, an all black community, which didn't prepare him for the challenges he faced as Bowdoin College in Maine. As a result, he wanted to make sure that other African-American children were prepared. He provided programs for parents in Harlem before their children were ever born in attempt to infuse all knowledge that middle-class parents know they should do for their fetuses and infants in a "sensitive way".
9. Equality of Opportunity Ch. 8
9.1. Impact on Educational Outcome
9.1.1. Race
9.1.1.1. Among 16-24 year olds, 5.2 percent of white students drop out of school, whereas 9.3 percent of African-American students and 17.6 percent of Hispanic-American students are likely to drop out of school. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for education attainment are significantly less.
9.1.2. Class
9.1.2.1. Education is extremely expensive. The longer a student stays in school, the more likely he or she needs parental financial support. Obviously, this situation favors wealthier families.
9.1.3. Gender
9.1.3.1. Today, females are less likely than males to drop out of school, and are more likely to have a higher level of reading proficiency than males. The same is true for writing. The one area that males outperform females is in mathematics proficiency. In the last 20 years, gender differences, in terms of educational attainment, have been reduced.
9.2. Responses to the Coleman Study from 1982
9.2.1. Response #1: Other sociologists examined and reexamined Coleman's data.
9.2.2. Response #2: A group of minority scholars, led by Ron Edmonds of Harvard University, set about the task of defining the characteristics of schools that made them effective.