1. EDUCATIONAL REFORM
1.1. Societal Reform
1.1.1. State-led education provides each state with its own agenda in what it feels is adequate for children in schools.
1.1.2. Neo-Liberal Approach Independent power of schools stressed in eliminating the achievement gap for low income students. (pg. 519)
1.1.3. Broader Bolder Approach School level reform necessary, but insufficient, and societal and community level reforms are necessary. (pg. 519)
1.2. School-Work Programs
1.2.1. Incorporated in the 1990's with the intent to extend vocational emphasis on non-college-bound students regarding skills for successful employment. It was also designed to stress importance of work-based learning.
1.2.2. President Bill Clinton signed the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994.
1.2.3. Allows students to explore different careers, skills obtained by structural work-based training, and develop valued credentials for future success.
2. POLITICS OF EDUCATION
2.1. Liberal Perspective
2.1.1. The balance of economic productivity of capitalism with the social and economic needs of the majority of people in the United States. (pg. 24)
2.1.2. Hoover vs. FDR President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) demonstrates conservative perspective in the belief that: "Individuals must compete in the social environment in order to survive, and human progress is dependent on individual initiative and drive (The Politics of Education pg. 23)." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5qmOKL9acA Franklin Roosevelt's liberal perspective was portrayed through his passing of the New Deal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALBt6gDHadw
2.1.3. According to Student News Daily, Liberal Education places focus on the government and the belief that it should provide additional funds on existing public schools, raising teacher salaries and reducing class size. https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/
2.1.4. Belief that citizens should participate in society and be provided equal opportunity to succeed in that society. ( pg. 27)
2.2. Progressive Visions
2.2.1. Parents are the primary teachers. A parent's responsibility is to guide a child in a direction that will benefit them in life. Preferably, parents will teach their children morale, responsibility, and support them in their education. Teachers are there to enhance learning and fulfill voids in understanding with the knowledge they have acquired, but they cannot be solely responsible for a students success entirely. Naturally, teachers are assistants in guiding, but the parents are the primary facilitators.
2.2.2. Always room to improve and progress with education. Allows students to experience a variety of ways to learn, while involving the community. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XycNgAEXiGo
2.2.3. Mission, Philosophy, and Goals John Dewey was a teacher known for his unique approach to education through pragmatism that was the center of the Progressive Movement in teaching. Pragmatism, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is "a reasonable and logical way of doing things or of thinking about problems that is based on dealing with specific situations instead of on ideas and theories." Find out more about the "hands on" approach by clicking on this link. http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/john.html
3. PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
3.1. Generic Notions
3.1.1. Plato believed in the search for truth. Matter is an inaccurate measurement of truth since it is constantly changing and senses were not to be trusted, because they deceive us. The only constant is mathematics, for it does not change and is eternal. He had a philosophy that proposed questioning people to make them think and render their point of view. (pg 181)
3.2. Key Researchers
3.2.1. Plato was a philosopher of idealism. He believed individuals should be moved toward the achievement for good, and felt people should have more abstract views formed off of ideas rather than concrete matter. (pg. 181)
3.2.2. German Philosopher,Immanuel Kant, was famous for his founding of Transcendental philosophy. This was a two part philosophy: 1) one set of relational properties that appear to us and are spatial and temporal, and another set of intrinsic properties that do not appear to us and are not spatial or temporal 2) the human standpoint, from which objects are viewed relative to epistemic conditions that are peculiar to human cognitive faculties and the standpoint of an intuitive intellect, from which the same objects could be known in themselves and independently of any epistemic conditions. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/
3.3. Goal of Education
3.3.1. Search for truth through ideas instead of examination of the World's "false, shadowy matter". ( pg. 181)
3.4. Role of Teacher
3.4.1. Bring out what is already in the student's mind by posing questions, discussion, selecting materials, and establishing an environment.
3.4.2. Socrates Plato Aristotle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7K59sHKCTM
3.5. Method of Instruction
3.5.1. Dialectic Approach (formed by Plato) - a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments.
3.5.2. Questioning students allows for them to analyze, synthesize, discuss, and apply what they have learned. ( pg. 182)
3.6. Curriculum
3.6.1. Idealists believed in the study of classics and felt all problems had a root from the past that could best be understood by seeing how they were dealt with then. ( pg. 182)
3.6.2. Mortimer Adler, modern philosopher. Fond of Socrates, Adler follows suite in his ideas and philosophies. A must watch video for teachers------>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK3m9amWF5s
4. EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY
4.1. Education for Women
4.1.1. Females were once less likely to obtain the same level of education as their male counterparts. Today women are less likely to drop out of school than males and more likely to pursue a higher level of education than males.
4.1.2. More women attend post-secondary institutions than men
4.1.3. Advanced women's' rights after protests from 1970's to allow for more effective and equal work environments and equality in the classroom.
4.2. Coleman Study
4.2.1. The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study (EEOS) Created by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1966 to provide availability of equal opportunities to children of different race, color, religion, and national origin.
4.2.2. Segregation would no longer be allowed and equal testing/learning privileges were required for all students, regardless of race.
4.2.3. Sociologist James Coleman received a grant to research the differences between organizational characteristics in schools and student achievement. This was to demonstrate the Black vs. White differences in schooling experiences.
5. SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
5.1. Relationship between School and Society INTERACTIONAL THEORIES
5.1.1. Macrosociological theories studies the widespread social processes. Macrosociologists focus on society as a whole, as something that is prior to, and greater than, the sum of individual people.
5.1.2. Microsociological theories involves the study of people face-to-face. It is a more personal study of interactions with people and is believed by pragmatists. This is the understanding that, "true reality does not exist "out there" in the real world. It is actively created as we act in and toward the world ". https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/sociology-1/the-sociological-approach-25/levels-of-analysis-micro-and-macro-161-2417/
5.1.3. Basil Bernstein (1990) believed that there were different communication codes between different classes in society, such as working class vs. middle class. He believed that this caused educational inequality. They were defined as Restricted codes and Elaborated codes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_lMzV47De0
5.1.3.1. Elaborated Codes-used in relatively formal, educated situations, permitting people to be reasonably creative in their expression and to use a range of linguistic alternatives
5.1.3.2. Restricted Codes- used in relatively informal situations, stressing the speaker's membership of a group, relying on context for its meaningfulness, and lacking stylistic range
5.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
5.2.1. Statistics show the higher the social background of the student, the higher their academic achievement level. A study by Heyns found that students in school longer, excelled further with their education and grew with more liberal and social views within society. (pg. 121)
5.2.2. Women with professional degrees earn significantly lower than men with collegiate degrees. This shows that segregation by sex and pay discrimination still play a role in modern society. However, racial segregation greatly varies from that in showing that African-Americans make equal to their Caucasian counterparts. (pg 122)
5.2.3. Education Amount vs. Education Route Number of years in education is one measure of educational success and where one attends school affects their success. This also suggests that public school students that succeed in obtaining higher education increase their social status, while upper-class can fail or succeed and will not decrease their social status in society. (pg.123)
6. EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY
6.1. School-Centered
6.1.1. Focus remains on children from low-income families.
6.1.2. Coleman Report Research providing that school differences were not the most significant explanatory variable for the lower educational achievement of working-class and nonwhite students. (pg. 421)
6.1.3. Low income students do less well in school due to their own personal issues. Community, family, friends, and possible genetic make-up. (pg. 422)
6.2. Sociological Explanation of Unequal Achievement
6.2.1. State Funding- Provided that each state is responsible for funding education in the United States.
6.2.2. Effective Research into school resources and the development of equal educational performance. (pg. 431)
6.2.3. Society provides different cultural experiences, neighborhoods, financial instability for students without their contribution to better their situation or circumstances. This prevents children in these low income families to excel as equally as their superior classmates.
7. HISTORY OF EDUCATION
7.1. Child-Centered Reform
7.1.1. G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924) "Darwin of the mind" Schools should tailor curriculum around the stages of child development. Did not believe in traditional form of teaching and felt this progressive reform would help children succeed more in a way that individualized education to their interests. (pg. 71)
7.1.2. Keep boys and girls youthful and not lead them to curiosity or early sexual behaviors by tailoring to their needs with academics and extra-curricular activities. One of the most successful being boy and girl scouts. Progressive in administering discipline and respect for peers through entertaining, goal oriented learning. http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2026/Hall-G-Stanley-1844-1924.html
7.1.3. Extracurricular activities encourage children to excel on an academic level. Centering education around needs and wants of children has proven to be a major benefactor for their success after graduation, as well. View recent statistics here: http://elearninginfographics.com/value-extracurricular-activities-infographic/
7.2. HISTORICAL INTERPRETATIONS Democratic-Liberal School
7.2.1. Expand equal educational opportunity to larger populations, as opposed to providing better education to wealthier families like that of conservative perspectives. (The History of Education pg 83)
7.2.2. Historian Lawrence A. Cremin believed that the evolution of education could be portrayed in two processes: Multitudinousness and Popularization, which could be better understood in his last book, "Popular Education and Its Discontents".
7.2.3. Democratic Liberal-School provides an open system. It removes the four walls students have come to dread and allows them the opportunity to experience a hands on approach that so many Historians have fought to make possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LbZ3XcfK4
8. SCHOOLS AS ORGANIZATIONS
8.1. Blount County District
8.1.1. Local School Superintendent
8.1.1.1. Rodney P. Green
8.1.2. School Board Members
8.1.2.1. Ken Benton
8.1.2.2. Chris Latta
8.1.2.3. William Ferry
8.1.2.4. Bruce McAfee
8.1.2.5. Jackie Sivley
8.1.3. State Senators
8.1.3.1. Scott Beason
8.1.3.2. Clay Scofield
8.1.4. State Representatives
8.1.4.1. David Standridge
8.1.4.2. Randall Shedd
8.1.5. U.S. State Senate
8.1.5.1. Richard Shelby
8.1.5.2. Jeff Sessions
8.1.6. U.S. House of Representatives
8.1.6.1. Robert Aderholt
8.1.6.2. Spencer Bachus
8.1.7. State Superintendent
8.1.7.1. Philip Cleveland
8.2. United States vs. Japan
8.2.1. Japan emphasizes students to develop interests based around their community and perform community based learning. Ex: If one area of Japan is in need of environmental changes, students are asked to see what it is that needs changed and how to perform these changes on their own.
8.2.1.1. The Japanese Government creates goals and an agenda for the entire educational system. They firmly believe in Integrated-Learning
8.2.1.2. https://youtu.be/ygInMvH30QU
8.2.2. The United States allows each state to develop its own curriculum and abide by it. There is a more structured plan to perform the same for these students. It does not allow much room for unique development or ideas.
8.2.2.1. Each State initiates its own curriculum based on what they deem appropriate for that grade.
8.2.2.2. https://youtu.be/ZMBSBgzxil0
9. CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY
9.1. Historical Curriculum
9.1.1. Western Heritage Humanist Curriculum Idealist philosophy that knowledge of the traditional liberal arts is the cornerstone of an educated citizenry and that purpose of education is to present to students the best of what has been thought and written. (pg. 282)
9.1.2. Social Efficiency Curriculum Pragmatic Approach-Division of knowledge into strict areas and transmission into scientifically defined goals. (pg. 283)
9.1.3. Conservative Curriculum Reformer (1980s and 1990s) Purpose of schooling was to transmit a common body of knowledge in order to reproduce a common cultural heritage. (pg. 282)
9.2. Sociological Curriculum
9.2.1. Sociologists- Believe in formal curriculum (subject to be learned) and hidden curriculum (what is taught through implicit rules and messages). (pg. 291)
9.2.2. Concentrates on functions of what is taught in schools and its relationship to the role of schools within society. (pg. 291)
9.2.3. Neo-Marxists > Bowles & Gintis
9.2.3.1. Hidden Curriculum shapes values for students.