EDFI 4080
Alternative routes to teacher certification (ARTC)
"break the monopoly" of schools and colleges of education and thus will improve the profession through greater competition (deregulation) among routes to the teaching profession 2 more events: NCLB, American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE). NCLB holds ARTCs to the same standards to which all teacher education programs are held; ARTC candidates can work full time while teaching. ABCTE reduces teacher requirements--5 step individualized program of study intended to prepare post-bachelor candidates to 'demonstrate mastery on rigorous examinations of subject area and professional teaching knowledge". Believe that teachers learn by actually teaching (deregulators)
How does schooling serve as a hegemonic device in society?
--Digital divide: poor diverse kids have little access to technology, keeping them uneducated --Textbook censorship: putting in only positives about the US/positive inculcation and selective omission. --Education in contradiction: we say we live in democratic society, but these kids expect not to participate in their daily lives. --Hierarchy of power in schools: principal--teacher--kids. Rules: We obey because the teacher knows it all. --Work: we work because it's assigned. --Personalization of school failure legitimizes unequal distribution of goods in society.
Social mobility in publications
--Harvard's General Education in a Free Society: goals of effective thinking and clear communication of arts. Great majority of HS students would benefit from a challenging courseload mostly of liberal arts classes. --Educational Policy Commission's Education for All American Youth: only 15-20% of students going on to college should be encouraged to take a full complement of academic subjects. Less able students would focus on vocational efficiency, civic competence, and personal development. --Who Shall Be Educated?: Schools should be used to increase the degree of social mobility. Wanted a secondary school that would differentiate students according to ability and use an experienced staff of guidance counselors to carry out a sorting function closely corresponding to society's needs
Corporate control of mass media
-Multinational corporations control the public's exposure to the media, and independent papers are close to extinction -Highly concentrated ownership restricts the range of viewpoints -Most local communites don't have a local paper (when local papers can be expected to present any kind of in-depth account of issues confronting issues in their local communities) -Number of newspapers declined as urban communities increase -Ownership of TV stations is more concentrated because there are so few TV stations compared to papers
Military-industrial complex
-Technological superiority in war (advent of nuclear weapons) -Assembly lines and increasingly sophisticated technology from industry concentrated workplace decision making -Welfare of the US depended on identifying the select few with superior minds and placing them in positions of authority. -Freedom increasingly tied to nationalism (classical: classical liberals--central government is bad, modern liberals--strong government is the only way to freedom) -Threats to freedom: fascism, Communism, socialism--from abroad
Discuss characteristics central to understanding the distinctive nature of the teaching profession: women in the profession, funding, primary clients
-Women in the profession: mainly a female-dominated field, low pay because of it -Funding: local, state, federal--taxes primarily, tuitions -Mass public profession: teachers can't just up and start their own school. It's a public institution with public funding. -Kids as clients: most vulnerable population, no votes, no voice, no say. -Many stakeholders: teachers, parents, students, legislators
Containment/Doctrine of first use
1 of 2 policies: US declared its intention of taking whatever economic and military means were necessary to stop the spread of Communism. (containment) 2 of 2 policies: US declares its prerogative to initiate nuclear bombing whenever enemy forces threatened American military installations
Bases of the state
1) Authority of the rules 2) Authority of the expert 3) Pedagogical authority/authority of the community (school/neighborhood community)
Language keys
1) all of the thousands of languages and dialects that currently exist are capable of supporting complex cognitive processes, and all can adequately express human problems, dreams, and scientific, aesthetic, historical, philosophical, and religious impulses 2) the prestige attached to a language or dialect depends not on its intrinsic linguistic chracteristics but on the economic and military power of the group that uses it as a primary language 3) all people learn better if they can better comprehend the language of instruction 4) not all nonstandard speakers have developed their primary langauge to the same degree 5) the way a child's primary language is valued, especially by teachers and peers, strongly affects the student's self-concept 6) every language has a variety of linguistic styles 7) a major cause of reading failure is the cultural conflict that occurs between standard-English-speaking teachers and children from nonstandard language backgrounds
National Defense Education Act of 1958
1958 after Sputnik: allocated millions of dollars for upgrading the teaching of math and science, and improving techniques for ID and educating gifted students
Rise of charter schools
A charter school is one for which the school district grants a group of people, which could include parents, community members, and teachers, a charter, or authorization, to open a school that reflects their shared educational philosophy. The district then funds that school like any public schools. As a result of NCLB--school choice Voucher system creates a vicious cycle
What is meritocracy?
A term for the view popularized by Jefferson, Conant and others in different times and places that a society's institutions should be led by those who merit it by their talent and character (you succeed or fail based on your own indvidiaul effort.)
Describe the kind of 'higher education' that was available to women. (1) Academies
Academies: 1751 start, 1820-1870. Semi-public, varied curriculum that competed with Latin grammar schools and colleges. Practical subjects were taught (surveying, pedagogy, bookkeeping)--not what men were taught. The first real school to include women.
Truman Doctrine
Allowed for the US to get involved in other nations' affairs across the world. Massive humanitarian aid to Greece and Turkey in 1947. Marshaling UN support for US intervention in Korea in 1950. US support for French aid to the South Vietnamese in the Civil War with North Vietnam.
What is critical theory?
An educational perspective that focuses on the problem of how power is unequally distributed in contemporary society. Willingess to question existing rules of society and locate the source of inequalities in social structured arrangements rather than in inherent characteristics of individuals or groups. *Inequitable power relations in society as the fundamental source of social, economic, and educational inequality
Multicultural education
Assimilationist: educational approach that seeks to obliterate cultural differences among minority groups so that those groups will have the same cultural knowledge and values as the dominant culture. Pluralistic: seeks ways to preserve and celebrate distinctive cultural heritages as a valuable contribution to the vitality and diversity of the wider culture Multicultural education: promotion of social structural equality and cultural pluralism, and promotion of equal opportunity in the school/cultural pluralism and alternative lifestyles, respect for those who differ, and support for power equity among groups. Ideas and concepts should be represented as the product of many people's contributions, critical thinking should be taught and so should analysis of alternative viewpoints, and instruction should happen in more than one language. Cons: emphasis on different cultures soon decays into a balkanization of culture in which different groups are allowed to develop according to their own ethos and as a result become further disfranchised from participation in main society. In trying to teach a little about every special interest group, no in-depth learning happens. Merely teaching diversity does little to empower change.
Augustinianism
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, successfully overturned the Christian interpretation of Genesis 3. Augustine held that the story of the Fall meant that the sin of Adam was transmitted from the first parents through sexual reproduction to all future humans, and because of that orignina sin, subseqeuent humanity was incapable of exercising free will. Placed a heavy burden on Eve because she was the first one to succumb to temptation. Since she was created from Adam's body, Eve was more prone to bodily or sexual passion/easier to seduce. Eve persuaded Adam to join her in sin and condemned all future generations of humans.
Theories of impact: It's all about me
Because you love it, summers off, etc. Extrinsic.
Emma Willard
Began teaching at 17 for winter and summer sessions. Met and married Dr. John Willard but continued her education by studying her husband's medical textbooks. Opened a teaching/boarding school in her home with the most advanced curriculum at the time--manners, math, geography, sciences, history, languages. Self-taught to teach those subjects because Middlebury College refused her students admission. Wrote "A Plan for Improving Female Education". Primary goal: convince the voters and legislators (males) to provide public funds for higer education of women. Develop the existing state to beyond finishing schools. Regulate female education. Create a female seminary. Created the Troy Female Seminary in 1821. Broadened the curriculoum and was at the forefront of allowing electives. Required subjects: Bible, composition, elocution, drawing, PE. Electives: modern foreign languages, Latin, astronomy, geometry, trig, geom, history, lit, logic, physiology, natural sciences. Developed materials and curriculum that facilitated student involvement and critical analysis rather than rote memorization. Created the best teachers. 1837: first professional development: Emma Willard Association for the Mutual Improvement of Female Teachers (retain contact through letters and publications with former students in the profession" Championed the ideals of a 'woman's sphere'
Classless society: Conant
Believed stratification would be best--without it, disoriented Americans would create social change with violent action. He strove to build a classless society through classifying the population. 1) Americans must acknowledge the importance of the well-trained, meritorious expert in every important field. 2) They must reject advancement through hereditary privilege and embrace a fluid social structure that would allow talented people from any social class to rise to positions of importance and responsibility. 3) All kinds of labor must be regarded as equal, with no position being accorded more social status than any other. When these values were accepted, students would no longer feel compelled to attend college to reap the rewards of high status.
Discuss the impact of contemporary school reform--benefits and challenges.
Benefits: NCLB provided a definition of educational excellence. Accountability. Teacher training. Greater rigor in standards, work. School choice allows best education for students. Recognizes high achieving schools. Froces low achieving schools to do better. Restructuring allows parent and community input. Action for Excellence looks at factors outside of school. Challenges: efforts to establish common cultural values/knowledge, school choice robs low-performing schools of talent, vicious cycle--someone's always worst. No clear definition of what restructuring is. Schools are becoming more business-like--not pedagogically correct
BEV
Black English, with its own cultural history and purposes unique to its origins in slavery Simplified English (Pidgin) Drops the copula (connective link) "to be" -- "He going" instead of "He is going" Double subject: "John, he move" instead of "John moves" Use of double negatives BEV does not mean all students speak in that linguistic system. The language one speaks is not biologically determined but is a function of one's cultural background
Comprehensive high schools
By mixing students of vastly different backgrounds and abilities in the same school, the comprehensive high school minimized class distinctions and avoided many of the social cleavages that characterized the other societies he had investigated. Whereas most other countries were highly centralized and run by the state, local communities administered American schools, greatly increasing educational diversity and the opportunity for experimentation.
Based on guidelines established by the federal legislation referred to as NCLB, good teaching: A) stems from teacher autonomy B) fosters teacher-generated assessment C) is determined at the local level by schools and their governing structures D) is measured by students' good test scores
C
Describe the kind of 'higher education' that was available to women. (4) Colleges
Colleges: breaking stereotypes. Major struggle to get funding and get in. Problems: insufficient endowments, inability to overcome opposition to female education, lack of sufficient social and educational vision
GI Bill of Rights
Conant believed that by giving recognition to the best students and helping the rest of the students find their educational niche, the schools would promote social stability and thus greatly enhancing national security. Believed an excessively large population of college students might cause a disruption in the social order. Near the end of WWII, GI Bill of Rights provided full academic scholarships to all veterans regardless of their academic 'aptitudes.' As a group, veterans had worse academic records and lower SAT scores than the average college student. Before the passage of this bill, Conant had lobbied vigorously for granting college subsidies to a select group of veterans who had demonstrated high intellectual capacity. Feared an influx of nontraditional students would lead to a lowering of academic standards. GI Bill became one of the greatest academic successses in American history. Over 2million veterans took advantage of the opportunity to attend college during the seven years the program was offered, and almost 1/4 of them would never have attended college without the bill's subsidies. More veterans than nonveterans distinguished themselves in academically rigorous courses. Veterans earned better grades than nonveterans and enrolled in liberal arts courses in far greater numbers than nonveterans. Proved mature students, even from nonacademic backgrounds, could flourish in an academic atmospheres. GI Bill provied millions of 'academically promising' students the opportunity to prove themselves as late bloomers.
"Slums and Suburbs"
Conant's way to investigate the segreated urban and elite suburban HS -Low SES schools stressed vocational education and direct prep for the workplace/high SES schools educate for college -Noticed the tendency of suburban parents to push their kids into college prep programs -Thought a wider use of guidance services and standardized test scores would encourage more kids into vo-ed and increase the comprehensiveness of these elite schools. -Believed that vocational ed was the way to win over urban populations MAJOR bias towards vo.ed
Education for national interest
Conant: by promoting social and cultural unity, the American public schools would serve as the first bulwark of defense against the Soviets. America would prevail if American students learned to recognize and condemn the defects of the Soviet system while absorbing the historic goals of our society. --The school's overriding purpose was to supply armed forces with adequate personnel and training people to meet the nation's critical needs. --Introduced function of American comprehensive HS
What is functional literacy?
Conservative. Using printed or written information to get people to a basic level of existence in society. In education: reading and writing. In society: navigate in environment.
List the kind of efforts undertaken in the US to centralize control of teaching standards. (Holmes Group)
Consortium of deans from colleges of education of major research universities in the US. Professionalization.
Which statement below could be reasonably explained by cultural subordination theory? A) Some Korean students perform well in American schools but perform relatively poorly in Japanese schools, which is similar to some African-American students' poor performance in US schools B) In the US, BEV speakers experience less school success than Standard English speakers C) Cubans have a higher family income level than African Americans, and Cubans often have a higher rate of school success D) All these answers are correct
D
Which statement constitutes the major point emerging from the section on "Schooling and Cultural Hegemony"? A) Schools in the US have not done enough to promote dominant ideology, leading to social chaos at present B) Schools are neutral sites; they neither promote nor challenge the dominant ideology C) Schools often challenge the dominant ideology of the greater society. D) Schools are products of a society's dominant ideology, and they play a role in socializing the young into the dominant ideology.
D
Postwar industrialization
Demand for soliders abroad and defense plant workers at home erased unemployment.
Increasing gap between rich and poor
Digital divide: some segments of society (high SES) have greater access to new technologies in homes and schools. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
Women and clerical work/commercial education
During Taylorization: an efficient, technically trained, and cheap clerical workforce was required to keep things in check. Women would do this. Clerical work was designed to mirror the supposed female qualities. Commercial education was not only sex-segregated but also class based. Primary a curriculum for women and especially for the daughters of less affluent families. Mainly for those from lower-middle and lower class SES. 1889: a commercial curriculum was added that allowed girls to sub in typing, bookkeeping and stenography for Latin, Algebra, and philosophy
Discuss multicultural education envisionsed as social reconstructionist in its aim and intention. (1)
Education that is multicultural but equipping students for the real world--students have to understand the world but criticize effectively and change it. (There is no right way for the ideal society.)
Conant
Educational Calvinist: most students were predestined to exhibit certain set capacities early in their school careers which were highly resistant to changes by external agencies. Was very concerned with sorting and classifying students according to their aptitude as measured by the tests. Meritocratic.
What's the difference between equity and equality?
Equality: equal. Equity: fair. Inequalities that have their source in social organization mean that some (the socially privileged) have advantages which are denied to others in the society. The privileged interpret the socially derived inequalities as intrinsic personal qualities.
Identify features of Horace Mann's normal schools
Established a specialized body of knowledge and using that knowledge as a basis for establishing state-controlled certification standards (education standards). Curriculum (pedagogy, psychology of learning, subject matter). Opened teaching to women. Efforts to professionalize bsaed on intention to improve. Goal: provide people with skills necessary to provide quality knowledge. Government certification. Establish moral code of good behavior.
What is cultural subordination theory?
Examines the social processes that appear to be structured into the social system. (the SYSTEM). Different expectations for different kids. Can apply between dominant and subordinate race/ethnicity groups, gender, and social class relations Modern cultural subordination: testing, tracking, curriculum, structural arrangements
What is cultural deficit theory?
Explanations that find the cultural background of different ethnic groups as the source of low-SES/minority students' weak academic performance in schools. In the individual's home culture, they didn't have the same opportunities as middle class white kids. Culture leaves them at a disadvantage schools have to fix. Individuals have to craft their own destinies; society and law leaves individuals to succeed or fail on their own merit.
Describe the fastest growing occupations in recent years.
Fastest growing jobs in recent years (as in % growth): computer service techs, computer systems analysts, computer engineers, tech jobs--small % of job growth, relatively few available. Fastest growing # of jobs: service/entry-level jobs or professional jobs that require skills vocational ed. can't provide (cashiers, sellers, office clerk, RNs, food services, teachers, truck drivers)
Cold War and its effect on education
Fear of Communism--WWII: USSR wanted to occupy Eastern Europe as a buffer against foreign attack. Unless USSR was stopped, Communism would spread. Slums and Suburbs: tied in Communism--feeds upon 'discontented, frustrated, unemployed populations...especially when they are pocketed in large numbers within the confines of the big city slums'.
McCarthyism
Fear of Soviet communism reached nearly hysterical levels in the late 40s and early 50s. Senator Joseph McCarthy feared Communism was infiltrating institutions. Held lots of hearings to rid the US of "reds" and "blackos"--schools were no exception: teachers were required to take loyalty oaths and forswear any involvement in the Communist party
Characterize the future of the workplace.
Future jobs: shift from manufacturing jobs to high-tech and service industries. More education for fastest-growing jobs (technical, managerial, professional). Greatest rate of growth in high-skill areas/largest # in entry-level jobs, requiring modest skills (read and understand directions, do math, think and speak clearly). Educating for the workplace: pre-work, teaching 3Rs plus problem-solving and critical thinking. Income and benefits: low wages because current jobs are low-tech service jobs/fewer benefits. Less full-time, year-round employment. Income differs between societal groupings.
What is the liberal view of education of women during the 19th century?
Goal: accepting existing definitions of appropriate female roles but interpret them to improve the education opportunities. Woman's role was wife/mom/teacher/moral exemplar. These roles required more and better education (based on trend towards liberal protestantism). Education was needed to adequately do those jobs and serve their husbands. Being female restricts life possibilities, so they needed education to make them more effective females.
What is the conservative view of education of women during the 19th century?
Goal: maintain the status quo. Moral education, based on domestic and social circles. Women's role was wife/mother/teacher/moral exemplar.
What is the radical view of education of women during the 19th century?
Goal: new expanded definition of female roles and new education fitted to expanded opportunities. Gender equality. Wanted higher education on an equal basis as women/subsequent equality on all occupations.
Meritocracy and employable skills as prominant educational goal
Grow people with the best abilities. Most employable skills: reading comprehension, written/oral communication, thinking, problem solving/decision making, computational skills The worker characteristics in which there is most agreement are the skills that are emphasized more in academic programs than in distinctly vo-ed programs
What is hegemony? (characteristics, definition, features) **
Hegemony: the condition by which the dominant social groups construct a social consensus--a consensus that is based on the dominant groups's views and legitimated through positions in the media, government, religious centers and schools that reinforce the powers. Institutional elites who share common economic and political interestes control the dominant political and economical institutions in America. They share a common worldview/ideology which reflects and justifies the organization of the dominant institutions. Through institutions, the general population is socialized into accepting these ideas. Ruling class limits discussion and debate, preventing formation of alternative social explanations.
Describe the kind of 'higher education' that was available to women. (3) High schools
High school/English classical schools: Worchester, MA--provided education comparable for boys in the Latin Grammar School and English school. Justification for girls' HS education followed gender-biased lines: female education still captive to what benefits it could bring to males
MC ed: human relations way
Human relations: promote feelings of unity, tolerance, and acceptance within the existing social structure and to promote positive feelings among students, reduce stereotyping, and promote students' self-confidence. Criticized because sources of discrimination are not from humans, but from institutional arrangements that promote inequality
Achievement tests
IQ tests measure the cultural knowledge of children from middle- to upper-class families, not intelligence
Standardized testing for college admission
IQ tests: between 108 and 115 would barely qualify for admission to a 4-year college (115: appropriate cutoff for identifying the academically challenged) Standardized tests became a way to sort people into institutions and increasingly played a role in identifying scientific and technical talent. Wanted a way to ID potential scholars and make it feasable for them to attend Harvard while using a reliable and valid method that was objective (SAT). Conant believed SAT was a nearly foolproof way to ascertain academic promise. He also though the testing movement provided a solution to some of the problems with public school instruction (kid's inherent abilities could be determined as early as age 12 and instruction could be prescribed in such a manner). Penalized late bloomers but Conant didn't worry about it because he doubted that even education could help a previously undetected talent to emerge
Inequalities in employment
Income inequality is among the highest in the industrialized world (white/Asian: $55,000-60,000, Black and Hispanic: $33,000-$34,000) Family income correlates highly with school achievement (students from low-SES families will tend to perform less well in school than do high-SES students) Unemployment rates for AAs have remained steadily at 2-2.5x that of whites Glass ceiling Different opportunities based on gender (feminized professions v. masculine professions)
Social inequalities: racial/ethnic, gender, class--how have social organizations hindered/helped?
Inequalities which have their source in social organization mean that some (the socially privileged) have advantages which are denied to others in the society. The privileged interpret these socially derived qualities as intrinsic personal qualities. They often charge the socially disadvantaged with personal ownership of their deficiencies, justifying the low SES benefits accruing to the disadvantaged
What is cultural difference theory?
Investigates how the experience of schooling differs from one culture to another. Cultural mismatch when kids of one culture are schooled by the dominant culture's. Respects variety of human cultres and assesses relationships among various cultural groups.
Guidance counseling: Conant
Job was to "track" students into educational areas in which they would experience most success--college prep, vocational, regular --Tracked black studnets mostly into vo.ed because they scored poorly on IQ and SAT tests (increased feelings of powerlessness)
Bilingual/ESL education
LEP: individuals who come from different environments where a language other than English is dominant, where a langauge other than English is dominant, or where a language other that English has had a significant impact on their langauge proficiency, and who therefore have sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language to deny such individuals the opportunity to successfully learn in classrooms where the language of instruction is English or to participate fully in our society. Spanish is the most common bilingual program. ESL programs are offered so students can spend concentrated school time making a transition from primary language to English. Such programs have been derived as a bridge from where they are linguistically to where they need to be to partake fully of the educational and economic benefits of the dominant culture
What is cultural literacy?
Moderate. Using the cultures and traditions of other countries (including US) and social groups to explore the foundations of the dominant culture. It compares and contrasts culture, and how we display knowledge and interact.
Emergence of neoliberalism
Neoliberalism: liberal views with economic growth Reconstituted the notion of positive freedom by reinvigorating the classical liberal ideology of laissez-faire, negative freedom (freedom from government interference), and privileged propertyy rights as against rights to public goods Redefining of rights--recaptured freedom to choose
Government as economic regulator v. unfettered free economy
Neoliberals wanted more government interaction in the market to regulate it because it would create economic growth.
Community colleges/junior colleges
New left posed a threat to American democracy and colleges' willingness to accommodate larger and more diverse populations strengthened the positions of radical elements on campus. Solution: junior colleges! Junior colleges would absorb the students who 'fueled the fires' of the protest movement and would satisfy the educational ambitions of most 'marginal' students. Junior colleges would meet the technical training needs rarely addressed in HS and would appear to enhance equal opportunity without sacrificing meritocratic principles and the high standards of the 4yr college
Describe the kind of 'higher education' that was available to women. (2) Normal schools
Normal schools: teacher training school. Offered education and employment. Opened some doors, kept some other doors closed (law, medicine, commerce, gov't--based on 'manly characteristics' like logical reasoning, stern discipline, and justice/rationality)
Inequalities in educational resources
Not everyone has the same opportunities: different funding attains different products and teacher quality Better schools get more qualified teachers and the best resources. Children who are poor tend to go to school with other children who are poor. Minority students attend schol with other minority students of similar SES background. Suburbs aren't part of the tax base that support inner-city schools, so there is little/no cross-fertilization of resources or equilization of conditions.
College prep, general, and vocational tracks: who is destined to go and why are these important?
Not everyone is destined to go to college according to Conant, so we have to track their abilities and get them the right kind of schooling for society's needs.
Domestic 'science'
Pioneered by Catharine Beecher. Believed proper homemaking and parenting was worthy of a professional level of study--that the knowledge base needed by successful homemakers was equal to the knowledge base of the established professions. Ethnic and class bias: North--programs were aimed at the daughters of immigrants and the working class/South--African Americans. Middle class educators were convinced that these children came from homes that could offer no lessons on adequate diet, food prep, home management or family life. Involved cooking, sewing, housekeeping, reality-based math/chem/English
Educational attainment differences
Poor children are not expected to be as smart or to work as hard as middle-class or upper-class children. They are not expected to know as much or learn as much. They are not expected to do as well in life.
Selective omission in the curriculum
Positive inculcation: praise of free market system, corresponding claims that US free market economy is democratic, delegitimation of alternative political-economic systems Selective omission: leaving out things that make the US look bad (slavery, other countries' roles in WWs)
Gender and learning differences
Pre-k: boys encouraged to be more aggressive, assertive, and independent. Girls were discouraged when they exhibited daring or aggressiveness and were encouraged to be timid, quiet, and cooperative. Girls receive less instructional time, less affection, and less teacher attention than boys Primary school: teachers talk more to boys (even when the boys are in remote classroom locations), and talk to girls only when girls are in remote classroom locations. Boys are asked more higher-order questions, and are given instructions (girls are showed how to complete the work). Boys are praised for the intellectual qualities of their work, while girls are praised for neatness and following directions. **Boys are important and expected to be competent. GIrls are unimportant and expected to need help.
Theories of impact: It's all about the kids
Primary concentration: to try and make a difference in the lives of their students. Social foundations helps teachers understand that ability to learn is not simply determined by genetics but is greatly dertermined by the learning experiences that perople have in their cultural contexts. Involves becoming clear about having ambitious learning goals for their students, learning about what must be done in their classrooms and in the school more generally to help achieve those goals and becoming clear about how they are going to assess whether those goals are being reached
Neoliberal faith in market competition in social institutions
Professionalism in this sense: the existance of a scientific knowledge base that practitioners can master through prolonged study, state licensure based on demonstrated mastery of the knowledge base, and decision-making autonomy for practitioners who demonstrate such mastery. Confers elevated social status and material rewards on those who have been licensed as having acquired this special expertise. Neoliberal response: ARTC, allowing greater competition
What is the difference between professionalism and professionalization?
Professionalism: teacher is a member of a public profession that works to elevate the quality of teaching and teachers lives' from WITHIN the guild of teachers and scholars. Focus on teacher excellence that is responsive to the stakeholders and state and national authority. CAREER. Is from within sources of authority that constitute the life of the scholar (world of scholarship in arts and sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and all disciplines that impact the minds of citizens). Herbst: emphasizes the recognition and practice of a teacher's right and obligation to determine their own professional tasks in the classroom. Professionalization: efforts to improve teaching from the outside or on the tangent of the academy. Bureaucratic profession building that treats teachers as employees more than as "academic" colleagues, whose performance is judged by "expert" admins and "management" professionals.` JOB.
List the kind of efforts undertaken in the US to centralize control of teaching standards. (Carnegie Forum's Task Force of Teaching as a Profession)
Professionalization
What is critical literacy?
Progressive. Literacy that challenges/qualifies the perspective of dominant society, bringing into light the role of oppressed groups. Based on political power in party as to what gets shown. Asks powerful questions that analyze dominant culture to critique and transform it. It's based on power and knowledge.
Criticisms of public schools (Prosser, Rickover, Smith/Bestor)
Prosser: schools have failed to educate the majority of HS youth for the demands of modern life. Kids spurned the traditional academic curriculum or rejected vocational education, so they needed instruction in the practical arts of home/family life and civic competence --This showed a powerful anti-intellectual bias --By stressing personality development and meeting each student's needs, the schools were apparently neglecting the traditional intellectual subjects and were thus failing to impart mental and moral discipline Smith/Bestor: schools have not focused enough on intellectual training and should work at things they aren't good at. The school's most important function was to overcome educational handicaps. Rickover: too much focus on mixed ability classes, people have neglected to teach math and science, and the comprehensive HS was a set of bad leftovers. Go for a school system that would ID talented students at an early age and enroll them in accelerated academic programs.
What is the "cult of domesticity?"
Refers to the ideology and social role of women to be a prope wife, nurturing mother/teacher, and moral exemplar. Provided a rationale for formal education. Based on cultural influences of sexist religious views, capitalism, nationhood plans. If women were to have manners, morals, and educate children, they needed formal education. NE schools admitted female students in the 19th century, which increased female literacy. Education would be based on what they offered to culture.
Unequal public funding of schools
Run mostly by local funds (federal and state funds are second place). The fact that teacher salaries are state and locally funded is part of the nation's commitment to state-level control of education, and the fact that there is no national policy on teacher salaries accounts for the wide discrepancies in even the same region. The institutions in which we practice are primarily public institutions that are supported by public taxes.
Factors affecting literacy
SES, gender, racism, geographic location
Who is Catharine Beecher? What was her perspective on the role and social position of women?
She was a teacher/education theorist whose work embraced commitments to liberal democracy, Christianity, female domesticity, and subordination. Believed women were in the domestic sphere and should exercise their capacity there. She did not challenge the second-class status of women and that the best way to be happy was to be subordinate. Believed women had a critical role to play in supporting democracy: we teach the future leaders and families. Education associated with being a mom and wife required the deepest and broadest education and will ensure the development of critical, rational capacities.
MC ed: single-group studies
Single-group studies: foster social equality, acceptance, and recognition of the identified group and to promote knowledge/willingness among students to work towards social change that would benefit the identified social group. Does not alter the main curriculum. Single-group studies convey a sort of add-on approach that lacks incorporation or serious challenge to the status quo.
Hidden curriculum of schools (how does society educate in hidden means)
Society educates in deeply contradictory ways--one way, citizens are taught through the media that they live in a dem society/other way, they are taught through daily experience not to expect participation in their own lives They aren't educated by school or society to examine and question such contradictions between words and reality.
List the kind of efforts undertaken in the US to centralize control of teaching standards. (Horace Mann)
Standardized content and conduct--established consensus of good professional practice. Specialized body of knowledge and use that as certification.
What is resistance theory?
Students experiencing discriminatory practices retreat into a posture of resistance in which they stop working with the school and its agents.
Belief in the professional as based on expert knowledge
Teacher becomes an important actor in a process that effectively prevents students from forming understandings of themselves and their society that are different from what the dominant classes of society want them to understand Authority of the state institution becomes authority of the teachers--teachers are authorized to do certain things with students that depend on their obedience. Conflict: being authorized by the state leaves the teachers' authority very unclear when ther are contradictions in the stated objectives of schooling (which goal should be served: intellectual excellence or vocational skills?) Conflict: the teacher's expert kowledge sometimes conflicts with the way the school achieves its objective of a stable society
MC ed: "teaching the exceptional" way
Teaching the exceptional: fit people into the existing social structure and culture. Approach favored by white, MC teachers who take their own background and culture for granted and are searching for a way to incorporate or deal with those they view differently.
NCLB
Tenets: increased accountability, school choice, flexibility in use of federal education funds, stronger emphasis on reading. Requires teachers test students in grades 3-8 in reading and math every year. Schools with low performing students face many sanctions. Re-done Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
What is genetic deficit theory?
The view that differences in group achievement among different ethnic groups can be explained by different genetic endowment of intelligence in those groups. Inequalities are located in the individual. Individuals have to craft their own destinies; society and law leaves individuals to succeed or fail on their own merit.
Education as a sorting mechanism
Tracking/guidance counselors to allow the strongest students to go to AP/college, those who are okay are on the general track, and those who struggle are on the vo-ed track
Private education
Tutors in home, private female seminaries, academies Most were boarding schools (Ursuline Convent in 1727, Bethlehem Female Seminary in 1742) Taught social skills and the goal was matrimony--a learned wife was not sought after
WWII: mobilization and growth
US mobilization for WWII ended the Great Depression. As a consequence of war mobilization, the US again entered an era of enormous economic growth, with multinational corporations enjoying huge profits with the tax-based support of the federal government
How does media serve as a hegemonic device in society?
Very few local paper and national papers--those that exist are powerful. They pass on their biases and values with no one to contradict. There are few other choices so we have to accept it. The number of papers goes down as urban cities go up. If peole aren't reading papers, they lose their ability to read deeply and critically, allowing hegemony to sink in.
Language differences and school achievement
We use very broadly inclusive terms for races, which can be misleading since there are so many subcultures in one race (Asian-American: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, etc.)
Free marketplace of ideas v. information marketplace
Who owns the means of knowledge production and distribution? Information marketplace: collection of people, computers, communications, software, and services that will be engaged in the intraorganizational and interpersonal information transactions of the future. The transactions include the processing and communications of information under the same economic motives that drive today's traditional marketplace for material goods and principles Central factor to growth and is the largest potential market in the world
What was the view of dominant culture prior to the American Revolution, regarding the historical exclusion of girls from school?
Women's role was to be wife and mother. Women were not admitted to colleges and were grudgingly admitted to elementary schools, like when boys were not at school (till 1834). When attending, they went for a short time. Their focus was on ladylike lessons, like sewing and dancing, how to be a lady, and preparation for marriage. It was not considered necessary to educate girls in an agrarian/frontier society when few needed education. It was a common belief that women were unsuited for intellectual activities.
Can meritocracy disguise inequality in schooling?
Yes. Conant: vocational education for everyone not destined for college to offer them appropriate life opportunities/AP and advanced cources for those who were college bound. *GIs into school (from families who were poorly educated and not expected to succeed) *Civil rights: judging effort and intelligence by the color of your skin *Moynihan-Mostellar: education inputs are roughly the same, so it's the students who are bad, not the schools *Jencks: family background, schooling, IQ, and cognitive skills had little to no predictive value on success (these ideas serve the powerful in society because they served to justify/explain their positions of power) *Coleman Report biases *test biased against minority students
Discuss multicultural education envisionsed as social reconstructionist in its aim and intention. (2)
Young people should understand the nature of oppression in modern society and develop the power and skills to articulate their own goals and vision, and work constructively to achieve that by: 1) practicing democracy--taking active command of one's own life, how to articulate one's interests, openly debate issues, work and organize with others. 2) analyzing circumstances of one's own life (see reality as it is, unravel discrepancies between the commonsense understanding of the world and the ideological explanations they have internalized as truths) 3) developing social action skills 4) forming social coalitions across boundaries of race, ethnicity, social class, and gender
Theories of impact: It's all about social change
wanting to change the world. Little or no evidence to support this theory, and those who become teachers to make a visible impact on the social order can easily be disappointed when they see how difficult it is.