Chapter 13: School Curriculum and Cultures

Question 1

What are the two functions of the functional perspective? What are examples of the functions?

Answer 1

1. Manifest Functions
   - technical skills; political knowledge, math, science, vocational
2. Hidden Functions
   - social and moral skills

Question 2

What are the trends supporting functionalism?

Answer 2

• “Blocking” of knowledge
• Stability and shifting emphasis
• International similarities

Question 3

Under conflict perspective, what are the two forms of knowledge?

Answer 3

1. “Selective knowledge”
   - dominance of middle class, eurocentrism
   - questions why is it more important to be able to read Shakespeare than to know how to fix a car
   - assumptions regarding social class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.
   - it is still a debate on if evolution should be taught, or how history is taught
2. “Official knowledge”
   - struggle, conflict, negotiation, and compromise
   - challenges from the Right wing to the Left wing; we tend to teach from a Right wing, curriculum outcomes reflect political power balance

Question 4

What was the sex ed curriculum eliminated by Ford? Why was it opposed? Why are these oppositions flawed?

Answer 4

The old curriculum did not educate based on the internet, sexual identities or sexual orientations
The Ford government put that old curriculum back in place
Some example of contested aspects of the new (now “old”) sex ed curriculum:
- Grade 1: “dictionary names” for body parts, including the vagina and the penis
- Grade 3: basics of reproduction and relationships, including same-sex relationships
- Grade 4: changes they can expect in puberty such as menstruation, begin to learn about online safety
- Grade 6: discussion of masturbation and consent
- Grade 7: sexting, oral and anal sex, and sexually-transmitted infections
- Grade 8: contraception and gender fluidity
- Grade 9: pleasure and pornography

Those opposed (including the new Ford government):
- It gives kids ideas
- They’re too young to comprehend
- It promotes “immoral behaviour”
There is no empirical evidence to support these claims.
Isn’t knowledge better than ignorance? Evidence in the US states that the highest teen pregnancy rates are in states teaching abstinence.

Question 5

What are some books banned from the Right wing vs the Left wing? Why were they banned by these parties? What are some other books that were banned for strange reasons?

Answer 5

Right Wing:
- Malcolm X, The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984
Opposed because: anti-christian, sex, violence, foul language, pornographic, communist, how-to-manual for crime

Left Wing:
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Huckleberry Finn
Opposed because: racial slurs (african american, aboriginal)

Harry Potter, Diary of Anne Frank and Where’s Waldo were banned for weird reasons
Opposed because: witchcraft and wizardry, a real downer, a hidden nude

Question 6

What is the definition of bullying?

Answer 6

An imbalance of power that creates direct and indirect negative interactions. The perpetrator has intent to harm and it is a repetitive behaviour. Bullying can be physical, verbal, and social.

Question 7

What is the prevalence of different forms of bullying?

Answer 7

Physical bullying: 10-15% involved weekly and 25-30% monthly as bullies, victims or both

• peaks in grades 6-8
• boys are twice as likely to be bullies

Verbal bullying: 10-15% involved weekly, no gender differences

Social bullying: 41% monthly and 7% weekly, girls are more likely than boys to be victims and bullies

Electronic bullying: 13% monthly, no gender differences and more prominent in high school

Racial harassment: 18% of grade 8-12 students harassers monthly, 10% grade 4-12 been called racist names monthly

Question 8

What is the problem with the reliability of bullying data?

Answer 8

• How is data collected?
• Surveys and under-reporting
• Observations and lack of generalizability

Question 9

What did O’Connell, Pepler & Craig find when studying peer relations and bullying?

Answer 9

Peer presence positively related to persistence of bullying
21% of bullying incidents: peers actively joined bully
- older children (particularly boys) were significantly more likely to join with the bully
54% of incidents: peers stood by and watched
- passive peer attention reinforced and encouraged bully
25% of the incidents: peers intervened on behalf of victim
Overall conclusions: anti-bullying strategies need to take into consideration the role of peers and bystanders

Question 10

How significant is harassment and what gender differences are found?

Answer 10

Canadian Data (grades 8-12):

• 7% verbal harassment weekly
• 11% physical harassment weekly

Gender differences:
- Boys more likely to commit harassment
- Girls perceive harassment as more harmful than boys
- Girls experience harassment more often than boys
- Girls experience more severe forms of harassment than boys
- Effects of harassment more severe for girls than boys
Reporting issues: shame and downplaying

Question 11

How significant is homophobic harassment and what gender differences are found?

Answer 11

Canadian Data (grades 8-12):

• 10% weekly victimization
• 25% monthly

Significant gender differences:

• Mostly boy-to-boy harassment
• Victims mostly boys
• Harassers almost always boys

Question 12

What did George Smith conclude in his “Ideology of Fag” book on homophobia in schools?

Answer 12

There’s significant levels of homophobia in schools.

• Found gossip and “documentation” of differences (graffiti, etc.)
• Built on male, heterosexual hegemony
• It isolates gay students from the “other” (ex. non gay males) but also from other gay males (for fear of being outed)
• There’s an importance in “passing” (for straight)
• Complicity of school system (teachers, administration)

Question 13

What is the counter-argument made by McCormack and Anderson (2010) in “It’s just not acceptable anymore: the erosion of homophobia…”?

Answer 13

• Schools have become more welcoming places for gay and lesbian youth
• For most young people, it’s no longer an issue
• Coming out can actually improve a students social status

Question 14

Why is violence at school seen as so severe?

Answer 14

Is there an exaggerated sense of vulnerability? It has been found that children are much more safe at school than at home
However, it’s seen as so severe because violence at school is a violation of the social contract; we are required to go to school so there is an expectation that children will be kept safe.

Response:
Conservative: law & order
Liberal: structure of schooling and school environment

Question 15

Why do they say there’s been an “invention” of the teenager?

Answer 15

The invention of teenager happened in the 1950s

• increasing school length
• development of social experimentation
• allowing for age appropriate peer cultures

Question 16

What are the bases for school popularity?

Answer 16

Popularity is based on:

• physical appearance
• gender
• race
• wealth
• sexuality

Question 17

How does Milner describe the status systems in high schools?

Answer 17

Children and teenager shave little power, they are the bottom of school hierarchy and are under parental control
Thye create peer groups to establish power relations through:
- popularity
- consumption (money, belongings)
- outsiders and isolates
This leads to bullying, and should be dealt with with pluralistic high schools

Question 18

What is a pluralistic high school?

Answer 18

Allows for formation of distinctive social identities, based on principles of equity and tolerance
Has sizeable minorities (more diversity), gender and racial equity, different status (no clear status hierarchies) and instead multiple bases for status
Have many extracurricular activities; allows for the expression of different interests and status diffusion

Question 19

What is a Zero Tolerance policy?

Answer 19

Zero tolerance policies is to solve bullying issues

• offers immediate solutions
• shows accountability (legal and public image)
• relatively “easy to implement”
• “removes” problem (the bully)

Question 20

Did Stinchcomb, Bazemore, Riestenberg support the idea that Zero Tolerance policies work?

Answer 20

Do they resolve the problem?
- sense of overall victimization; siege mentality (we are always under threat)
- ignore context; perpetrator is not being helped
add to vicious cycle
- moves problem elsewhere

Question 21

What are the solutions and advantages to restorative justice?

Answer 21

Restorative justice solutions:
- repairing the harm
- stakeholder involvement (involves victim and bully)
- transforming the community-government relationship
Advantages:
- break violence/retribution cycle
- pro-active conflict resolution
- democratic
- behaviour change
- focus on victim

Question 22

What are the implementation challenges with restorative justice?

Answer 22

Implementation challenges:

• resources, declining funding
• time, patience, and consistency, it’s not a quick fix
• leadership, training (teachers are not trained for this)

Question 23

What are some other proposed bullying prevention programs?

Answer 23

Proposed bullying prevention programs

• Student-teacher bonding
• Age-appropriate discussions on bullying and harassment
• Focus on equity and justice
• Clear, consistent and fair behavioural norms
• Staff development
• School-community relationships; teachers need to better understand lives of students
• Improve physical school environment
• Change instructional environment; more collaborative and explorative learning
• Smaller classes and push for achievement

Question 24

What are the implementation challenges with the proposed prevention programs?

Answer 24

Resources
- time and finances
- curriculum pressures
Roots of violence; do proposed strategies change cause of oppression?
- increasing deterioration of inner-city communities
- conservative backlash
- competitive nature of society
School as site vs school as context
Liability and “social contract”; when violent kids are not reprimanded and something bad happens, it will be questioned why they were not kicked out