Education Flashcards
Formal education
Occurs in institutional settings
- Tend to be organized by the state
Informal education
Stresses societal norms and values, working to socialize the next generation
Educational Institutions are responsible for what?
Responsible for the transmission of knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes deemed desirable
Residential School
- Earliest of formal education
- Re-socialize aboriginal kids people to become ‘civilized’
Mass Education (a common moral education)
- tax-supported elementary schools in Canada
- Divided education by gendered expectations
- Industrialization and immigration
- Viewed as essential to economic development
Which province was first to offer free compulsory education?
Ontario; then other followed in the early 1900s
What did the gendered expectation in education reinforce?
The notion that girls and boys have different occupational and social roles
- Girls = nurturing occupations (nursing, teacher)
- Boys = vocational trades or advanced studies
Massification
Significant rise in post secondary educational attainment
- in 2010, more then 60% of those over 25 had some form of post-secondary education
Education leads to _______, ________, ________ and _______
Education leads to jobs, greater income, improved health and a good standard of living
Credential inflation
The ever-increasing cache of educational credentials required for a particular job
What are factors students rely on when looking into which university to attend?
Institutional & program reputation, campus location, campus safety, financial costs
Women now account for almost ____ % of undergraduates
60%
Women constitute of ___% of teachers but only __% of principals
64% but only 22%
Women represent just over ____ of all university faculty positions
1/3
Chilly climate (Feminist)
The lack of warmth or encouragement that girls and women feel in school as a result of sexism
What are some changes with post-secondary institutions?
- Gov funding has declined dramatically
- Less professors but more students = bigger classes
- Higher tuition
- Corporate models
- Secure external funding = cant research controversial subjects
- Quality and accountability = quantitative assessments rather than quality based
McDonaldization (Ritzer)
The notion that universities are expected to function in ever more efficient ways, with a high degree of predictability and standardization
Neil Curtis is highly critical of a consumer model of education. What does he worry will happen due to McDonaldization?
He worries that setting up the professor-student relationship as a salesperson-customer relationship will produce students who lack the capacity for independent thought, are hesitant to take risks, and will not pursue self-directed learning
What are 5 things that lead to McDonaldization?
1) Efficiency = drive-thru, fast
2) Calculability = not worried about quality, worried about # of sales
3) Predictability
4) Control through technology = identified by our student #, can’t be customized (burger)
5) Irrationality of rationality = huge line at the drive-thru even tho it should be efficient
Academic Integrity
Cheating; over half of undergraduates admit to cheating
What do students apply when thinking about academic integrity?
They apply the rational choice theory
Why has there been a rise in academic dishonesty?
There is a rise because students need higher grades to get into a specific college
Functionalism:
What is Parsons view on Schools as a social system?
Schools need to both serve and reflect the values and interests of the society in which they operate
Through which two functions do schools help maintain equilibrium of the social system?
1) Allocation = grades, diplomas, certificates, degrees (acts as a sorting mechanism for future roles in society)
2) Socialization = assimilation (teaches students how to function in the larger society)
Hidden Curriculum (Functionalism)
The informal aspects of schooling that influence ans shape students by teaching them to be obedient, to value competitiveness, etc.
Meritocracy
A society in which resources are distributed fairly on the basis of merit
What are the criticisms of Functionalism?
- Reproduces the status quo
- Clings to the idea of society as a meritocracy, ignoring one’s social location
What do Conflict Theorists believe about Education?
- Schooling serves the capitalist aims of profit and compliant workers
- Students from privileged class backgrounds are more likely to continue to higher levels of schooling
- Schools work to prevent social class mobility
- Tuition rates reproduce class inequality
What are the criticisms of the Conflict Theory?
- Pessimistic
- Leaves no room for agency
Correspondence principle (Conflict Theory)
The principle whereby structures of workplaces are reflected in the structures of schools
How do Symbolic Interactionism Theorists view Education?
- Examine the meanings attached to school practices
- Focuses on interactions during the schooling process and the outcome of those interactions
- Labeling and the self-fulling prophecy (assuming kids to do worse then other, so they do)
How do Feminist Theorists view Education?
Sexism is embedded in both school text and in classroom practices (ok for boys to answer without raising their hand, but girls are corrected if they dont lift their hand)
Feminist Theory:
What are some gendered patterns of interaction?
- Boys have more classroom interaction with teachers
- Behaviour that is accepted from boys is corrected in girls
- Sexism is not as prevalent in course texts
- Hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity are reinforced in schools
Hegemonic masculinity (Connell)
The dominant culture form of masculinity that changes both over time and from place to place - In Canada it is associated with white, middle-class heterosexual men
Emphasized femininity (Connell)
The dominant culture form of femininity that is constructed in relation to hegemonic masculinity - In Canada it is associated with white, middle-class heterosexual women
Instead of acting as the great equalizer for girls and boys, school ____________________
reproduce and regulate particular normative constructions of masculinity and femininity
How do the multiculturalism and anti-racist approaches tend to differ?
Multiculturalism = political doctrine, ideology, ignores trying to minimize inequality, promotes tolerance for diversity Anti-racist = central to how we claim, occupy, and defend space; want to challenge the values that perpetuate systematic racism
How do Anti-Racist Theorists approach education?
Commitment to create classroom spaces that enable students to think through and question assumptions about the world
Cultural capital
Refers to a set of usable resources (skills, habits, manners) that can translate into economic and social success
Children from _________ classes come to school with greater cultural capital
Higher classes
Which type of of culture is taught in schools? (Bourdieu)
Only the culture of the dominant; schools reproduce existing power relations- they are not value neutral
How do Post-Structuralist Theorists view Educational materials (textbooks)?
It allows us to uncover the discursive structures of dominance that are presented to Canadian students as truth
