education (week 12)

Question 1

what is the institution of education?

Answer 1

An enduring set of ideas about
education and how it can be used to
accomplish goals that are deemed
important to society
* provincial jurisdiction with exception of indigenous education - Education falls under indian act

Question 2

what are some key developments of education

Answer 2

• Moving away from small rural schoolhouses to bureaucratic type institutions
• Rise of compulsory education
• More credentialed teachers
• Rise of common school form (children from all social classes and backgrounds could attend school which enhances solidarity of society)
• 1960s - started to see strong completion rates of highschool

Question 3

where does high school completion stand now?

Answer 3

High completion rates of high school - roughly 84% graduation rate Canada nationally
* Extended education is 90%
* Increased after pandemic
* Canada has strong standing in highschool completion rate compared to OECD average

Question 4

what does it mean to live in a schooled society?

Answer 4

Formal schooling has become center-stage in our social lives compared to life over past century
* Moved beyond the 3Rs
* Schools growing in service provision roles
* Education-devised solutions to social problems

Question 5

what do schools do?

Answer 5

Socialization
Selection
Organization

Question 6

what is the socializing role of schools?

Answer 6

Pass on knowledge - knowledge transmission to prepare next generation
*Not just any knowledge

Question 7

what is the selecting role of education?

Answer 7

• Schools award “badges of ability” - constant assessment to give credentials showing that you met or exceeded expectations (OSSD, grading scale)
• Sort, reward, and certify graduates at different levels
• Schools as more egalitarian, but advantages still pervade ( AP, IB)

Question 8

what is the organizing role of schools?

Answer 8

• Schooling is more than a process of ‘anything goes’
• Only a standardized curriculum is taught
• Legitimate knowledge, system efficiency, rationality
• Funnel young minds into fulfilling careers, with ECON benefits for society (…the ‘just’ society)
• Subject to inefficiencies
• Destreaming

Question 9

what is the structural functionalist view on schooling?

Answer 9

• Formal education supports stable operation of society
• Schools teach modern values
• “The structure of modern schooling function[s] by implicitly displaying modern values through its very organization” (Davies & Guppy, 2018, p. 34)
• universalism: all students treated the same
• meritocracy: only those who truly deserve top grades get them

Question 10

what is the critique of the structural functionalist view?

Answer 10

• How much can we buy into this?
• Is merit still relevant in current climate of grade inflation?
• Fails to address problems of inequality

Question 11

what is the crictical theory/social conflict view on schooling?

Answer 11

• Schooling in Capitalist America - book
  “correspondence principle” - neomarxist
• The norms and values students learn in school correspond the norms and values expected by future capitalist employers - condition students to passively accept exploitation of labour market
• One way false consciousness is achieved
  Subservience
  Accept hierarchy & authority
  Motivation through external rewards

Question 12

what are the critiques of critical theory’s view?

Answer 12

• Do schools simply only produce docile workers? What about the morality function?
  Don’t we want compliant workers?
  How does this jive with current insights on inequality in schooling?

Question 13

do schools really produce inequality?

Answer 13

Insights from Doug Downey
* Children spend most of their time outside school
* Achievement gaps formed early in childhood
* Achievement gaps stable when in school, increase when out of school
* “school’s effect on inequality is best understood within broader social context” (p. 37)
* Extra school forces that impact achievement - shools mediate inequality bc of organized role

Question 14

what is the hidden curriculum?

Answer 14

The unstated or unofficial goals of the education system, as well as norms, behaviours, and values
* All about the day-to-day regularities of schooling
* One explanation for enduring inequality within education system

Question 15

what is the structure of the field?

Answer 15

• Contrast to US counterparts
• Structural diversity - Public vs private (st pauls, yorkville, religious institutions)
• Symbolic diversity - Ranking mania

Question 16

what is the massification of higher education?

Answer 16

1950-1990 = mass expansion of higher education
* Creation of public college system in ontario - More job oriented alternative to UNIV
* Expansion of university sector - e.g. TMU, Brock, York - Postsecondarys not very different
* The ‘hey day’ of canadian nationalism - Idea to have home grown talent to have nation building process of educating the nation

Introducing the promissory note of HE
* A university degree is a ticket to a good life, job, and economic prosperity - that credential is important and promises benefits

Question 17

what is the reliance on international students?

Answer 17

• Because of decline of funding because you can charge them what you want for university tuition
• International education is a way to immigrate
• Giant offset between domestic and international tuition

Question 18

what is the current picture of canadian higher education?

Answer 18

• 1.8 million full time students in post secondary - ⅔ university and ⅓ college
• More women in postsecondary than men but proportion is different for specific disciplines

Question 19

what are the concern for completion rates?

Answer 19

• Recent data from HEQCO
• 22.8% non-completion rate eight years after first PSE enrollment
• Higher proportion for certificate and diploma students
• Impacts earnings
• Access to Higher Education does not equal success

Question 20

what are the competing views on higher education?

Answer 20

human capital theory
credentialism

Question 21

what is the human capital theory?

Answer 21

• Education is an investment individuals make in themselves
• Investment in skill (own capital)
• Belief that people will come out with abilities that those who didn’t receive HE won’t have

3 propositions
* Youth enter PSE as a strategic investment in skills
* Employers anticipate that educated candidates will be better workers
* Enhanced productivity will be rewarded on the job market, produce financial return (for individuals and employers

Skills are the prime mechanism linking education to economic success

Skill shortage prevalent in current discourse - we have these skills but people may not know ow to articulate skills on job market - big concern is socioemotional skills

Question 22

what is credentialism?

Answer 22

Loose connection between formal education and workplace
Expansion of HE creates a surplus of highly educated individuals - lowers value of promissory note
Randall collins - thought schools do bad job at skills for labour market and credentials show how good you are at schooling not skills - good grades predictor of more good grades
Pursue credentials to secure advantages - “Education inflation”

Question 23

what is experiemental education?

Answer 23

Experiential education
* Moving from being passive consumers of knowledge to active participants
* People with fair slightly better on job market

Question 24

what are micro credentials?

Answer 24

Still an unknown, but gaining popularity
* Ontario: $60M commitment to MC upskilling strategy
Creation of small, sometimes stackable, credentials tailored to specific training needs
* Do not replace existing programs
* Require innovation
Fits into broader strategy of lifelong learning