EDUCATION

What do you think?• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

• What did you notice?

• What happens when you stand out in institutions?

• Schools (and institutions) are they to provide opportunity to everyone or sort people out?• Maintain stability or control?• Inspire or kill creativity?

ISSUES IN EDUCATIONDisciplineDrop-outsFuture of Education

Dropping Out•Have you ever thought of dropping out of school? Why or why not?

•Do you know anyone who has dropped out? Why did they?

• Is dropping out linked to not fitting into institutions?

Issues in EducationDropping Out

1991 survey:

• 16% of all 18-20 year olds left before graduating• Higher for men (18%) than for women (10%)

2010 survey:

• Drop out rates are falling:• 10% of men and 7% of women

• Immigrant youth have lower drop out rate than Canadian born• Direct link between dropping out and poverty.

• Do you think drop out rates will continue to decline? Why or Why not?

Dropping-out continued• Characteristics of dropouts (Barlow and Roberston 1994)

• Fathers didn’t complete high school

• Changed schools a number of times

• Live alone or with friends, not family

• Work while attending school

• Friends/family don’t think completing high school important

• Pregnancy or dependent children

• Disabled

Code of Conduct

• What are the greatest pressures at school?

Code of conduct-it is intended to improved the school climate by making the school a more positive space.

Issues in EducationSchool Discipline

• Ontario Schools Code of Conduct introduced in 2000

• Common discipline including mandatory suspensions for:• Threatening another student• Swearing at a teacher or other authority figure

• Demonstrates education’s philosophical shift to a more traditional approach

• A work in progress. School boards constantly revising school Discipline policy

Gender Bias

• How do schools promote gender stereotypes?

• How do you think a part time job impacts drop out rates?

Dropping Out continuedPart time work and dropping out

• Working a moderate number of hours reduced risk of dropping out

• Working many hours increased dropout risk for males

• Lack of employment increased dropout risk for females

PURPOSE OF

EDUCATION Schools of ThoughtPhilosophies

Purpose of Education – Today - 2 Schools of Thought

Functionalist School

• Durkheim • The education

system helps society achieve stability – has an important function

Conflict

School• Marx • The education

system is a tool used by those in power to control society and maintain dominance

Verses

Purpose of Education Functionalist Approach

• Schools help society achieve stability by:• Teaching knowledge and skills

• Facilitating cultural transmission of values

• Facilitating social integration• Diverse individual students molded into a cohesive unit

• Replacing family functions• Child care• Sex education• Teachers and guidance counselors as confidants/ advisors

Purpose of EducationThe Conflict Perspective

• The education system is a tool used by those in power to control society and maintain dominance

• Real purpose of education is to teach a hidden curriculum

• Obedience to authority• Conformity to cultural norms• To prepare students to work for the elite

• What do we agree with this? Why or why not?

The Conflict Perspective - continuedKindergarten as Boot Camp (1991 study by Harry Gracey)

• Observed kindergarten teachers disciplining students• talk only when asked to speak• requesting permission to speak• obey authority figures

• Teachers reward obedient behaviour and punish non-conformers

• The goal is to mould individuals into a compliant group who will unthinkingly follow classroom routines

The Conflict Perspective - continuedMaintaining Class Structure

• Children from wealthy families are more likely to be placed on university bound tracks.

• Children from poor families are over-represented in vocational programs.

• 1982 and 1996 studies (Porter & Porter; Henslin & Nelson)• higher social class = 4x more likely to be in ‘academic’ • higher education = higher income• class structures tend to reproduce themselves

PAST CHALLENGESSchool Reform – 1940’s – todayBehaviourist schoolMarxist-free School

Traditionalist

• -Increased compulsory subjects and reduced options

• -Centralized provincial power• reduced power of teachers to

develop local courses

• -No more grants for gyms and auditoriums

• -Technical and business subjects received little attention

Progressive-As the manufacturing sector became more important

-The need for trained technicians drove school reform

-Technical education became more important

-Extremely rigid (streaming)

-Learning should focus on students’ interests and strengths

-Thinking and creativity, not just memorizing facts

School Timeline

1945-1950’s 1960’s-1972 1980s 1990s 2000

Traditionalist Reform

-Compulsory subjects-Centralized

Progressive Reforms

- Streaming- focus on trades- Grade 12, 13 grad- ridged – locked into stream after gr.10

1969-72 School Reforms

-Credit system-Limited compulsory course with elective course- Reduce exams- Basic / general / advanced

MulticulturalEducation

- Food / festivals- Embedded in curriculum- Anti-racism

Ontario Reform

-Cost of education -$1 billion cut-30 credit graduation- volunteer-EQAO-Assess/evaluation

AboriginalEducation

Other models of Education Behaviourist School

• Based on the work of Pavlov and Skinner.

• Positive reinforcement more effective than negative.

• Teacher’s role is not to force students to achieve externally developed expectations, or to rank students against each other.

• Measure how much students learn from a starting point.• Pre- and post-learning assessment

Other models of Education Marxist Free SchoolPhilosophy

• Competition leads to alienation among those who fail.

• Each student decides what he or she would like to learn.• Teacher guides and facilitates the learning process

The Future of Education

• What are some changes going on in education?• What are some different options other than regular high

school?

• What are some problems and benefits with some of these changes?

Future of Educatio

n

Distance Learning

Home-Schooling

Charter Schools

Corporat-ization

Focus on characterrather than grades

Teach values

on the rise

Independent schools funded by public funds

Can’t be religious based

Now courses available online in most boards

Cheaper, more flexible

Corporations pay schools for access or advertising

Vending machines

YNN – Youth News Network (Audio/visual equipment in exchange for 2 min of advertising in class)

Distance Learning (e-learning)• What were the advantages and disadvantages of online

courses?

• Would you want more online courses in high school? Why or Why not?

Home Schooling• What are some reasons why people home school their

children?

• Would you ever consider home schooling your child? Why or Why not?

Corporatization in Schools

• Schools are constantly struggling to find funding.• It costs more to educate a students now more than ever.• Schools now are looking to corporation for funding.

• Have you seen advertisements in school? • Do you think this will be a trend in schools?

Corporate Curriculum

• Instead of placing ads up, some companies provide teachers with curriculum kits that mix educational lessons with frequent references to their products or corporate name. For example, in some communities, children use mathematics worksheets with Disney characters and when done see clips from the video.

Corporatization continued…

• Why would companies want to advertise in schools?

• Do you feel it would matter if there were advertisements in the school?

Youth News Network (YNN)The Deal:

• Each day 12.5 minutes of (YNN) news would play in the classroom.• 2.5 minutes of advertisements.• The program is expected to be comprised of news, current events, quizzes

and curriculum-related material.• YNN and its corporate partners and advertisers provide participating schools

with an average of $150,000 worth of equipment at no cost to the schools. • This equipment includes a television set in every teaching area, a satellite

dish, an internal video distribution network, and an interactive computer lab equipped with 15-30 computers, a server, net-work hardware, a printer and software.

• Would you accept this deal? Why or Why not?• What are the negative and positives?• What impact would this have on the school, students, and teachers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj9f4ARCRA4

YNN Outcome• 40% of schools in the U.S have YNN and 15 schools across Canada • In 1990 YNN made 51 million dollars from the advertisements• Physiological impact

• Student were more likely to agree that:

• money is everything;

• a nice car is more important than school

• designer labels make a difference

• want what I see advertised

• wealthy people are happier than the poor.

• Could opt-out to watching YNN but students had to sit in the carrels in the library while others that watching could sit in groups and watch.

• Created a captive audience.• Created a negative atmosphere (anti-YNN, student strikes).

• If you were a principle would you make the decision to have advertising in your school if it meant the school would get funding?

• What would Marx(Conflict Theory) and Durkheim(Functionalism) think of corporatization in schools?