Foundations of Education: Unit 5
Here are the basic course navigation buttons:
Unit 5 opens on Sunday, February 8th and closes on Sunday, February 22nd.
Unit Title: Social class and disparity in schooling
Unit overview:
We're returning to our textbook for unit 5... after reading competing ideas
about the role of education in culture and society. The functionalists believe
that education is the great equalizer while the conflict theorists see education
as a means to reproduce inequity. For me, at an intuitive level, I can see (or
maybe I just want to see) what the functionalists are talking about - and I'm
persuaded that what we're trying to do in our schools is a good thing (I feel
like I have to believe in the general notion as a good thing). However, I can
understand the conflict view as well - much of what we've already read pushes
on conflict ideas. Unit 5 takes us right to the heart of the conflict theory
and gives us a great illustration of their argument.
At the same time, we need to begin bolstering this complexified understanding of schooling with pracitical solutions to these challenging issues. In this unit we will also begin to focus on something called reflective practice - it is the level of analysis and committment to the profession to which all teachers should aspire.
Reading assignment:
The reading assignments for this week are two chapters: The first
is a chapter called Social Class and School Knowledge by Jean Anyon. It is
from a famous research study that gets cited all the time and makes a very compelling
argument for how different levels of society get different school opportunities
- clearly from the conflict theory. The other chapter is the on by Carl Grant
and Ken Zeichner called On Becoming a Reflective Teacher. Read each carefully
and prepare to respond to the following questions.
Discussion questions:
Given these questions, proceed to the discussion board - the questions will also be posted in the discussion area.
Remember that you have some assignments that begin to come up fast!