Foundations of Education: Unit 5


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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:

  1. Anyon does a great job looking carefully at what she found in each of the 4 schools. What do you think about the themes she chooses to discuss at the end of each case analysis - narcissism, excellence, resistance, and possibility. Do you see them in educational settings you've been in as a student? Do you see different themes? How do you think these themes get promulgated? Will you contribute to them as a teacher? Have you known teachers who contributed to them? Give specific examples - talk from your own experiene. Again, be careful not to make sweeping generalizations of particular populations of kids or parents or society.
  2. Anyon also talks a great deal about what it means to understand in social studies in each of those four schools. Teaching for understanding is a hot theme right now in education. My question to you is - what does it mean to understand in your subject matter area? What are the big ideas, skills, or set of concepts that compose an understanding in your area? After you address this question talk about what activities look like in your area - what are the activities that students do - for the sake of learning - and how do those activities contribute to learning? Really, do they? Finally, so what will you do as a teacher teaching for understanding?
  3. Lastly, is it possible to be a reflective teacher all the time? Why or why not? What's hard about being a reflective teacher? What do you imagine as some of the barriers? Where do you think the sticking points will be? Being a reflective teacher sounds easy up front but I challenge you to keep coming back to this target throughout your program - will it get easier or harder to meet this standard?

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!

 

Mark