Class Summary 1-22-08

http://www.birdnest.org/mckelveyk2/Educ600/Notes1_22_08.doc

Click the link above for the full version of notes from Teaching in a Democracy 1-22-08. Please post a comment if you notice any errors or omissions that need to be corrected. Summary below compiled, revised, and edited by Kristan McKelvey and Diana Smith. Edits by Dr. Pope are noted.

We first reviewed the three political perspectives discussed last class period - Conservative, Liberal, and Radical. Conservatives believe the role of education is to transmit to the young the essentials of our culture in order to "conserve" those things about our culture that are important and necessary to function and survive economically. They believe equal education opportunity is important and define it in terms of the removal of formal or legal obstacles. Other important points are: public school has value, independent talent and merit are important, Academic and Vocational goals are prioritized, and conservatives support a capitalist economic system. Regarding a capitalist economic system two important points are: Private schools (those who can afford to can get a better education) and Voucher systems (1950s Milton Friedman suggested a voucher system may promote educator competition and therefore increase the quality of education).

Liberals believe in equal educational opportunity and define it as (1) the removal of formal or legal obstacles for all and (2) the introduction of compensatory measures that would bring those with disadvantages (poor/minorities) to the same level as those without disadvantages. They believe that Social and Personal, as well as Academic and Vocational, educational goals are priorities because not all children have the same advantages. They agree that independent talent and merit are important, the capitalist economic viewpoint is good, and public education is a public good. Society is better the more educated the children are, so members of society are obligated to make that happen.

Radicals believe that the education system is inherently unfair and serves to perpetuate this unfair system by giving those with advantages more advantage and keeping those with disadvantages down. They disagree with a capitalist economic viewpoint and focus on the economic and social structure that is perpetuated by this type of viewpoint. Marx interprets capitalism as depending on *economic* (edited) inequality. Schools are structured to perpetuate differences since people make choices out of narrow self interest that may disadvantage others. Radicals believe we need a new game in which students have a variety of areas to challenges themselves and learn what they are good at.

Tinkering Toward Utopia - Discusses the dynamic between policy talk and institutional change. The focus is: If you look at the history of American public education, once it took hold, people invested themselves in it and had faith in the positive effects school can make. In the past 30 years this seems to have reversed itself. Now Americans are highly critical of public education. Why? Expectations of education have increased but the economic reality is not quite where it should be. Plenty of people who have very little education end up with a great deal of publicized money and success (entertainers, sports stars, etc.). This leads to skepticism of the value of schools, especially since media portrayal of schools is not friendly.

Prologue - Faith in public education has faded in the past 30 years. What has driven this faith in the past? (1) Public education and Democracy have been wedded since the early years. Thomas Jefferson believed ordinary citizens should have governmental power and, in order to wield that power effectively, must have an education. (2) The people that had a voice to promote public schools were those which the public school system benefited the most. (3) Up until the 1950s Americans did not know a great deal about international happenings and felt secure that America was a dominant world power. We are now more aware of international events and are more concerned about whether we really are dominant. (4) Founding of the U.S. – Origins and development of our national myths of Utopia. America was originally established as a potential utopian religious ideal society. There was a divine utopian mindset. Americans believed that to create this Utopia, they should begin instruction early. In the 1640s, the Mass. Bay colony passed the first public education law, known as the Old Deluder Satan Act, which reflected the importance of education to the religious utopian colony. The law said that towns have to have a school to teach kids to read the Bible in order to resist the Devil. They believed education is necessary for the maintenance and advancement of society. (5) Idea of a Frontier – Progress is always possible or "The grass is always greener on the other side". We have put a tremendous amount of faith in schools to create utopia and have become disillusioned by education's failure to live up to unfair expectations.

Reasons for reading Tinkering Toward Utopia - (1) It gives us a sense of historical development of schooling. (2) Tyack and Cuban are making a prescriptive arguement about the way change in school happens. Their model is Tinkering - that small, incremental changes are best. p.5 (3) Opposing arguements say (a) educational reform cycles and (b) sometimes tinkering doesn't do enough or it is too slow. Important Phrase ***The grammar of schooling*** p. 9 “… the grammar of schooling include such familiar practices as the age-grading of students, the division of knowledge into separate subjects, and the self-contained classroom with one teacher.” This grammar frames and forms how we view ideas about schooling, how institutional change happens, and how well changes succeed. Changes that threaten identities or depart from this grammar are harder to make and succeed.

Chapter 1 - There are 2 dominant myths (Progress and Merit) and 2 dominant metaphors (Market and Factory). The last part of class was spent discussing the myth of progress. Utopian thinking is that we can make things better. In the early 20th century scientific languages and approaches became involved in the planning of the educational system due to the emergence of new social sciences. Graduates of the social sciences believed that an Ideal + Tools of Social Progress + Education = Utopia. This group was known as the Administrative Progressives. They had faith in social science and thought it would provide rational answers to social problems just as physical science provided rational answers to physical problems. Administrative Progressives brought Standardization (in subjects, assessments, architecture of schools, etc.) and Consolidation (every student should be learning the same stuff in the same way under the same roof.) More students than ever were enrolled and attending school. Not all students learn the same so Tracks were developed in order to neatly organize and “box” students (honors track, remedial track, etc.) Some of societies ills are being taken care of (Americanization of immigrants, School lunches/breakfast.) Schools became larger, more diversified, and more comprehensive. They had to accommodate more students and offer more options. Administrative Progressives viewed this as progress. This version is very uneven in the U.S. and is more descriptive of urban schools - Rural lags behind Urban, Poor/Wealthy, Immigrants/Natives, Blacks/Whites. Gender becomes mixed up in this as well. (1) Colonial periods – Teachers were mostly male. No standardization or certification existed. Females could run Dame Schools. (2) 1800s – Women moved into teaching positions since men now had more opportunities for jobs that required more “intellect”. Public schools were developing and needed more teachers. The dominant social attitude is that women are better at managing children. Women would go to a Normal School to learn to teach. People worried that boys were becoming feminized so they injected a little masculine PE and sports. Women were not allowed to remain teachers if they married. (3) 20th century – WWII – Men were at war. Women were needed to fill jobs and the marriage rule was eliminated. However administrative positions were developing and to this day continue to be male dominated. Women were not allowed into administrative positions and were seen as more fit to teach (especially younger grades). Until 1960s Administrative Progressives defined progress. After 1960s this begins to change. Education does not include everyone. The state of affairs is called into question. Brown vs. Board of Educ. suit occurred in 1954. There are 2 points: First, the questioning of the methods of progress, but not necessarily the goals. Second, the questioning of the actual goals toward the end of the 1960s. (Edited) *Dr. Pope said, "In the 1960's the idea of universal progress began to be questioned as radicals pointed out that progress for some wasn't progress for all and, for others, their idea of progress depended on others being denied opportunity."* Progress for some may depend on denial of progress for others.