In the educational philosophy of social reconstructionism, learning takes place through both affective and psychomotor experiences. Since the majority of subject matter will be hard for many students to comprehend due to its intensity and honesty, students will need to develop strategies for dealing with discussions on controversial issues. In order to be best prepared to hold discussions about these issues, students will need to understand that there are multiple perspectives and beliefs on each topic discussed (Philosophical Perspectives in Education). These affective experiences result in a variety of learning taking place, including increasing one’s perspectives in inquiry, dialogue, and multiple perspectives through learning about other …show more content…
Student-centered teaching is when the focus of the instruction is placed on the student, not the teacher. In this setting, teachers act as a facilitator, not as an instructor during class discussions and activies. When the instruction is placed on the students, they become active participants in the learning, often times through doing, which results in psychomotor experiences (Social Reconstructionism). An example of student centered teaching which would encourage the reconstruction of society through education is allowing the students to create their own classroom rules. My goal as a future educator is to provide my students with the resources and the ability to live successful lives where they can work to change the injustices that so many marginalized people face. Teaching students to have the belief that they can make changes to society be very hard to do, but allowing them to create the rules of the classroom will help them gain the confidence to do so. When students are able to collaborate and make their own classroom rules, they feel as if they can be powerful people who can use their voice to make a change. When students feel like their voice is important, they will be more inclined to use them to make changes to society which is the goal of social …show more content…
The democratic teaching position offers students different perspectives on an issue while encouraging them to seek different points of views and to think divergently (Grant & Gillette, 2006). This is important when discussing current events and social issues in a classroom because varying opinions will be present, even at a young age. As a facilitator of discussions, teachers need to teach their students a multitude of viewpoints on varying issues so they are able to create their own beliefs on issues. The teacher needs to be sure not to persuade any of their students to hold one opinion or the other which can be done if teachers provide the beliefs of all the parties involved. Students need to begin learning how to form opinions on their own and having discussions on topics where all viewpoints are included. This is helpful in social reconstructionism because the curriculum of this philosophy will focus on social injustices were many different opinions will be fostered but all students will be required to be respectful of others’ viewpoints. This skill can begin at a young age as it is one all people will need throughout
In the 1997 article, “On The Uses of a Liberal Education: As a Weapon In the Hands of the Restless Poor,” published by Harper’s Magazine, the social critic Earl Shorris described how political power could be achieved by a rather non-vocational educational discipline, the humanities. He emphasizes on how the knowledge of a liberal Education can be used as a form of weapon within the lives for the poor.
If you live on the rich side of town, you’re gonna go to a well-funded school” (Precious Knowledge, 34:10 – 34:25). Supporting this, an article by business reporter Mike Sunnucks reveals that “In Arizona, incomes for the wealthiest grew by 158 percent from 1979 to 2007 compared with a meager 3 percent for the rest of state’s households” (Sunnucks). These issues of income inequality and unequal school funding are affairs that will not be discussed in a social efficiency-based school. In a school that values social reconstructionism, students have the chance to learn about these controversies and learn how to act. Linda Darling-Hammond reveals that “A number of states that have raised and equalized funding as part of systemic reforms have raised student achievement and reduced the opportunity gap” (Darling-Hammond 95). Social reconstructionism enables these types of learning experiences to be possible, as well as facilitates students to explore injustices in the social
Why do children graduate high school without fully understanding concepts that relate to the core subjects of Math, English, Science, and History? Because education is unequal in America. Sociologist Doctor James W. Loewen and award winning writer Jonathan Kozol agree that classism is to blame. Loewen also believes that history textbooks take some of the blame for the student’s ignorance of inequality within education, while Kozol believes it is ignorance from well educated people that are two blame. Although Loewen and Kozol are correct in citing classism as a problem in the education system, little is acknowledged about a solution.
Geneva Gay (2002) combines these two concepts of sociocultural consciousness and culturally responsive teaching in Restructuring Attitudes and Beliefs. Gay refers to culturally responsive teaching as a way of addressing “universal marginality, powerlessness, and disadvantages” within the classroom by taking a critical view of the curriculum (p.1). Culturally responsive teaching starts with the teacher’s identity and an awareness of their own ideologies and theories that influence how they act as a median between the student and curriculum. Similar to understanding their own identity, the sociocultural consciousness is how the teacher views the students’ identities in their community. Gay explains these relationship by saying, ”teachers’ instructional behaviors are strongly influenced by their attitudes and beliefs about various dimensions of student diversity” (p.3). The historical context of the community allows the teacher to use their individual students’ background as resources for scaffolding entire class’s curriculum and help meet the needs of the individual students. Assuming the role of public education is to act as an equalizer, culturally responsive teaching is a means of creating
I believe that the aim of education is to create well-rounded citizens in a democratic society. This means that students are not only being taught just the academic standards by also being taught social skills. The students will be able to be a citizen that will improve their society and be a person who is diverse and who is open to the differences in people. With this comes a couple of barriers, such as the desire to learn new things in both teachers and students in the classroom is lacking and the worker-as-machine model.
“Social Justice in Education” by R. W. Connell discusses the role of education in society and the implications that social justice issues have on education. Connell begins by establishing that education and social justice can be examined separately yet they are inescapably linked through the social medium of their implementation. “Education concerns schools, colleges and universities, whose business is to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Social justice is about income, employment, pensions or physical assets like housing.”(Connell, 1993) Three points validating the equal importance of social justice and the education system to people of all delineations are: 1.) in Western society public schools are key forums of social interaction and comprise some of the largest social institutions 2.) educational institutions are highly economic bodies and have become “major public assets” (Connell, 1993) 3.) teaching becomes a vehicle by which society is ultimately determined and has a great influence over society’s morality. Connell describes the meaning of justice in education as being “a question of fairness in distribution… equality.”(Connell, 1993) “Justice cannot be achieved by distributing the same… standard good to… all social classes.”(Connell, 1993) By stating this, Connell summarizes that in the attempt to achieve equality, unequal means must be employed.
...lass perspectives. I will make the perspectives broad so that my students don’t end up accidentally creating new stereotypes of the different groups. The last tenant to my philosophy of education that relates to classism in the classroom is to not single out one class represented in my classroom. I will work individually and collaborate to change classroom and school practices that downgrade our students. If I see a student in need or struggling I will work with them one on one to help them complete the assignment or learn a specific subject. If a student comes to me with a concern I will speak to them individually and then speak with the class as a whole to collaborate the situation. No student in my classroom will be hurt or discouraged because of the background and class they come from. Instead we will work out situations and treat everyone with equal respect.
John Dewey (1859 – 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational activist whose notions have been prominent in education and social reform. Dewey is one of the primary figures linked with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the fathers of functional psychology.
Throughout this course, my beliefs have been reaffirmed regarding the literacy needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners in a few ways. First, I have been implementing sheltered instruction observation protocol in my classroom. “Sheltered instruction teachers use the regular core curriculum and modify their teaching to make the content understandable for ELLs while at the same time promoting their English language development” (Echevarria, Short & Powers, 2008, pg. 42). The sheltered instruction I have been using in my classroom includes slow and clear speech, scaffolded instruction, visual representations, connecting prior knowledge to learned knowledge, cooperative learning, and targeted vocabulary development (Echevarria, Short & Powers, 2008). This course has reaffirmed the importance of using sheltered instruction to support the needs of the diverse
This book, Dare The School Build a New Social Order by George Counts, is an examination of teachers, the Progressive Education Movement, democracy and his idea on how to reform the American economy. The book is divided into 5 different sections. The first section is all about the Progressive Education Movement. Through this, George Counts points out many downsides and weaknesses of this ideal. He also talks about how he wants teachers to lead society instead of following it. In the second section, he examines 10 widespread fallacies. These fallacies were that man is born free, that children are born free, they live in a separate world of their own, education remains unchanged, education should have no bias, the object of education is to produce professors, school is an all-powerful educational agency, ignorance rather than knowledge is the way of wisdom, and education is made to prepare an individual for social change.
The American educator Horace Mann once said: "As an apple is not in any proper sense an apple until it is ripe, so a human being is not in any proper sense a human being until he is educated." Education is the process through which people endeavor to pass along to their children their hard-won wisdom and their aspirations for a better world. This process begins shortly after birth, as parents seek to train the infant to behave as their culture demands. They soon, for instance, teach the child how to turn babbling sounds into language and, through example and precept, they try to instill in the child the attitudes, values, skills, and knowledge that will govern their offspring's behavior throughout later life. Schooling, or formal education, consists of experiences that are deliberately planned and utilized to help young people learn what adults consider important for them to know and to help teach them how they should respond to choices. This education has been influenced by three important parts of modern American society: wisdom of the heart, egalitarianism, and practicality... the greatest of these, practicality. In the absence of written records, no one can be sure what education man first provided for his children. Most anthropologists believe, though, that the educational practices of prehistoric times were probably like those of primitive tribes in the 20th century, such as the Australian aborigines and the Aleuts. Formal instruction was probably given just before the child's initiation into adulthood -- the puberty rite -- and involved tribal customs and beliefs too complicated to be learned by direct experience. Children learned most of the skills, duties, customs, and beliefs of the tribe through an informal apprenticeship -- by taking part in such adult activities as hunting, fishing, farming, toolmaking, and cooking. In such simple tribal societies, school was not a special place... it was life itself. However, the educational process has changed over the decades, and it now vaguely represents what it was in ancient times, or even in early American society. While the schools that the colonists established in the 17th century in the New England, Southern, and Middle colonies differed from one another, each reflected a concept of schooling that had been left behind in Europe. Most poor children learned through apprenticeship and had no formal schooling at all. Those who did go to elementary school were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion.
Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues. 14th ed. Ed. Dennis L. Evans. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Contemporary Learning Series, 2008. Print.
The use of progressivism in the classroom broadens students? points of views and expands their abilities to understand differences in opinions. Furthermore, it inculcates students with a vast array of knowledge about their surrounding environment and everyone in it. Without the use of the progressive method, it is almost impossible to thoroughly educate children on complex topics such as racism, religion, and people that come from different societies, nationalities, or ethnic groups. A lack of knowledge of this sort le...
Social institutions are an important element in the structure of human societies. They provide a structure for behavior in a particular part of social life. The five major social institutions in large societies are family, education, religion, politics, and economics. While each institution does deal with a different aspect of life, they are interrelated and intersect often in the course of daily life. For example, for schools to be able to exist they rely on funding from the government. This is an intersection between politics and education. Social institutions affect individual lives through other aspects of society such as culture, socialization, social stratification, and deviance. This paper will focus on the social institution of education, and how it affects individual lives through socialization, deviance, and social stratification.
The learning environment connects the classroom to the community through a democratic approach. This community based learning brings the world into the classroom so students can implement social change and challenge social inequalities. The curriculum focuses on student experience and taking social action on real problems such as hunger, violence, and discrimination. It is important to instruct students to explore in group settings so they can work together to analyze and develop theories that can help each other and make a real different in the world. As a future educator, it is important to not only to teach my students the issues in our world, but how we can work together to find