Curriculum is more than just a document or a plan. Curriculum is more than just the covering of key content and completing the learning outcomes that make up the intended curriculum. Curriculum is much more than these things and therefore within curriculum there will be many complex issues to be dealt with. One such issue is that of social disadvantage and inequality. As much as the education department would like to achieve educational equality, disadvantages such as those to students from low socioeconomic status still persist. Virtual Schoolbag is a notion created by Pat Thomson. Virtual Schoolbag is a metaphorical schoolbag that is filled with all the non-physical ‘things’ each individual student brings with them to school. The Virtual …show more content…
The opposing argument is that it is the schools that do the disadvantaging. One such solution to the latter is to change the schools. Curriculum experiences can disadvantage and alienate some students, particularly those from low socioeconomic backgrounds (Ewing, 2013). There is a long standing link between intergenerational poverty and lower levels of education (Ewing, 2013). It is often evident that if the child is successful at school then the child’s social future will be much the same as the child’s parents. However on the other side of the spectrum for working class children to do well at school and in the future they need to change to become something different from their families (Thomson, 2002). The intended and hidden curriculum reflect this inequality (Ewing, 2013, p 85). The stereotype that the poor bought it upon themselves needs to be combatted by educators through their implementation of the curriculum. The formal and intended curriculum does not match the experiences needed for living in the twenty first century (Ewing, 2013, 91). By organizing the curriculum to be meaningful to students the educator can improve student outcomes. Making meaning gains attention from students, helps students retain information and makes learning enjoyable (Ewing, 2013). Educators should use quality inclusive teaching strategies to interact with the students and engage with the items they bought through the door in the Virtual
Is education wasted on low income families? Are housing projects and ghettos nothing except undying monsters for taxpayers to fight? According to society, maybe. According to Principal Clark, no. Not only does he believe in his students, but he forces them to believe in themselves. Joe Clark makes very compelling appeals to the three rhetorical devices, pathos, ethos and, logos. Joe Clark was an excellent principal in all areas, this idea is further proven by the speech he gave his students before their skills test.
In many low income communities, there are teachers that are careless and provide their students with poor quality education. These teachers are there just to make sure that they keep receiving their monthly paychecks and act in this way because they believe that low income students do not have the drive, the passion, or the potential to be able to make something of themselves and one day be in a better place than they are now. Anyon reveals that in working class schools student’s “Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.” (3). This is important because it demonstrates that low income students are being taught in a very basic way. These children are being negatively affected by this because if they are always being taught in this way then they will never be challenged academically, which can play a huge role in their futures. This argument can also be seen in other articles. In the New York Times
Not only that the virtual schoolbag enables schooling experience to be connected to children’s community and background, it boosts children’s self-esteem thus increasing their academic achievements and allows children to feel a sense of belonging. This can be achieved through use of the intended curriculum as well as through identifying aspects of the hidden curriculum that create these disadvantages and inequalities. As Thomson explains “it is not the children who are disadvantaged but rather it is the school that does the disadvantaging” (Thomson, 2002, p. 4). One of the aims of the Australian Curriculum is that all young Australians become successful learners (ACARA, 2013). This can be achieved by enabling all children to open up their virtual schoolbags and by incorporating and implementing this through the curriculum and frameworks in order to create educational
School funding is systemically unequal, partially because the majority of school funding comes from the school district’s local property taxes, positioning the poorest communities at the bottom rung of the education playing field. A student’s socioeconomic status often defines her success in a classroom for a number of reasons. Students who live below the poverty line have less motivation to succeed, and their parents are less inclined to participate in their child’s education, often because the parents cannot provide support for their children. Although it’s logical that school districts from poorer communities cannot collect as much funding as the richer communities, persons stuck in these low-income communities often pay higher taxes, and still their school dis...
Low income students are generally found in low income communities which have fewer resources to devote to their schools. With inadequate funds and resources, these kids are not getting the equal opportunity in education as kids in high income communities. Kids...
The Southern Education Foundation Study contends poverty is the greatest barrier in obtaining an education (Strauss, 2013). Unfortunately, the education system is not as equal as we presume it to be, as there is a significant discrepancy in the education system between high-poverty schools versus privileged schools. Students in high-poverty schools face many more handicaps in acquiring an education. One such disadvantage is underqualified teachers (Carl, 2013). This means privileged schools are monopolizing all the highly qualified teachers, while high-poverty schools are stuck with inadequate, unmotivated teachers— making students’ success at such schools much more difficult. Additionally in these high-poverty schools, there is not much emphasis
Firstly, the authors introduce the theme of the article—social context. Social context refers to, “patterns of human relationships and intersections that characterize social life.” (Hall et al., 2014, p. 100) For example, the economic class of a student directly impacts them. Furthermore, kids with higher social class receive a better education. In contrast, students with a lower social class receive poorer education and the opportunities for them to improve are significantly low. Throughout the text, the authors instruct the reader about the social issues challenging educators, and illustrates the relationship between curriculum and teachers, communities, and politics. Finally, the authors shed light on nonacademic challenges faced by students.
After watching the Teach Us All documentary on Netflix, it opened my eyes to many of the issues regarding educational inequality. The study looked at schools in Little Rock, New York City, and Los Angeles to show us the current state of U.S. education and how far we have come since the school desegregation crisis. The thesis of this documentary is that since the efforts of the Little Rock Nine, our belief is that educational inequality has improved when in reality, it hasn’t improved and the actions of our country have had negative effects. Teach Us All emphasizes the need for unity and collective action to improve our education system for the kids in poor communities that are in the most need. Our country has devoted all the resources to the middle and upper class for education and are taking money away from where it needs to
The Quality of a child’s education often either limits or opens up a world of opportunities. Those who study the purpose of public education and the way it is distributed throughout society can often identify clear correlations between social class and the type of education a student receives. It is generally known by society that wealthy families obtain the best opportunities money can buy. Education is a tool of intellectual and economical empowerment and since the quality of education is strongly influenced by social class, a smaller portion of the American population obtains the opportunities acquired from a top notch education. Many people believe that educational inequalities are perpetuated from the interests of specific classes, but some researchers like John Gatto believe that there are even stronger social forces in play. In the essay “Against Schools” the author John Gatto presents three arguments: (1) that are educational system is flawed, (2) that the American educational system is purposely designed to create a massive working class that is easy to manipulate, and (3) alternative teaching methods should be applied to teach children to think for themselves. In this essay I will be summarizing and relating each of these arguments to other educational essays. Also, I will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s argument.
The means of justifying these inequalities are important for the entire world. Education played and will always play a big role in everyone’s lives. Equality in education will eventually guarantee every person a better position in society. Educational inequality is the difference in learning effectiveness and results as faced by students with varying backgrounds. The effects of educational inequality are not only left within the circles of education, but also remain further to have an impact on other life aspects. All over the world, there have been unending calls to reform education at each level. With various causes that are very much connected to society, history and culture, the educational inequality has apparently been one of the most difficult challenges to address. Regardless of the challenges faced in removing educational inequality, education has continued to be a very important part of society with a big expectation of moving it forward. In the current-day America, very many disadvantaged children have continued to grow up missing key skills. Discrimination has continued to persevere in educational achievement between racial issues. Above all, low performance levels among these disadvantaged children have over the years been responsible for the long-term issues, especially in such an society with higher levels of skills and a failing incomes offered to those people that are less-skilled.
Throughout the nation, education inequality affects many minority students that have low-income which reinforces the disparity between the rich and the poor. The amount of children that have a socioeconomic background of poverty in the United States is estimated to be 32.4 million (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2011). Since many of these children are from
There are many different factors that affect education. One such factor is, socioeconomic status. Children who attend school in a wealthier community receive a better education than those students in poor communities. In poor communities, student’s education is not only affected by a lack of resources, but also from teaching methods and philosophies. Urban and poor schools’ students do not receive as equal of an education as their more affluent and suburban counterparts do.
With their increased wealth, the rich, from 19762 to 2006, have increased their spending on enrichment activities for their children by 151 percent, compared to only 57 percent for poor families (O’Brien). This gives rich children an advantage over poor children. This gap is further extended in public education. Rich children often go to better schools that provide opportunities that children in poor schools do not receive. This is “an educational system that provides such privilege to some students, while willfully and purposefully denying it to others” (Strauss). The current education system allows rich children to succeed while it tells the poor children that “they are inadequate instead of educating them” (Strauss). Even when poor children achieve in school, they are just as likely to succeed later in life as rich children who have dropped out of school (O’Brien). This creates an atmosphere where the education provided to the poor is woefully inadequate when compared to that hoarded by the rich. This, in turn, continues to place poor children in a situation that keeps them
Living in poverty exposes children to disadvantages that influence many aspects in their life that are linked to their ability to do well in school. In the United States of America there are an estimated 16.4 million children under the age of 18 living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). “The longer a child lives in poverty, the lower the educational attainment” (Kerbo, 2012). Children who are raised in low-income households are at risk of failing out before graduating high school (Black & Engle, 2008). U.S. children living in poverty face obstacles that interfere with their educational achievement. Recognizing the problems of living in poverty can help people reduce the consequences that prevent children from reaching their educational potential.
The educational system is plagued by disparities in achievement, the absence of pedagogical reform, and inclusive curricula. When students are deprived of fair and equitable educational opportunities this hinders their ability to flourish and grow into healthy learners. Lundberg and Ornstein said it best, children develop best through a foundation of diverse education, essential elements of the Humanistic Learner Centered ideology, culturally responsive teaching, and culturally responsive curriculum development as well as, character