SOCI-1015EL Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Egerton Ryerson, Compulsory Education, Schecter Guitar Research
16 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOCI 1015
February 27, 2018
Education
ā¢Education as a Social Institution
ā¢Institution of education is an enduring set of ideas about education and how it can be used
to accomplish societal goals
ā¢one of the most important institutions in society due to itās inļ¬uence on socialization,
status, social order, and economic productivity
ā¢powerful told for promoting ideas among impressionable youth, provide skills, modify
behaviours
ā¢motor of social acceptability and social mobility
ā¢TED TALK VIDEO - brookline Massachusetts // survivorās remorse // why should a good
education be exclusive to rich kids?
ā¢she is a teacher for a school w mostly all black kids
ā¢she went to a high quality education, but her neighbourhood friends did not
ā¢she became a teacher and her class had no resources
ā¢she eventually signed up for a website that gave her resources
ā¢The Rise of Public Education in Canada
ā¢before the industrial revolution, there was little interest in educating the masses
ā¢the industrial revolution demanded a more disciplined, trainable, and literate workforce
ā¢Consequently, industrialization and public education became interdependent
ā¢As early as 1846, education was seen as a way of achieving economic modernization
ā¢education reformer Egerton Ryerson promoted the idea of a universal, compulsory, and
free school system
ā¢education upheld social order and maintained social control by subverting potential social
conļ¬ict animosity from Irish catholic immigrants
ā¢Equation as a tool of assimilation
ā¢Schecter (1977) argued that compulsory, state-run public education is based on
centralization and uniformity
ā¢Legitimizes and supports social inequality
ā¢Instrument of social control of the merging working class
ā¢Whatās wrong with the state running school?
ā¢higher, wealthier areas will have better funding
ā¢Wealthier people can control the politics of schools
ā¢Provincial school boards were set up to run the large systems of ānormalā schools
ā¢enforced codes of discipline
ā¢Enacted hierarchal authority relations
ā¢Malacrida (2015) examined how compulsory education is used to enforce social
subordination
ā¢education ranks and sorts children to the detriment of those considered inferior
ā¢Truancy laws
ā¢tests an curriculums that standardize expectations of educational success
ā¢āhealthā testing conducted via medical and physiological examinations
ā¢Post-war expansions and the Human Capital Thesis
ā¢Economic expansion after WWII required an increasingly educated workforce
ā¢expansion of post-secondary education
ā¢Human capital thesis: industrial societies incest in schools to enhance the knowledge and
skills of their workers
ā¢used to justify low income among marginalized groups, which attributed to low human
capital
ā¢Since the 1970ās, government funding for post-secondary has been declining and
corporate sponsorship is increasing
ā¢Models of public Education in Canada
ā¢The Assimilation Model
ā¢Historically, education in Canada has been based on a monocultural model that
emphasized assimilation into the dominant culture
ā¢Ex) focus on english literature
ā¢english canada was perceived as a white protestant nation and newcomers were
expected to assimilate to ļ¬t in
ā¢this model fails to recognize racial bas and discrimination within and outside the school
system
ā¢Multicultural Education
ā¢Multiculturalism was ofļ¬cially implemented by the Canadian federal government in
1971
ā¢preserve and promote cultural diversity
ā¢Remove the barriers that denied certain groups full participation within Canadian
society
ā¢study and celebrate the different lifestyles, traditions and histories of diverse cultures
ā¢Three fundamental assumptions of multicultural education
ā¢learning about oneās culture will improve educational achievement
ā¢learning about oneās culture will promote equality of opportunity
ā¢learning about oneās culture will reduce prejudice and discrimination
ā¢Simplistic focus on the āexoticā aspects of different cultures, which overlooks
foundational values and the complexities of different cultures
ā¢Anti-racism and Anti-oppression Education
ā¢emerged in the 1980ās
ā¢Recognizes that racial inequality exists and that racism is systematic with Canada
ā¢seeks to expose and eliminate the institutional and individual barrier to equity
ā¢seeks to change institutional policies and practices
ā¢seeks to change individual attitudes and behaviours reproducing inequalities
ā¢seeks to create a classroom environment that will:
ā¢expose stereotypes and racist ideas
ā¢Critically examine sources of information
ā¢provide alternative and missing information
ā¢equip students to looks critically at the accuracy of the information they receive
ā¢Explore the reasons for the continued unequal social status of different groupings
ā¢The Hidden Curriculum
ā¢Deļ¬ned as the unstated, unofļ¬cial goals of the education system
ā¢Robert Mertonās structural functionalist theory helps us understand the hidden
curriculum as performing latent functions of teaching societal normals
ā¢Ex) the value of work, need to respect authority, the efļ¬cient use of oneās time
ā¢Conļ¬ict theorists might argue that the hidden curriculum is reforming a latent
dysfunction
ā¢Ex) reproduces the class system by hindering social mobility
ā¢Cultural Reproduction Theory
ā¢Oakes (2005) examined ātrackingā of students
ā¢Different students are ranked according to different levels of aptitude and projected
outcomes
