Week 4 Blog Post

This week’s readings cover curriculum, control, conflict and the issues that are deeply rooted in society and the education system. As we continue to expand in our learning we must be sure to see education in its totality. Our education systems serve a very diverse population, but the curriculum rarely matches that same diversity. 

In order for schools to continue to run in the fashion that they do, things need to a spear like they happen naturally. Most things in the school system have to come across as seamless in order to continue to push the idea that whatever stems from the school is to be considered valid. This directly connects to the theory of purposive-rational patterns of rationality and action. As students get older and move through grade bands, the need for justification increases. Social rules and " appropriate" interactions are no longer just followed. Students develop their own reasoning and viewpoints. Therefore, as educators we typically push normative behaviors by associating it with reward and consequence. 

The topic of conflict directly correlates with this aspect of schooling. In what ways are we contributing or not contributing to students' perception of conflict? Guiding students to engage in discussion and dive deep into curriculum that will actually build a positive outlook in regards to conflict and change could aid many students, particularly in urban areas. To go further, this could help students persevere in their real life endeavors, day to day life activities and realities that they must face. Schools are typically children's first "adjustment to authority" outside of the home. Teachers are there first "boss." How are we aiding students in building a perspective that allows them to have a deeper understanding of things just being right or wrong, good or bad? The rules that are set within schooling are an extension of what society has predetermined to be behavior that will lead to "success", which I personally feel is false information. 

We see conflict rooted in curriculum or as a part of the "hidden curriculum" particularly in social science and science. The formatting of science education and inquiry procedures breeds constant questioning, arguing and conflict amongst learners. This ongoing conflict that is deeply rooted in science communities is what is hidden and not elaborated on within schools. Do we teach students to have a clear understanding of conflict vs competition? 

An underlying message within social science is pushing learners to accept that society is a cooperating system. "Happy cooperation" is seen as the norm. 

Social and economic control occurs in schools in various ways. Schools not only control people but they control meaning since they distribute what is perceived as "legit knowledge." What is our school systems moral mission on a large scale? Does it vary from school to school? Region? Community? 

Major take aways

•   Curriculum has been and continues to play a major part in assigning roles to groups of me in society based off of race, ethnicity, religion, intelligence, etc. 
•   "Understanding existing reality is a necessary condition for changing it but also a major step in reconstructing it." (Apple p.95)

  • A more realistic outlook on and teaching of dialectic of social change would contribute to preparing students with the political and conceptual tools necessary to deal with the dense reality they must face. (Apple, p.97)

Comments

  1. SteveFebruary 7, 2019 at 11:33 AM

    Thank you for the blog! I agree with your assertion in the first paragraph that the curriculum often does not meet the needs of diverse communities. We have to be conscious of this, as educators, and as the prior readings have suggested, be mindful of the needs and desires of the communities we work in when designing our curriculum. The French teacher who taught at my school for the last six years always made sure whenever possible to show movies or images of Haitians speaking French, so that our 100% African American student population could see that black people do speak French. The same is true in our Spanish department, where we've shown Henry Louis Gates' "Black in Latin America" series, where the professor travels to many Spanish-speaking countries to talk about the experiences, culture and history of black people in those countries. Thanks for the thoughts!

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  2. Xuezhi HouFebruary 7, 2019 at 11:53 AM

    1. Hi, Amanda, thank you for your sharing.
    There are many different kinds of students, but we only have few textbooks to meet their need. That is really a big problem that we educators should pay more attention to. Just like you have mentioned in the post as students get older and move through grade bands, the need for justification increases. How we educators do meet different need of different kinds of students and different kinds of stages? I agree with you that in some ways are we contributing to students' perception of conflict and guiding students to engage in discussion and diving deep into curriculum that will actually build a positive outlook in regards to conflict and change could aid many students, particularly in urban areas. And I think we should make a survey to know what students really want to learn, and we should divided students into different kinds of groups and put them in different classes to learn different knowledge that they are interested in. I think if they learn is what they are interested in, they will learn better.

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2019 at 12:10 PM

    Hi Amanda, thanks for your sharing. I agree with you that “guiding students to engage in discussion and dive deep into curriculum that will actually build a positive outlook in regards to conflict and change could aid many students, particularly in urban areas.” Before I went to the university, I was always wondering that why I have to learn some knowledge, like function in math. I will never ever use it in my future like because it is impossible to me to become an science in the future. No one have talk me about this since the curriculum is there and what I should just follow it. I think it would be better if a teacher told me like “it will help you to develop math thinking” or “if you learn it, it will help me solve this problems in daily life”. I personally think that these sort of communication will motivate me to learning math actively. Besides, I also agree that “A more realistic outlook on and teaching of dialectic of social change would contribute to preparing students with the political and conceptual tools necessary to deal with the dense reality they must face.” (Apple, p.97) During primary and secondary education, we were regards as a innocent kids who should be protected from all negative information of the adult world. The after graduation, we are suppose to adjust to the reality of the world as soon as possible. This will cause our psychological gap and mental stress during this transform.

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  4. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2019 at 1:16 PM

    First of all, thank you for your sharing. This week, Apple's two chapters discuss the object and essence of school education and mention hidden curriculum. I quite agree with you that as we continue to expand in our learning we must be sure to see education in its totality. Our education systems serve a very diverse population, but the curriculum rarely matches that same diversity. I think schools and teachers should have the ability to adjust curriculum according to their students in a timely manner. Of course, the premise is that after achieving the basic curriculum objectives, education is an organic process, requiring teachers and students to promote each other and learn together. Just as foreign students know some educational policies of their own countries, they can share them with other students and discuss with them. Conflicts are not absolute. Our ultimate goal is to seek common ground while reserving differences and achieve the best education goals.

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  5. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2019 at 2:50 PM

    Thanks for sharing.
    This week's reading left a deep impression on me. I agree with you that students need to develop their own reasoning and viewpoints. I think that as a teacher we should encourage students to express their ideas and thoughts. The previous "normative behaviors" might be right, but due to social progress, some social rules and " appropriate" interactions may no longer fit in the current teaching environment. So I believe that education should be flexible.
    In addition, the reading talks a lot about race, which makes me a bit confused. Because we rarely talk about race in China and I don't know why race is relate to this topic. Though this is kind of abstract for me, I am very interested in this, so I hope to have more communication and interaction with you in class.

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  6. AnonymousFebruary 8, 2019 at 7:55 PM

    Thanks for sharing. I’m totally agree with that Schools are typically children's first "adjustment to authority" outside of the home. Teachers are there first "boss.". In my opinion, school actually is a small society inside of the big society. Also, school can be regarded as a small “company”. Teacher is boss and the other students are the coworkers. The relationships between students and the others are just complicated as the real society actually. And scho is the first place that students can learn lesson not only knowledge but how to live.

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  7. AnonymousFebruary 11, 2019 at 4:21 PM

    Thank you for sharing! I totally agree that we teach a very diverse population, however the curriculum does not serve the diverse population. Why is it that finding a picture book about a women scientist is almost impossible? I also agree with the notion that teacher's are kids "first boss". I have had numerous parents and students say to me that coming to school is " their job". In a sense, I understand this idea but what is the bigger picture here? Is it okay that students have this picture of school being a job that they have to go to and work for? The relationship between students and adults is as complicated as any other "society". It can be a power-struggle.

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  8. Yesenia BuenoFebruary 21, 2019 at 3:27 PM



    Thank you for sharing Amanda. Your summary incites a lot of feelings I had during this reading and am glad you brought up the topic of how teachers and administrators can sometimes impose "normative" behavior on students. This is aspect in education that really troubles me. I think too often, in American classrooms, there can be occurrences of inadvertent stigmatization because of the way students are categorized or labeled based on behavior or performance (being labeled a “good kid” vs a “bad kid” etc. I feel like this type of imposition ignores cultural factors that make up the identities of students. It can be easy to forget that schooling is only a fraction of the students’ everyday life and how they make sense of their world and when we begin to categorize them it can be problematic because it quantifies an individual and these categories can act as instruments of normalization that then lead to differentiation and hierarchies among students.

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