Unit 1: Understanding School and Society

1. Give the six tools of inquiry used to examine public schools.

The six tools of inquiry used to examine public schools are social theory, schooling, training, education,
political economy, and ideology.

2. Why are the six tools needed in order to understand public school?

3. Why does the author compare public school to the onion?

5. What is theory? Social theory?

Very simply, a theory is an explanation of phenomena; it attempts to answer the questions why and
how. Social theory is an attempt to explain social phenomena.

6. Give the two theories that explain the rise in public school attendance during the past century in America.

One theory is that the increase reflected the rise in democratic sentiment and greater potential for
social mobility in the U.S.A. An alternative explanation emphasizes economic factors such as decreased
dependence on child labor both on farms and in factories and the need for adult workers with
specialized skills (e.g. computer skills) and workforce behaviors (e.g. punctuality).

7. Give the three criteria used to accept/reject a theory.

- First, we ask if the theory is internally consistent. That is, are there contradictions within the theory
itself?

- Second, how well does the theory account for the data (facts) we have amassed about the phenomena
we are trying to understand?

- Third, how well does a particular theory fit with other theories we have accepted to account for this
set of facts and similar phenomena.

Note: when we argue that it is possible to judge theories, we are simply asserting that some theories
explain social phenomena better than others, not that the ones we judge as better others are absolutely
true. Social theories will always need further refinement. What we seek are the best available
explanations upon which to base our understanding and our most enlightened choices for social action.

8. “To deal effectively with either local or national school issues requires more than surface familiarity with
schools.” Explain by providing concrete examples.

We are only familiar school, but we never quite well understand its functions or deep significance. In
order to understand this institution, we must conduct disciplined study using analytic concepts, that
later become the tools of inquiry that can be used to peel back the onion, examine its core, and then
reflect on what is found there. After that, we can answer the following questions regarding the overall
quality of our society’s public school system: is it equipping our young to compete successfully in
worldwide economic markets? Is it promoting an equitable and stable society by educating all our
students? Is it equipping them with the skills and attitudes to live in a society that is increasingly diverse
and pluralistic? Is it teaching them to respect and protect an increasingly endangered environment?

9. What is utilized to understand the analytic concepts of schools? What are they?

10. What is ‘ideology’, ‘dominant ideology’?

Ideology refers to the beliefs, value systems and understandings of social groups. Dominant ideology is
the one articulated by those who derive the most power, goods, and prestige from the community.

Note: Generally those who benefit most from the social arrangement are more satisfied with the
dominant ideology than are group members who benefit less, who might embrace conflicting ideologies
that might result in social unrest and even evolution.

11. The uses of ideology have been classified into two categories. What are they? Briefly explain each.

- Ideology as “false belief” is something that distorts their vision and prohibits understanding or is best
illustrated the statement “Of course they don’t understand freedom; they are blinded by their
ideology.”

- Ideology as a universal condition that underlies all social understanding: refers to the beliefs and values
that facilitate the organization of society’s perceptions and understandings. For example, members of
one society might explain and justify their “free enterprise” system on the basis of beliefs in the
importance of private property and individual freedom. Members of another society might justify their
military dictatorship on the grounds that social order and control are more fundamental to human well-
being than is equality or civil rights.

12. Read the text from pages 7-11, and provide a brief summary to the relationship between three of the six terms:
political economy, ideology, and schooling. Discuss how they affect on each other.

Unit 2: Perspectives on Literacy

According to traditional definition of literacy, literacy is the skills of reading and writing.

2. To Thomas Jefferson, how important is well-educated populace to liberty?

3. It is difficult to compare literacy rates in contemporary society with literacy rates in earlier time? Give
some reasons.

First, there is a lack of agreement about how to define literacy. Second, in the 18th and 19th
centuries, there were no widespread and systematic studies of literacy that exist today. For
example, available studies of early American literacy are generally based on the ability of
individuals to sign their names on legal documents such as wills. By that standard, illiteracy was
near zero throughout country today.

4. Give some factors that affect past and present literacy rates.

- People from upper social classes were more literate than those from lower social classes.
Wealthier people had access to more forms of education such as schools, tutoring and parental
education than did poorer people.

- Gender was also an obstacle to literacy because formal schooling and participation in public
and commercial life were considered important primarily for men.

- Race also affected the chance of being literate. In slave times, black people were prevented by
law from being educated due to the belief that an educated slave would not make an obedient
slave.

- Literacy rates also varied by region in 18th and 19th century in America. New England, with
more urban demography and commercial base, tended to emphasize schooling and literacy
more than did the South, more rural and almost feudal in its social order.

5. Why is knowing how to read and write is not sufficient in the contemporary time?

Knowing how to read and write is not sufficient in the contemporary time because it prevents
us from the pursuit of well-being and full participation in society such inability to conduct
everyday affairs in this complex and turbulent world such as operating a computer, to access to
employment, to vote for the right party, to read religious texts, etc.

6. What are the consequences of being illiterate in the modern era?

Answers are in the examples of the question 5.

7. The increasingly close connection of illiteracy to marginality suggests two things about meaning of
literacy. What are they?

One is that value of literacy changes within social conditions. That is, literacy is valued
differently in different times and places. Second, definition of literacy changes with social
conditions. Being able to sign our names to a document does not necessarily constitute literacy
today.

8. What are the four contemporary perspectives on literacy? Explain each one.

- Conventional literacy: an account of literacy that accepts a minimal criterion such as the
ability to sign one’s name or the ability to read and write that results in estimates of literacy
rates in contemporary society from 97 to 99 percent.

- Functional literacy: the conception of literacy that emphasizes the level of ability to read and
write necessary to function well in a particular society such as writing a check, address an
envelope adequately, making change for a purchase, matching personal qualifications to a
written job application, etc.

- Cultural literacy: the conception of literacy that emphasizes not only the ability simply to read
and write but the ability to make sense of what is read through familiarity with a wide range of
cultural references and allusions such as names and events, geographical places, authors and
works from national and world literature, etc.

- Critical literacy: the conception of literacy that highlights the capacity to think and act
reflectively and the ability to understand and act against the social relations of oppression.

9. What are the limitations of conventional literacy?

When the literacy rate of 99.5 percent is cited, the need for literacy and adult education
programs seems less urgent. This allows us to overlook the barely literate condition of many
poverty-level adults. Furthermore, by claiming that virtually everyone in the society is literate,
we obscure important questions about levels of literacy among various groups in our society
and what this means in terms of social benefits and costs.

10. What are the limitations of functional literacy?

First, it tends to frame desirable functions in very mechanical ways. For example, the APL (Adult
Performance Level) study emphasizes the individuals to become competent in the basic skills in
the arenas such as consumer, occupational, health, government and law, and community
resources, but it doesn’t include critical and creative thinking ability about changes in those
areas. Second, it also locates the problem of illiteracy in the victims of social inequality. That is,
it highlights the personal deficiency of the illiterate person. Consequently, it can lead to several
powerful assumptions such as “The problem is within me. If I can’t get a job or the job I want,
it’s because of something about me rather than something about the world including a
shrinking or shifting labor market, economic crisis, etc.” Additionally, to help people become
functionally literate is to indicate how they can function better in the existing institutions rather
than enable people to become active participants in shaping institutions for human needs. That
means we only serve interests of the institutions.
11. What are the limitations of cultural literacy?

Cultural literacy means focusing on titles, names, and facts to enable readers/students have
background knowledge to understand texts. This actually is likely to help writers to
communicate their ideas to the readers who might not be able to think very deeply or critically
about the writer’s argument. Moreover, the focus can easily divert the students from having to
think critically and reflectively about subject matter, but it becomes mere recognition that can
be tested with mechanical of exams such as true-false statements, multiple-choice questions,
matching, etc. Also, it institutionalize in schools the achievements of white, male, middle-class
culture, a narrow segment of society, as worthwhile culture and knowledge. Furthermore, it
remains uncritical of the culture being transmitted. That is, it ignores the evidence that culture
being taught as literacy is historically racist, sexist, and class-biased in its institutions.

12. Jacques Ellul has described literacy as a double-edged sword. What does this mean? (p. 21)

Although literacy can help people function and think independently, it can also make people be
manipulated by others. For example, when the printing press appeared, people began to
measure themselves against a widespread norm and to doubt their own worth. Moreover,
most literate members of society tend to be the most vulnerable to propaganda because they
have been socialized to respect the printed pages and because they are familiar enough with
the concepts presented that they can be manipulated by them.

13. How is critical literacy different from the other literacy perspectives?

- First, it draws attention to power relations in society by focusing on oppression, defined in

- Second, it focuses on how knowledge and power are interrelated. People without class-
defined knowledge, determined by those who dominate the culture’s institutions, are usually
the poor and otherwise the oppressed and considered inferior to those in the dominant
educated class.

- Third, it emphasizes the capacity to think and act reflectively. The point of critical literacy is
not reading words but understanding the world and acting to change to social relations of
oppression to relations of liberations.

Unit 3: Life in Schools

School is called culture because it has its own rituals and traditions, rewards and punishments, winners
and losers. When you first entered school, you have been immersed in an informal and subtle network
of interactions forming a big part of school culture. Also, school world is divided into “chunks” of time,
called periods or blocks, which are filled with “English”, “History”, and some other names. For 50-minute
blocks of time, children respond to questions from teachers but seldom ask any of their own. School
tracking practices assign students to high and low achievement groups.

2. How do classroom rules, rituals, and routines shape teachers and students?

Because of classroom rules, rituals, and routines, teachers have become an authoritative leader in the
classroom because they decided almost everything in the classrooms. For example, Mr. Thompson
determines when the texts will be distributed, when and how long the reading activities will take place,
and when the discussion will begin. Also, they also gain organizing, timekeeping, and dealing with crisis
skills. However, students have become dependent, passive, and obedient to rules and authorities, and
good followers. For example, when teachers are busy organizing, structuring, handing out, etc., students
just sit and wait. They wait for materials to be handed out, assignments to be given, questions to be
asked, etc. Also, they wait in lines toget drinks of water, to get pencils sharpened, to be dismissed from
class, etc.

3. What problems does Dick Thompson have with his class?

Problems: chaotic experiences when he distributes the new texts and starts a new unit; internal and
external interruptions such as students’ chit chat in the class, end-of-class bell interrupting a lively
discussion, etc.

4. What is Maxine’s feeling towards Dick Thompson’s class?

She feels disgruntled and unsatisfied because she receives a little reprimand even though she talks
about the poem, and she is interrupted because of end-of-class bell.

5. What is the main finding of Philip W. Jackson?

He suggests that, whereas teachers are typically very busy, students are often caught in patterns of
delay that force them to do nothing. He notes that a great deal of teacher’s time is spent in
noninstructional busywork such as keeping time and dispensing supplies.

6. Why do you think the teacher is called a gatekeeper?

The teacher is called a gatekeeper because they must determine who will talk, when, and for how long,
as well as the basic direction of the communication.

7. How does the teacher’s ‘gate keeping’ function relegate students to passive and reactive roles?

It is usually the teacher who dominates and manages classroom interaction. The teacher usually does
the talking and questioning, and students just listen and respond. Furthermore, students are not given
much time to ask, or even answer, questions; teachers usually wait less than a second for student
comments and answers. Consequently, students learn to be quiet and passive.
8. Researcher Ned Flanders uncovered ‘the rule of two-thirds’? What is it?

It is the teacher who spends two-thirds of the classroom time talking, eventually resulting in students’
negative attitudes, lower achievement, and a general dependency on the teacher.

9. What is tracking? Do you think tracking is a valid method for enhancing student performance? Or do you think it
is a mechanism for perpetuating inequality of opportunity based on social class, race, or sex?

Tracking is a kind of evaluation system that assigns students into different groups such as low
achievement groups or high achievement groups. I believe tracking is a valid method for enhancing
student performance. Intelligence testing, grouping, and tracking are necessary to educate students
according to their ability and future potential. The best and brightest students must be identified as
soon as possible and will be given necessary resources and opportunities to reach their fullest potential.
For the kids who are struggling, we must provide them special services and help.

10. What are the consequences of tracking?

- Records of the tracking taking place during kindergarten are passed on to teachers in the upper grades,
providing the basis for further differential treatment.

- Low ability groups have more classroom management problems, and students talk more about social
rather than academic matters.

- Teachers hold low expectations of, offer fewer constructive comments, and make fewer demands of
students in low-ability groups.

11. How does tracking become a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?

- When teachers hold low expectations for certain students, their treatment of these students often
differs in unconscious and subtle ways such as offering fewer opportunities to respond, less praise, less
challenging work, fewer nonverbal signs (eye contact, smiles, and positive regard).

- When teachers hold high expectations that students can learn, they translate these expectation into
teaching behavior. They set objectives, work towards the mastery of those objectives, spend more time
on instruction, and actively monitor student progress.

- Extensive studies indicate that high teacher expectations do produce high student achievement, and
low expectations produce low achievement.

12. In what way do social relationships and the peer group status system impact students?

13. How can educators create a more supportive school environment of adolescents?

14. How do race, gender, and social class create difficult, even chaotic, student cultures?

15. What are the five factors of effective schools? Explain each one briefly.
 Chapter 1 Key Terms
- schooling: the totality of experiences that occur within schools: planned learning experiences,
extracurricular activities, and unplanned learning experiences such as learning how to wait.

- education: involves learning how to think, and create solutions and often incorporates specific training
skills.

- training: involves learning how to something specific such as how to operate a computer/ involves
improved ability to do something.

- literacy: according to traditional definition, literacy is the ability to read and write.

- assessment: carefully monitoring student progress/performance.

- objective-referenced tests/ teacher-made tests: tests designed to measure if a student has mastered a
designated body of knowledge.

- norm-referenced tests: tests used to compare individual students with others in a nationwide norm
group.

- ideology: the beliefs, values, and ways of understanding that guide policy formation in any society and
that are intended to explain and justify the society’s institutions and social arrangements/the beliefs,
value systems, and understandings of social groups. With it as a “lens”, a society could reflect upon it to
organize its experiences.

- social theory: an attempt to explain social phenomena.

- theory: explanation of phenomena.

- functional literacy: the conception of literacy that emphasizes the level of ability to read and write
necessary to function well in a particular society.

- conventional literacy: the conception of literacy that accepts a minimal criterion such as ability to sign
one’s names, as evidence of the ability to read and write that results in estimates of literacy rates in
contemporary society from 97 to 99 percent.
- cultural literacy: the conception of literacy that emphasizes not the ability simply to read and write but
ability to make sense of what is read through familiarity with a wide range of cultural references and
allusions.

- critical literacy: to think and act reflectively; not reading words but understanding the world and acting
to change the social relations of oppression to relations of liberation.

- ability grouping: a way of evaluating of students’ performance and assign students into different
groups according to their abilities such low-ability groups and high-ability groups.

- tracking: a kind of screening and sorting students based on achievements and performance in class, but
several researchers consider students’ social class a critical factor in this selection system.

- political economy: a modern social science dealing with relationship between economic and political
process, more generally a society’s institutional arrangements and processes.

- gatekeeping: determining who will talk, when and for how long, as well as the basic direction of the
communication.

- stage setting: all part of a pattern of readiness before work can begin such as checking pencils,
rearranging sitting positions, etc.

- fast learner: the learner who possesses the ability to learn/do something quickly.

- dominant male peer group:

- gender wall: the idea that boys and girls have difficulty communicating or interacting with each other
because of sex.

- sociograms: the diagram that shows social preferences or the structure of friendship between people.

- affective student needs: psychological, emotional, and social needs of the student.

- youth charter: network whose purpose is to encourage youngsters to move from dependence to
independence, from ethnocentrism of early adolescence to the social competence of young adulthood.

- five-factor theory of effective schools: a common set of characteristics that makes school become
effective.

- delusion of uniqueness: a sense that “no one knows how I feel, faces these problems, cares about me.”

- four worlds of children: family, schools, friend, and work.

- self-fulfilling prophecy: the belief that students may learn as much or little as teachers expect.