Great Educator

Dewey’s argument that social influences are the “great educator” and that schools are only a secondary agency has implications in all neighborhoods and families.  The neighborhoods and families students are raised in from birth to kindergarten will greatly influence a student’s experiences before they enter public school.  The experiences can be excellent to marginal in different neighborhoods as well as different families.  For example, a student in an affluent community might not have a cohesive family because of the values a family has.  They may be affluent, but the student is not being raised in a caring, supportive environment.  Another example, could be a child being raised in a low socioeconomic community, but the child has the caring and support for the student to be successful.   The teachers of the two students that I have used as examples can make the difference for the child and for the family. 

In each example, the teacher could intervene to offer support to the child from the affluent home, but is not being shown the care and support he/she needs to be successful academically as well as socially at school.  The teacher could also intervene when working with students in low socioeconomic communities to give families resources of local support agencies that can help the family manage through the difficult economic times.  We know from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid that if a child’s basic needs of physiological, safety, and belonging are not met, it will be hard for a student to master basic skills at school.

Dewey was right, schools are secondary while social influences are primary.  However, knowing that as an educator will help teachers to meet the needs of all students.

Hidden Curriculum and the Role of Schools in Cultural Hegemony

        One of the most intriguing questions asked in this week’s readings was, “Why do we look to schools to fix what is wrong in our Contemporary Society?  Sociologist Philip Jackson uses the term ‘Hidden Curriculum’ to describe, “what is taught in schools is more than the sum total of the curriculum.  He thinks that school should be understood as a socialization process where students pick up messages through the experiences of being in school, not just from the thing that they are explicitly taught.”   Steven Tozer states that hegemony is a term used to describe the “power relationships between two or more cultures, ideologies, socioeconomic groups, and so on.”  Hidden Curriculum can conflict with the hegemony in school settings.  An example of Hidden Curriculum and hegemony conflicting with each other can take place at a school campus’s Hidden Curriculum that differs from the hegemony of a community.  The role of schools in cultural hegemony is to be aware of the relationships in the community so that the teachers and staff have an understanding of the relationships to build trust with parents and students.  The ‘Hidden Curriculum’ should not devalue the hegemony in the community.  An administrator needs to be aware of the ‘Hidden Curriculum’ as well as the cultural hegemony of the campus and community.  The administrator can work to provide staff members the knowledge to create an environment of trust and respect within the community.

            Cultural hegemony affects what happens in classrooms because parents and community members want to make sure schools understand what they value.  Think about conflict in schools, it is usually the result of a simple misunderstanding or miscommunication.  The conflict can become very volatile if a parent believes a staff member discriminated against their child because of cultural hegemony.  It is necessary to be aware of the power relationships, strong ideologies, and socioeconomics to communicate an understanding and common goal of providing the best education for the children of a community. 

            Education can create an atmosphere of understanding cultural pluralism and assimilation and to foster understanding of diverse groups.  Administrators should, “demand a conception of cultural pluralism that respects diversity among peoples and among students’ different ways of encountering the school culture.  Such a conception may not come “naturally” to a profession that is white and socialized by the dominant culture’s value and practices.”  In contemporary society educators need to be aware of the values and practices of all cultures within a school.  The awareness provides insight to not marginalize a group based on the educator’s background. 

            “The debate about education for its own sake versus education for a particular role in society continues” in the community where I live at all levels.  This especially prevalent in the Hispanic community and received a lot of media attention when a neighboring school district did not meet the AYP requirements for No Child Left Behind.  When the news stations reported on the story of the district, it was broadcasted that the district did not meet AYP because of the dropout rate of Hispanic males.  When Texas State Accountability ratings are released to the media, there are news stories about school districts’ ratings and how the different races performed on the assessment.  I think it is helpful to disaggregate the data, but in small districts one student’s performance can impact the district’s rating that is released to the public and reported on by media.