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What can schools do? Knowledge, social identities and the changing world by Lyn Yates
Report
The articles main argument is that school curriculum is a complicated and challenging field that requires the application of collaborations and intellectual work. It also demands recognition and acceptance of the idea that personal, pragmatic, political, and practical issues cannot be separated from the curriculum (Yates, 2005). With changing world, the education system is equally changing, and the same upcoming ideas in the modern world are also centered in school. In the Australian curriculum, more focus is given to social value, diversity, inequality, and social identities but just not enough to solve the concepts (Yates, 2005). The changing education system poses challenges for students and teachers, especially in the implementation of school reforms that meet constant changes.
The purpose of this article was to discuss how the school curriculum is changing and the challenges involved in coping with the changes. The author wanted to change the readers perspective of how the changes are expected to be taken by various school actors and how they are realized. Yates tries to achieve this purpose by analyzing the societal expectations of the changing system and the realization of these changes. She states that schools set extremely high expectations for students and teachers that they barely achieve them. All students are expected to do well in school as teachers are expected to keep their skills advanced for the same purposes. However, other emerging factors, including social values, identities, and diversity are now adequately implemented by both students and teachers. Yates achieves her study purpose by saying that as students perform according to their social settings and expectations, teachers achieve based on a commercialized school appraisal system.
Relate
One of the article aspects with which I can relate is how the curriculum asks the impossible of schools. The media, government, and other perfectionists discuss how schools have failed in achieving what is expected of them. These entities pose that if the schools got their acts together, there would be no poverty, drug addiction, bad drivers, discrimination, and other factors that seem perfect. However, the system ignores the fact the students have different levels of intelligence or IQ. According to Yang and Li (2018), the performance of the students is based on their number of factors such as level of intelligence, social identity, social settings, and school cultures. It is therefore unreasonable for the curriculum to expect all students to succeed in school.
The idea that the school curriculum offers equal opportunities for both gender identities triggered my emotions. Yates mentions that despite the equal provision of opportunities, girls are focused on long-term achievement while boys dwell on short-term performance. This idea triggers emotions in me because todays changing world is more focused on short-term ideas, thus favoring boys. The current world should empower girls to focus on short-term decisions more to flow with the changing times. I lived on the same belief as to the curriculum where the system expects too much of the schools. However, I am now challenged to think from the authors perspective that student performance cannot be equal as it is shaped by many different factors. Therefore, I no longer have to judge students performance based on one factor but many. The curriculum should also adopt the same concept to avoid making students look like losers when judged from the level of intelligence angle.
Reason
The article tells that the education curriculum is based on unrealistic expectations which pressure both the students and teachers. Anderson (2020) affirms that the school curriculum is negatively affected by high expectations drawn from higher education. The study from higher education, especially in STEM discipline, sets high expectations of how students must perform in their lower stages of education. The pressure from these higher institutions then pushes the curriculum planners to accommodate the expectations, which are interpreted to be unachievable for all students.
The author also provides that the education context of the school curriculum is impracticable. In her survey, Yates found that private schools that pride in embracing diversity only accommodate diversity in performance and not social concepts. The schools are proud of diverse students who can be extemporary perform in various fields such as class, art, drama, or football but are discriminated against if their English had other accents. Milner (2020) adds that diverse teachers are also expected to bring diverse knowledge but not alter the cultural practices of their students. In their practice, the teachers are appreciated for having diverse knowledge in many fields but not for being from a different cultural background.
Yates talks about how Australian schools use an inconsiderable grading system to determine which students qualify for the next level of education. She mentions that school promotes students based on their class scores while ignoring their other talents. Wei and Yan (2018) affirm that most school curriculums base their grading system on the classs overall score. Thus, even schools that consider other talents like Americans still add a score in the performance evaluation. Therefore, the school curriculum is based on mostly unfeasible practices which define most students and teachers are inadequate.
Critical Thinking and Critical Theory by Ozlem Sensoy and Robin J. DiAngelo
Report
The article is an introduction of critical thinking and critical theory as major concepts in achieving social justice education. The authors main argument is that critical thinking is essential in the evaluation of critical theory that determines areas of improvement in the social justice education system. Critical thinking requires questioning existing knowledge, acquisition of new knowledge, and seeking knowledge about other societies and their contributions. In other words, critical thinking demands recognition and analysis of how knowledge is socially created and integrated with ideology. The critical theory allows experts to examine how society works, evaluate popular beliefs, school knowledge, and other factors to determine gaps or inequalities within the society (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017). It is through the critical theory that the social justice system learns what needs improvement to offer the desired education.
The purpose of the article was to shed light on what is meant by critical thinking and critical theory as they relate to social justice education. The authors try to achieve this purpose by discussing what is assumed to be of the two concepts and the scope they cover and what they are in reality. Sensoy and DiAngelo also define several elements which contribute to the idea of knowledge construction, including popular knowledge, mainstream academic knowledge, and school knowledge. The authors adequately achieve their purpose because all the intended introduction of ideas is done thoroughly.
Relate
One of the aspects of the article that has personal meaning to me is how people ignore the concept of the theory, yet most things involve theory. According to Pink (2020), humans depend on theory every day as they seek to find out the truth. When people ask, why? or how? they find answers based on theories. Another aspect is that when thinking critically, individuals must examine their opinions based on their beliefs and the presented information. This concept triggered an emotional response to me because my level of knowledge is highly based on questioning what I know and what I have learned. Thinking critically helps me to improve personal knowledge by accepting most acquired knowledge is different from my opinion.
The article has been challenged by the assumption that the social justice education curriculum is based on critical theory providence. I have discovered that the discoveries of critical theory knowledge must be critically analyzed through thinking. The knowledge must be weighed between beliefs, opinions, and scholarly evidence to reach a non-biased decision. I am one of the people who feel least interested in learning about theory. However, after learning that I revolve around theory during my inquisition, I realize that I need to change this view.
Reason
The article shows that the application of critical thinking is important in delivering a viable social justice education. Sensoy and DiAngelo mention that teachers must use critical thinking when associating with students and helping them solve personal problems to avoid seeming unfair or thoughtless. A study by Sahika (2018) shows that modern schools are now supporting critical thinking by creating problem-solving opportunities for students and teachers. School curricula are now teaching creative writing units skills in different levels of school. The education context also allows teachers to think critically by suggesting different ways to deal with a diverse population (Pit-ten Cate et al., 2018). Teachers competency in diversity allows them to offer inclusive education to students. Thus, they have to think critically during knowledge sharing to consider all students perspectives and opinions based on their cultural backgrounds.
The social justice education context is heavily invested in knowledge from critical theory. The authors say that it is from learning how society operates that the curriculum planners know various education inequalities. Social factors such as health distribution, accessibility of schools, socio-economic stability, and students disabilities significantly contribute to educational inequality in schools (Vandekinderen et al., 2018). The critical theory uses different approaches to investigate these factors and examine them to reach educational balancing decisions. Croizet et al. (2019) further this concept by stating that modern educators who use critical perspectives in teaching educate their students by referencing their opinions and knowledge acquired. Thus, critical thinking in practice allows the students to acquire well-examined knowledge from both popular knowledge and academic evidence perspective. The application of such notion allows the educators to consider issues such as diversity and gender equality which also contribute to education inequality.
Reconstruction of both Articles
I have learned several things about what I know and do not know regarding the curriculum. I appreciate my realization in how often I used critical thinking to reasons and come to conclusions. I also have realized that there is so much I did not know about curriculum in general. First, I have learned that the education system asks so much of schools which is more unrealistic and unachievable. High education setting, among other factors, pressures the lower education curriculum to be perfect. Consequently, schools are forced to filter student performance based on class scores while ignoring other talent-based performances.
Another learned lesson about curriculum is that social justice education depends on the application of critical thinking in the evaluation of society. Critical thinking has been incorporated in the education context to allow teachers and students in knowledge construction. I am one of the people with the least interest in learning theory, but these studies have taught me otherwise. I am very dependent on theory, especially in all circumstances where I have to reason. Critical thinking has become a popular factor in curriculum and although many might not realize it, we all use it every day. I can conclude that the curriculum has an unattainable target which together with social inequalities causes educational inequalities. To fix this problem, social justice education is introduced but requires critical evaluation of popular and academic knowledge for better decision-making.
In application of what I have learned, I would need to practice critical thinking before making educational decisions. When pursuing education, learning requires examination of popular knowledge, personal opinions, and academic findings. The application of critical thinking would help me to not only know what information is reliable but also learn new ideas and understand how they relate to the ideology. As an educator, I would influence my school system to evaluate students performance based on more than class scores. Other factors such as talents and student diversity should be considered to determine who joins college or not. Furthermore, I would be more diversity competent by applying critical thinking to understand students. I would understand that accommodating diversity amongst students means accepting their diverse achievements as well as their cultural differences. I would show the understanding of this concept by acknowledging the performance achievement of students from all social factors perspectives.
References
Anderson, J. (2020). The STEM education phenomenon and its impact on school curriculum. Curriculum Perspectives, 40(2), 217-223. Web.
Croizet, J. C., Autin, F., Goudeau, S., Marot, M., & Millet, M. (2019). Education and social class: Highlighting how the educational system perpetuates social inequality. In J. Jetten & K. Peters (Eds), The social psychology of inequality (pp. 139-152). Springer, Cham.
Milner, H. R. (2020). Black teacher: White school. Theory into Practice, 59(4), 400-408. Web.
Pink, S. (2020). Home truths: Gender, domestic objects and everyday life. Routledge.
Pit-ten Cate, I. M., Markova, M., Krischler, M., & Krolak-Schwerdt, S. (2018). Promoting inclusive education: The role of teachers competence and attitudes. Insights into Learning Disabilities, 15(1), 49-63. Web.
Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2017). Critical thinking and critical theory. In J. A. Banks (Ed) Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key concepts in social justice education (2nd ed., pp. 1-12). Teachers College Press.
Yang, F., & Li, F. W. (2018). Study on student performance estimation, student progress analysis, and student potential prediction based on data mining. Computers & Education, 123, 97-108. Web.
Yates, L. (2005). What can schools do? Knowledge, social identities and the changing world. Synergy, 3(2), 5-8. Web.
Vandekinderen, C., Roets, G., Van Keer, H., & Roose, R. (2018). Tackling social inequality and exclusion in education: From human capital to capabilities. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 22(1), 1-20. Web.
Wei, L. I., & YAN, X. D. (2018). Design and implementation of the middle school students composition grading system based on SVM. Transactions on Computer Science and Engineering, 1-5, Web.
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