Summarize how students learn about gender roles in school. School dress codes can be a particularly contentious topic, particularly when the dress code rules appear to be targeting particular groups and if they do not appear to be enforced fairly. As noted by the authors of these studies, such findings also suggest that zero tolerance policies that result in the suspension of problem students may be doing additional damage as they serve to severely weaken the bond that a child has with his or her school (Sprott, Jenkins, and Doob 2005). Internationally, girls have also been achieving higher standardized reading scores than males since the 1990s (see Box 6.5 for discussion). The staff keep track of who is earning the bears, and perhaps more importantly, who is not. Describe how peer victimization, peer rejection, and relational aggression impact on the socialization experiences of students. Moral education is a subject taught at all cycles of school in Quebec. What were the characteristics of popular students? Students who are consistently placed in remedial classes may also start to view themselves as slow (Barakett and Cleghorn, 2008). What are some examples of streaming? Such school environments have been found to breed delinquent behaviour and academic failure. Students who have good relationships with their teacher are also likely to have better mental health, feel more connected to their school, and experience positive academic outcomes (Jennings and Greenberg 2009). This type of aggression is often simply referred to as meanness. The outrage that followed the display by the Winnipeg teachers strongly supports the idea that teachers are implicit moral role models. Language arts and science, as mentioned above, are also often divided into applied and academic trajectories. In 2004, the Ontario Human Rights Commission provided evidence that since the adoption of the Safe Schools Act, a disproportionate number of students with various disabilities had been suspended or expelled (Bhattacharje 2003). In early 2011, eight female students at a Catholic high school in Windsor, Ontario were suspended for one day and faced not being able to go to their prom because they wore yellow and blue duct tape tops to a school hockey game in December. Unless a child attended preschool or nursery, the structure and routines of the school day and the social relationships within the school setting must be entirely learned. The Manitoba Ministry of Education describes Consumer Mathematics in the following way: The Consumer Mathematics curriculum emphasizes number sense, consumer problem solving, and decision making. In many ways, the teacher serves as a parental replacement during school hours, although this figure must be shared with many other children and the relationship is more emotionally distant. The home schooled comprise about one percent of student population in Canada (Hepburn 2001). Teachers who hold negative stereotypes about low-achieving or minority students may also expect such students to consistently perform poorly. Students who are less academically inclined are put into classes that better match their abilities and interests, like vocational training. Public schools tend to focus more on the testing side of the education because that is where they obtain their funding and a child might be offered a chance to be introduced to diversity, whereas private school has more time and the means to explore socialization in many other forms like field trips and such. The topics that children learn about and how they are presented are just one way that school acts as a socializing agent. From an early age until adulthood, school is a place where children spend a large portion of their daysand, indeed, their lives. These preferred styles reflect normative cultural values about what is valued cultural knowledge. 3. These students did not have a strong peer group identity with one of the established school peer groups and were at the periphery of the school social scene. (2010) found that in Grade 9 streaming practices in Ontario, Black African and Caribbean students were disproportionately found in the lower streams. Abuse of students by teachers is a rare occurrence, but when it does happen there are children who are at a greater risk of being victimized.10 In terms of victims of verbal abuse by teachers, these children are more likely to be boys and to display at risk characteristics early on (i.e., from kindergarten), such as antisocial behaviours, and have attention problems (particularly boys). One final agent of socialization is religion, discussed further in What concerns do critics of home schooling have about the socialization of home schooled children? This process not only accustoms people to social groups but also Personal histories of students are ignored and therefore students do not carry the stigma of past experiences with them in the school. 2007; Sokal 2010) or other English-speaking nations (see Allan 1993; Butler and Christensen 2003; Carrington and Skelton 2003; Carrington, Tymms, and Merrell 2008; Martin 2003). All of these examples require the student to self-regulate his or her bodys physical actions in ways that the child may not have had to do in a family setting. Jussim and Harber (2005) found that the expectations that teachers have about their students influenced how they behaved toward them. Box 6.5 Declining Male Performance in ReadingA Moral Panic? Adapted from Dreeben, Robert, 1968, On What is Learned in School, Percheron Press, A Division of Eliot Werner Publications, Inc., Used with permission. The number of children who are home schooled is on the rise in Canada. The deviants category encapsulated a very diverse collection of peer groups including burnouts, stoners, skaters, rebels, punks, partiers, and various alternative groups (including those defined by sexual orientation). According to Cohen (1972), individuals (or groups of individuals), events, or conditions are perceived as jeopardizing wider societal values and interests. Failure to be accepted by peers can be devastating for children, especially when it is manifested in acts of peer victimization and peer rejection. Brint (1998) identifies three major zones of socialization within classrooms (see Figure 6.2). Cooperating, taking turns, and practicing self-control are examples of social rules. Children that act in an aggressive or disruptive manner account for about one-third of children rejected by their peers (Crick and Dodge 1996). The core also consists of embedded practices, which are manners of behaving that are not explicit rules but routine practices within schools that appear to be very natural and taken for granted. Schools can be protective factors in childrens socialization if the right conditions are met. WebThis paper presents sociocultural perspectives alongside critical theories affecting adult learning in contemporary society. While the initial appeal of zero tolerance policies is that they theoretically apply the same punishment for rule infractions uniformly to everyone, the actual application of the policy does not appear to be so equitable. And they appear to be functioning effectively as members of adult society (p. 119). When peer group relationships are positive, it is reasonable to assume that the school environment is a supportive and potentially enjoyable one. The self-fulfilling prophecyis a term coined by sociologist Robert Merton in 1948 and refers to situations in which preconceived ideas about how someone will act cause that person to act in such a way, even if the belief about that person was initially incorrect.11 Riley and Ungerleider (2008) found that pre-service Canadian teachers rated the student records of those they were led to believe were Aboriginal less favourably compared to identical student records of those identified as non-Aboriginal, suggesting that teachers do alter their perceptions of students based on fixed characteristics. What are some conflicts that arise around the topic of school rules? For example, in 2007 British Columbia passed a law require all schools to have codes of conduct and a zero tolerance policy toward bullying. WebSocialization is the cultural process of learning to participate in a social group. Peer-rejected children, however, are not only aggressive children. Raby and Domitrek (2007) state that this kind of rule creation and enforcement creates a negative environment where teachers are involved in petty policing and frustrates students who would prefer to challenge the rules in more constructive ways than by breaking them. The school setting is where the learning of the new role as a student occurs. Dunstable School in Alberta, for example, has instituted policies that promote socially desirable behaviour. The Ontario Human Rights Commission launched a complaint against the Toronto District School Board, indicating that students with certain types of disabilities were being discriminated against. They found that the young adults who had been home schooled had higher academic attainment in young adulthood than the average population. As well, bully victims are often targeted for being too smart (Fried 1997) or below average intelligence (Olweus 1978) and being of a lower socioeconomic background (Bernstein and Watson 1997). The school is described as demo-cratic, as students have an active voice in their educational development. Racialized students and those who have had previous conduct problems within schools are much more likely to drop out of school. Brint (1998) identifies three major dimensions of socialization as it pertains to schooling, which are illustrated in Figure 6.1. The conflicts that students have with such rules were also highlighted. In contrast, Pre-calculus mathematics is described as designed for students who will be continuing studies at the post-secondary level in fields related to mathematics and science. In other words, they felt that they were more likely to receive disciplinary action for a rule infraction than White students. Schools which have vague and inconsistently enforced rules and ambiguous responses to rule-breaking, teachers and administration who do not agree on rules, and students who do not believe that the rules are legitimate are typically associated with higher discipline problems and have a poor school climate (Welsh et al. Religion. 2003. http://www.education.alberta.ca/media/645805/srhelapofs.pdf pp. Social control: Social institutions help to maintain stability and order within society. Streaming, seen this way, may therefore act to reproduce social inequalities by limiting post-secondary opportunities (Sweet et al. 9. It is explained that students voices are important and that individual voices are to be developed within the boundaries of the community, which upholds the three rules. There are many new behaviours and experiences that children must adapt to when starting school for the first time. How do students learn gender at school? These 1400 hours in the school setting per year do not include extracurricular activities and school preparatory work, like homework. Other research has found that individuals belonging to the popular and jock crowds were more likely to engage in relational aggression (discussed below), while those in high-risk peer groups (the deviants) were more prone to greater physical and relational aggression in the future (Pokhrel et al. No Way! The findings suggest that at-risk children may be socialized into a cycle of negative interactions with teachers, which may not only contribute to their future delinquency but also reduce their academic performance. Schools are directly responsible for making people worthwhile in their respective societies. Describe how they all impact on student socialization. What are Brints three zones of socialization? 7 & 10(Accessed March 2012). Incorporating technology into the classroom has also been suggested as a way to improve boys reading achievement, particularly through the use of the internet. 5. What happens if teachers behave in ways that violate norms of morality? Streaming not only influences the course choices of students, but also contributes to the overall socialization of children and adolescents in schools. This phenomenon of a network of disadvantageous social ties has been called negative social capital (Portes 1998). Schools perform an essential work in the socialization of children by first transmitting the cultures values. Raby (2005) suggests that students in such environments are not learning how to be active participatory citizens in a democracy, but instead learning how to cope with rules that have been imposed upon them. Both male and female skaters also widely rejected the values associated with the popular crowd. In addition to the two dominant uniforms, Pomerantz (2008) noted that girls also described their styles as comfortable, sporty, goth, punk, alternative, dressy, classy, preppy, regular, casual, weird, skater, random, hip hop (p. 10) and various combinations. Home schooling advocates have argued that one reason might be that the school-based peer group is unnatural and that home schooling exposes young people to a wider variety of age groups, which makes them more socially mature (Smedley 1992). Examples of teachers acting in morally suggestive ways occasionally make it into the mainstream media. In contrast, the English language arts academic trajectory in Alberta is ELA 10-1, 20-1, and 30-1 [which] provides a more in-depth study of text in terms of textual analysis. Box 6.4 Alternative Approaches to School Rules. What problems are being identified? As noted earlier in this chapter, students with social and emotional disabilities are more likely to be punished under school disciplinary codes of conduct. Their program, called the Character Education and Virtues Program, rewards students every time they are caught doing a selfless act in the school.3 The students receive a paper bear that is placed on a wall for all to see, and by collecting enough of these, the students receive prizes. Conflicts within relationships are dealt with in ways such that the relationship itself becomes the weapon. Structural and Social Inequalities in Schooling, After reading this chapter, you will be able to. In terms of outreach, students must participate weekly (Wednesdays between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m.) in a community volunteer activity for which they receive no payment. Girls are bullied for being unattractive, not being dressed fashionably, and being physically overdeveloped (Shakeshaft and Barber 1995). She notes that while dress code infractions for girls typically are focused on body containment (e.g., showing too much cleavage), for boys it is about containing ethnic or racial identities. The exceptions, of course, are private schools and many Catholic schools, where uniforms are traditional. You can help your child work on Students who exhibit higher academic aptitude are put with similar students into advanced courses where they will be challenged. Relationships with teachers are also central in the process of socialization. In Canada, children from elementary to high school levels spend about seven hours a day at school for about 200 days of the year. In an analysis of streaming processes by province, Krahn and Taylor (2007) examined how course selection limited the post-secondary education options available to students in selected provinces. What kinds of resources are available on their websites? As well, children who cannot engage themselves with the material being taught in the classroom may turn to disruption of peers due to boredom and frustration. Such rules were routinely broken and created resentment among students for what they perceived as ridiculous rules that teachers spent far too much time enforcing, and were often seen to enforce in targeted and unegalitarian ways. If theyre breaking what theyre saying it means nothing to us then.1 A student at the competition shot a video of the dance which quickly became an internet sensation accompanied by much public moral outrage. Verbal abuse by the teacher (which consisted of verbal humiliation, name-calling, and yelling) was also found to negatively impact on students academic achievement. The home schooled also tended to attach a great deal more importance to religious beliefs than the comparable population. Not only does a childs behaviour have to be modified from a set of learned family-appropriate behaviours, but the setting itself has many new structural features to which a child must become accustomed. Use Google to find home schooling advocacy groups in Canada.