Fabaree constructs three goals of education, social mobility which is the concept that education as a method for self improvement within society, Social efficiency which understands education as a means for citizens to gain skills useful for society, Democratic equalization which entails education as a method to ensure that citizens should be treated as equals. These three goals seem to reflect different stances on educational policies that are often used in dialogues about education.
The value of social efficiency was especially interesting as it matched a tendency I've seen in how education is being framed. However, what it means for something to be educationally efficient seems to differ from the description that Fabaree used it. Fabaree described an example of educational efficiency through the use of different strata of universities. It argued that the perceived quality of different universities determine the economical worth of a degree. How social efficiency seems to be currently used is through different fields of studies. This is reflected in the desire to encourage math and science educations to give students skills to be competitive on a world stage.
Egalitarian goals seem to be attempted through school reform. This entails utilizing competitive means to help improve schools that are failing. This method seems to reflect the movement away from attempts to promote equality by funding schools with poorer populations more. This looks at equality promotion as a quality that should be promoted by the school's quality. This ignores systemic reasons for inequal accesses to education.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
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