Religion. In a study of secondary students responses to dress codes, Raby (2010) found that many girls regarded specific aspects of dress codes overly restrictive (such as the prohibition of tank tops with spaghetti straps) but were often quick to condemn girls who wore revealing clothing as sluts. While wanting to challenge gender inequalities, they were also active participants in reproducing them. Education serves as an agent of socialization because it engages students in competition in academic success which helps create a social environment for students to interact in. This curriculum is intended as preparation for calculus at the university level.. Figure 6.3 summarizes the major forces of socialization within schools that were discussed. Other perceived benefits of school uniforms, such as improved student achievement, improved self-esteem (particularly if less well-off students cannot afford the latest fashions), and the overall improvement of the learning environment (Pate 2006), have also been touted as rationales for implementation. As well, in such discussions, the impact that this would have on female students is rarely considered (Greig 2003). Single-sex schools have also been suggested as a solution to the boy problem. Greig (2003) argues that proponents of such arguments are engaged in a discussion that assumes that boys are in need of gender repair (Lingard and Douglas 1999). A major emphasis in the curriculum is learning practical life skills and how to develop trust for persons in authority. Willis (1977; see Chapter 2) argued that working-class boys resisted the values and behaviours promoted in the school environment by acting in deviant ways: by fighting and skipping class. Social approval is obtained when children accept the sanctioned goals of the school setting and they are rewarded and reinforced on a consistent basis through social acceptance by teachers and other students (Wentzel and Looney 2006). (Ontario Ministry of Education 2009) were circulated to teachers in order to put creative strategies in place for improving boys literacy. When a student enters high school, the courses that he or she takes greatly influence the post-secondary options available to him or her upon graduation. Behavioural conformityrefers to the types of self-regulations of the body that a student must control in order to fit into the school environment. According to Simmons (2002), there are rules for how good girls act, and participating in overt acts of violence does not conform to this role. Explicit moral instruction occurs in the elementary grades, when children are socialized to aspire to virtues such as kindness, generosity, courage, and hard work. The first zone is called the core. There is a certain body of knowledge that it is assumed children must know in order to be productive citizens and function in society. The goal of such acts is to damage others reputations and social standings within the peer group. And How! Krahn and Taylor (2007) found that a major influence on course selection was parental education and family income; students from families with lower incomes and in which neither parent had post-secondary qualifications were more likely to take lower-streamed courses. But why would home schooled children be better socialized, as many American proponents have indicated? Child victims also report having recurring memories of the abuse (Sharp 1995) and being afraid to seek help (Slee 1994; Smith and Myron- Wilson 1998). Of course, popularity is a factor in social identity. They found that the young adults who had been home schooled had higher academic attainment in young adulthood than the average population. Such reading materials functioned as a type of social or cultural capital within their groups of friends. Peer-rejected children, however, are not only aggressive children. WebFor example, a child whose parents value hard work may see a friends father sitting around watching television all day and begin to question the importance of work. 2010). 9. 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). Being presented with that curriculum is one way that children are socialized into becoming desirable members of the public. Even when accounting for numerous childhood risk factors such as social class of origin, gender, and antisocial behaviour, having been verbally abused by a teacher in early childhood was associated with behavioural problems in adulthood. In general, students who plan to attend a post-secondary institution, regardless of their specific career aspirations, need to familiarize themselves with the entry requirements of the institution and program the plan to enter. Verbal abuse by the teacher (which consisted of verbal humiliation, name-calling, and yelling) was also found to negatively impact on students academic achievement. Students who are less academically inclined are put into classes that better match their abilities and interests, like vocational training. If activities and behaviours are gendered by teachers, this can have an impact on how children see appropriate female and male roles. In an overview of studies (Sussman et al. The third dimension of socialization is cultural conformity. Respondents did, however, report some negative aspects of home schooling, which included the social stigma attached to being home schooled, social challenges of not being around other children regularly, the limits of the curriculum covered in their schooling, and the challenges of integrating into classroom settings later in life.12, 6.3 Major Forces of Socialization within Schools. WebInterests. Students who are consistently placed in remedial classes may also start to view themselves as slow (Barakett and Cleghorn, 2008). (2007), many social identity groups among peers are still strongly associated with socioeconomic background (i.e., the popular kids and jocks often come from the higher social classes, while the deviants come from the lower social classes). Streaming is a topic that is hotly debated (Loveless 1999). This act supplanted the Education Act (Section 23), which previously allowed only principals to suspend students and school boards to expel students. The term streaming(also known as tracking) refers to the series of courses a student should take that best matches his or her abilities and aptitudes. Like the deviants (below) they had a higher likelihood of alcohol use and sexual behaviour. The delinquent behaviours are thought to merge a complex interaction of individual personal characteristics with properties of their environment and situations. In other words, they felt that they were more likely to receive disciplinary action for a rule infraction than White students. What are Brints three zones of socialization? Table 6.1 Structural Differences between School and Family Settings. Davies and Aurini (2003) argue that Canadian parents who home schooled advocated for pedagogical individualismin other words, home schooling allowed them to cater to their childs individual learning styles and interestssomething that would not be possible in a classroom of 25 (or more) students. What are the rationales given for dress codes and school uniforms? Attempts to attract more males to the teaching profession have also been suggested as a solution to the boy problem. With school teachers being almost exclusively female, the feminization of schoolingargument suggests that schools are a place where male interests are not cultivated. Rather than committing acts of physical violence toward each other, girls are much more likely to participate in covert acts of aggression such as spreading rumours and excluding individuals from their social group. The previous chapter discussed curriculum and how the content of schooling is closely associated with the social construction of what various groups (teachers, school administrators, parents) think children should be taught. Infamous acts of school violence, such as the events at Columbine High School in 1999, led to increased concern about violence in schools, which resulted in the emergence of zero tolerance policies around school codes of conduct. The school rules, which must be followed by students, exist at the core. Children that act in an aggressive or disruptive manner account for about one-third of children rejected by their peers (Crick and Dodge 1996). Peer victimization and rejection have been found to be associated with psychological distress that carries over into adulthood (Ambert 1994; Bagwell, Newcomb, and Bukowski 1998; Roff 1990; Roth, Coles, and Heimberg 2002). What group(s) were you in? Prior to attending school, childrens main source of socialization comes from their families. They tell us what to do, almost like whats right and whats wrong. The Safe Schools Act changed the policy to one of mandatory suspensions and expulsions and police involvement for particular rule infractions, provided that mitigating factors were taken into account. (2010), such conditions can only negatively impact the achievements of these students and further constrain their post-secondary prospects. Give examples of how each works. What kinds of peer groups existed in your high school? Schools were not equipped to deal with students with social and emotional disabilities, and it was these very students who were disproportionately punished through the Safe Schools Act. Such factors may include the ability of the student to control his or her own behaviour (Daniel and Bondy 2008). Such outcomes suggest that the home schooled adults who answered the survey did not suffer from barriers due to socialization problems. This type of socialization is accomplished through teachers emphasizing the desirability of certain virtues, such as hard work, equity, being nice, and so on. However, there is some evidence that home schooled children are acquiring the rules of behavior and systems of beliefs and attitudes they need. 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. They have good self-esteem and are likely to display fewer behavior problems than do other children. In addition to features of the school and teacher characteristics, a major part of socialization at school involves students interaction with their peer group. Agents of socialization are the social structures in which socialization occurs. Less overt ways of instilling values through curricular practices are also found in citizenship education, which teaches students about being good citizens. Citizenship education is present in the primary and secondary curricula of all Canadian provinces and territories (Evans 2006). The rationale behind introducing school uniforms was that standardizing wardrobes would make it impossible for students to wear clothes reflecting gang affiliation and the presence of intruders within schools would be easier to identify as they would stand out in a sea of uniforms. Developmental socialization This type of socialization involves a learning process wherein the focus in on developing our social skills. School helps your child learn skills to relate to different personality types. They suggest, interestingly, that drinking and sexual behaviours of young people can be perceived as festive social interactions and [a source of] popularity among teens and emerging adults, as well as representing a problem behaviour (Sussman et al. In school, we also learn social skills through our interactions with teachers, staff, and other students. WebLets examine some of the major theories of socialization, which are summarized in Table 4.1 Theory Snapshot. Girls who wear tank tops and are reprimanded are at risk of being deemed immoral or slutty, and boys who violate certain rules aimed at them may be labelled gangsters. Pomerantz argues that implicit in many of the dress code discourses is the message that it is a females moral duty to keep herself covered. 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. The overall socialization of children, as theorized by Bronfenbrenner (see Chapter 2), is dispersed into various realms which focus on the different sites of social context that children experience in their lives. The names given to such social groups change across time and cultural trends, although the labelling of jocks (students who participate in a lot of sports) and brains (students who excel academically) and nerds (socially excluded students) seem to span across generations. Examples of teachers acting in morally suggestive ways occasionally make it into the mainstream media. School uniforms became more widely implemented in the public school system in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s when school policies were put in place in an effort to control gang activities and increase safety at schools (Han 2010). Examples-socialization must occur for a high school freshman to adjust to their new situation. Critics such as Greig (2003) argue that single-sex settings reinforce traditional gender roles and stereotypes that encourage teachers to treat boys and girls differently. As noted by Raby (2005), the language of school codes of conduct suggests that young people are seen to be incomplete, at risk, and in need of guidance, a position that legitimizes school rules and their enforcement (p. 73). For females, clothes that reveal too much of the body are explicitly banned, while for males, styles of dress associated with hip-hop music (i.e., being able to see boxer shorts above the waistband of a males jeans) are targeted. Adapted from Dreeben, Robert, 1968, On What is Learned in School, Percheron Press, A Division of Eliot Werner Publications, Inc., Used with permission. 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. Sussman et al. No Way! Policy in which specific code infractions result in immediate punishment, usually in the form of suspension or expulsion, and sometimes involving the police. They also found significant differences by province: students from Saskatchewan were much more likely to have university options than those in British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario. Canadian researchers have examined the meanness of girls in relation to their popularity (Currie and Kelly 2006; Currie, Kelly, and Pomerantz 2007). Socialized Delinquency. A possible reason for this is that teachers may talk in staff meetings about students whom they perceive as problematic, which may influence future teachers interactions with those students. According to Cohen (1972), individuals (or groups of individuals), events, or conditions are perceived as jeopardizing wider societal values and interests. Other research findings reveal that this is more than a perception and that abject racism has been detected in schools use of disciplinary procedures (Ferguson, Tilleczek, Boydell, and Rummens 2005). How do students learn gender at school? For example, in order for someone to become a doctor he/she What solutions are being offered? Many researchers have called the reaction to perceived underachievement by boys a global moral panic (see, for example, Griffin 2000; Smith 2003; Weaver-Hightower 2003). 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). As discussed later in this chapter, school rules and school codes of conduct are essential features of schools that frame behaviours in a manner such that they produce obedience to authority. One suggestion for improving boys literacy is to incorporate more boy friendly books into the curriculum.9 Books that are about adventure and those that are non-fiction are thought to appeal to young males, while novels are more appealing to young females. Want to create or adapt books like this? Similar to peer victimized children, peer rejection may occur simply because a child is perceived as being different in some way from other members of the peer group. As noted by Reinke and Herman (2002), schools tend to have personalities of their own. The series of courses a student should take that best matches his or her abilities and aptitudes; also known as tracking. The outrage that followed the display by the Winnipeg teachers strongly supports the idea that teachers are implicit moral role models. 10. Streaming not only influences the course choices of students, but also contributes to the overall socialization of children and adolescents in schools. Many critics of home schooling have argued that because school is such an important basis for socialization, this can only mean that children who are home schooled are going to be missing out on some very key aspects of socialization. Children must learn the work ethic that goes along with school and understand the goals of learning as well as adjusting their efforts according to teacher feedback. Positive peer group support has been found to be associated with academic success and prosocial behaviours. Failure to be accepted by peers can be devastating for children, especially when it is manifested in acts of peer victimization and peer rejection. 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. What has changed, however, is the larger proportion of boys without male parents in the home. How do children decide what courses they will take in secondary school? Codes of conduct are of particular interest because they have been created under the auspices of improving school safety. As Table 6.1 illustrates, there are many new things for children to get used to in the school setting. For example, if a child came from an absent family, or was put in a school or daycare when they were an infant or toddler, a school-like institution may influence primary socialization (Whitbeck, 1999). These ideals are normatively approved and accepted models of what a student should be like to fit into schooling contexts, not only in North America but in virtually all places where formal schooling occurs. Racialized students and those who have had previous conduct problems within schools are much more likely to drop out of school. Manitoba, for example, has a highly tracked mathematics program (McFeetors and Mason 2005). 8. For example, we learn the importance of obeying authority and Students may have to stand in orderly lines in order to have a drink of water. Students who wish to attend university need to take a certain set of academic courses, for example. Wotherspoon and Schissel (2001) give an account of an alternative education program in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan called the Won Ska Cultural School. The expected behaviours at school are much different from within the family, and the structural features of day-to-day life at school are in stark contrast to what was experienced in the family home. For example, the government funds public schools, which play a key role in children's socialization. Outside of the core are two rings of moral instruction. A teacher, for example, is largely in charge of the student, but the relationship that a child has with a teacher is far less intimate than the relationship a child shares with his or her parents; A student must also adapt to spending a significant amount of time in large groups; A child must learn to be independent to achieve the academic goals of school; A child must also learn to form bonds and develop social bonds with other children in school; and. Warm and supportive teachers and a positive school climate are crucial for the positive social development of children, and the absence of such can have long-term detrimental effects on students, particularly if they have family problems. 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. Moral education and character education are even found in some provinces curricula (Box 6.1). Peer groups can also be thought of as a form of social capital (see Chapter 2). Homeschooled children have stronger relationships with their parents and