examples of socialization in school

If activities and behaviours are gendered by teachers, this can have an impact on how children see appropriate female and male roles. As noted earlier in this chapter, students with social and emotional disabilities are more likely to be punished under school disciplinary codes of conduct. 2010). For example, in 2007 British Columbia passed a law require all schools to have codes of conduct and a zero tolerance policy toward bullying. 11. The inner ring is characterized by explicit moral instruction. The names given to peer groups usually correspond greatly to their style of dress (particularly in the case of girls) and tastes in leisure activities. Agents Of Socialization: Family, School, Peers, And So far, it has been argued that children must adapt to features of school that are much different from their family environments. While the media may tend to overemphasize the home schooling practices of the religious right in Canada and the United States, many parents in Canada choose to home school not for religious reasons, but because they are dissatisfied with the curriculum and/or the social environment of schools. Socialized delinquency is the violation of the law by individuals younger than 18 years that 2. What are some conflicts that arise around the topic of school rules? In addition to features of the school and teacher characteristics, a major part of socialization at school involves students interaction with their peer group. Raby (2005) and Pomerantz (2007) also suggest that dress codes are more likely to be enforced on more physically developed females or those who belong to stigmatized subgroups (e.g., Goths). During the process of cultural conformity, children learn about accepted perspectives and styles of expression. Opponents to uniforms argue that they impinge on students self-expression, create a disciplinarian environment, and do little to equalize social class differences among students. Individuals of a similar age and social identity; in school, the peer group is typically a childs classmates in younger years and then becomes more specific to particular adolescent subgroups in the teenage years. A significant part of a teachers job is to evaluate students and, often, to decide if a student is best suited for a particular ability track. Teacher education suggests that tailoring into ability groups allows for teachers to best match the learning needs of students. The physical and emotional abuse experienced by children from other childrenotherwise known as bullying. A dimension of socialization including the self-regulations of the body required of students to fit into the school environment, such as raising a hand or sitting still. However, as Greig (2003) points out, this approach assumes that all boys like a particular type of book and that there is a standardized masculine identity that should be cultivated. In order to address the boy problem, the Ontario Ministry of Education has created guides for improving boys literacy.8 Booklets called Me Read? Define peer victimization, peer rejection, and relational aggression. 3. Currie and Kelly (2006) observed that a common yet particularly severe form of name-calling that resulted in the most reputational damage was being called a slut, which results from perceived inappropriate interactions with or seeking attention from boys. Students develop valuable knowledge and skills that will allow them to make informed decisions as they become independent citizens. Box 6.4 Alternative Approaches to School Rules. An applied stream is called Consumer Mathematics, while the academic stream is called Pre-calculus Mathematics. As noted by Sweet et al. No scientific evidence has been found that supports the idea that males perform better when taught by male teachers, either in Canada (Coulter and McNay 1993; Sokal et al. Canadian research has produced similar results to its American counterpart. Wotherspoon and Schissel (2001) give an account of an alternative education program in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan called the Won Ska Cultural School. Children who have negative relationships with teachers are also more likely to view school as an unpleasant place and be at a disadvantage in terms of learning. Furthermore, socialization can be divided into two types: primary socialization and secondary socialization. The development of the generalized other, where a child learns to adopt the attitudes of the wider society, occurs in secondary socialization. Changes in specific school dress codes shift according to trends in popular fashion. He or she may have to raise a hand to ask questions. 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. Recent immigrant youth may also be placed in lower tracks due to their English language skills, rather than their overall academic ability (Sweet et al. Examples (2007) found that across numerous studies from the English-speaking world, peer groups generally fell into five very broad categories: elites, athletes, deviants, academics, and others. Sources: Manitoba Education www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/parents/senior/math.html Reproduced with permission from Manitoba Education. The findings of research on the impact of school uniforms on school safety has, in general, not supported the premise of reduced behavioural problems in students (Han 2010) or school achievement (Yeung 2009). Proponents of streaming argue that putting students in classes with others who have similar abilities creates a better learning environment. And How! The argument that because school teachers are almost exclusively female, schools are a place where male interests are not cultivated. Zero tolerance policies refer to specific code infractions that result in immediate punishment, usually in the form of suspension or expulsion, and sometimes involving the police. While these groupings are very broad, they do point to the consistency of general groups over time and across English-speaking countries. The ongoing process of learning the expected behaviours, values, norms, and social skills of individuals who occupy particular roles in society. Customer Service Environment Group Dynamics Institutions Looking Religion. If your child is stressed by harmful actions of a school bully or experiences frequent conflicts, his socialization experience can deteriorate quickly. As well, in such discussions, the impact that this would have on female students is rarely considered (Greig 2003). 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. Socialization Gender Socialization. Lamb, Bigler, Riben, and Green (2009) have also found that if teachers teach children to confront and challenge sexist stereotypes, the results can decrease gender stereotyping behaviour, particularly in girls. In contrast, teachers who had high-quality relationships with their students also reported significantly fewer behavioural problems in their classrooms (Marzano et al. Research in British Columbia around this policy has also found that those who are disciplined under zero tolerance policies are more likely to have disabilities or be racial minorities (Cassidy and Jackson 2005). Cooperating, taking turns, and practicing self-control are examples of social rules. What Is Socialization All About? - ThoughtCo How do students learn gender at school? 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 February of 2011, news broke that a six-year-old boy in Laval, Quebec, had been excluded from a school teddy bear contest because he had a plastic sandwich bag in his lunch, which violated the school rules on environmentally friendly lunch containers.5 Many environmental initiatives have been adopted by schools across Canada. 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. The Consumer Mathematics curriculum addresses financial management, career exploration, home ownership and maintenance, as well as more traditional topics such as trigonometry and statistics. A child must develop skills that allow him or her to function socially, emotionally, and intellectually within the school environment. The child interacts with many features of his or her environment which all contribute to the childs social development. Many children arrive at school with behavioural problems and emotional needs that are not met in the family environment. The Quebec researchers also found that the likelihood of a child experiencing verbal abuse from a teacher is also fairly consistent across grades, such that when students start a new year with a new teacher, they are likely to encounter the same kind of interactions. In Canada, children from elementary to high school levels spend about seven hours a day at school for about 200 days of the year. As noted by Wentzel and Looney (2006), there are several different social realities to which a child must adapt: In addition to learning different behaviours that are appropriate for school, there are also structural features of school to which children must adapt. As Table 6.1 illustrates, there are many new things for children to get used to in the school setting. Wentzel and Looneys (2006) overview of previous research on school climate in the United States has shown that schools that are perceived to be caring communities by their students are associated with lower rates of delinquency and drug use. Plastic water bottles are banned from sale in schools in Ontario, for example, but there are no cases of students being excluded from activities for having them. As noted by Sussman et al. In addition to teaching student subject matter, teachers are often regarded as being responsible for managing the emotional lives of their students (Jennings and Greenberg 2009). Agents of Socialization: Definition & Examples - Simply Sociology Subject options are often streamed into applied or academic streams. The most frequently mentioned motivations were the desire to bond the family through a common educational pursuit, objections to the organization of schools, and a desire to personally enrich the curriculum. Skelton (2001) has noted, however, that the predominance of female teachers is not a new thing but has been the status quo since the nineteenth century. 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. School as an Agent of Socialization - 570 Words | Essay Example 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. The second part discusses gender socialization with a close look and discussion on feminist theory. WebSchools and Socialization into Social Class. Concept in social psychology 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 Students who are consistently placed in remedial classes may also start to view themselves as slow (Barakett and Cleghorn, 2008). The peer groupconsists of individuals of a similar age and social identity. 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). Children, however, will now have other significant people in their lives from whom they will learn the skills of social interaction. In 2001, the Ontario Ministry of Education instituted the Safe Schools Act, which was designed to address violence and behavioural problems in schools. WebLets examine some of the major theories of socialization, which are summarized in Table 4.1 Theory Snapshot. The school is described as demo-cratic, as students have an active voice in their educational development. School provides a structured setting in which children can learn and develop social competencies, such as self-confidence, friendship, empathy, participation, respect, gratitude, compassion, and responsibility. Social and emotional learning is important for young people to become conscious members of a solidarity-based community. Socialization that occurs within the family, where children first learn their own individual identity, acquire language, and develop cognitive skills. Therefore, social features of the school can serve to reverse delinquent behaviours. The school setting now begins to take on some of the roles that previously only family members fulfilledbut in markedly different ways. Socialization 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). For example, schools teach children how to behave appropriately in society. Schools with the most severe discipline problems usually have the worst social climates as well. So far, this chapter has described the various ways that teachers and school practices contribute to the socialization of children. In Chapter 4, for example, research by Willms (2008) was considered which argued that French immersion programs act as an informal streaming mechanism as French immersion students tend to be from significantly higher socio-economic backgrounds and less likely to have a learning disability. Major agents of socialization include the family and school, but also the media, peer groups, and other major social institutions such as religion and the legal system. 5.3 Agents of Socialization - Introduction to Sociology 3e - OpenStax The school as a site of secondary socialization was presented, with the differences between the family (primary socialization) environment and the school environment being highlighted. In this chapter, the complex role of socialization within schools was introduced. What kinds of resources are available on their websites? Figure 6.3 summarizes the major forces of socialization within schools that were discussed. What are the rationales behind the proposed solutions? What concerns do critics of home schooling have about the socialization of home schooled children? Socialization is a twofold process occurring at both the social and individual levels that accomplish two main goals. Research in Canada suggests that non-White students perceive that school rules are unequally enforced (MacDonell and Martin 1986; Ruck and Wortley 2002). What were the characteristics of popular students? 2007), teens in the deviant groups tended to have lower self-esteem and life satisfaction compared to other groups, and also tended to have poor parenting. Our peer group is also important because typically our peers share the same interest which lays foundation for support and socialization amongst the group. Sex-typing of childrens play (e.g., specific activities for boys and others for girls) can also contribute to reinforcing gender differences in behaviour and the understanding that children have about the appropriate roles for males and females. 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. The home schooled also tended to attach a great deal more importance to religious beliefs than the comparable population. According to Raby, adolescent girls resistance is hard to characterize because it expresses itself within local, micro-struggles working in an oppositional but sporadic, diffuse, and localized manner (p. 148). This bottom-up approach to decision making has proven to be a very effective one for students who, for various reasons, were not successful in the mainstream system. Teachers, however, shape the socialization of students by other processes as well, which are discussed below. The conflicts that students have with such rules were also highlighted. This is a basic but surprisingly complex and difficult process that benefits from experience, knowledge and effort. 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. Box 6.1 Teaching Morality through Example and through Curriculum, Do students look at teachers as moral exemplars? 1010 Chapter 4: Socialization, Interaction, and the Self (2010) found that in Grade 9 streaming practices in Ontario, Black African and Caribbean students were disproportionately found in the lower streams. 10. Rules that students opposed were those that seemed pointless and arbitrary, particularly those around dress codes (Raby 2005). The staff keep track of who is earning the bears, and perhaps more importantly, who is not. Secondary socialization refers to the social learning that children undergo when they enter other social institutions, like school. 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. 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. Deviants, elites, and to some extent jocks were more likely to drink, while deviants were the group most likely to use marijuana. What problems are being identified? Within the general category of elites, such peer groups as populars, student union members, and preppies were found. 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 Brints three zones of socialization? Within the family, children are socialized into particular ways of thinking about morals, cultural values, and social roles. This difference may be due to ethnic group membership, disability, physical attractiveness, or being a newcomer to the classroom (Asher et al. School settings often place children in heterogeneous classes with large groups of children of the same age, where they participate in very specific school-oriented activities and events. Social experiences are required to develop communication and social skills. School climate refers to the sense of belonging to a school community. The peer group becomes more important in adolescence as a source of emotional security and identity. In Canada, research using data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth has found that the social climate within schools and classrooms has important effects on children who display early signs of behavioural problems. Meanness also includes such behaviours as name-calling, ridicule, sarcasm, and giving other girls the silent treatment. Research on girls meanness has found that middle-class girls more frequently participate in this type of aggression because it is within this social class that the rules of femininity are the least flexible. It should be noted that informal mechanisms of streaming, however, can also be understood as the outcomes of other schooling practices that occur at the level of the institution. One final agent of socialization is religion, discussed further in 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). These agents include the family, education, religion, peer groups, and the media, and they all play a significant role in shaping an individual's beliefs, values, and behaviors. One resigned and the other did not have his contract renewed.2. In school, the peer group is typically a childs classmates in younger years and then becomes more specific to particular adolescent subgroups in the teenage years. Researchers have determined that bully victims are weak in temperament (Hodges and Perry 1999; Smith and Myron-Wilson 1998), lack physical strength (Bernstein and Watson 1997; Hodges and Perry 1999; Smith and Myron-Wilson 1998), and are somehow different in terms of looks (including race), dress, or physical ability (Bernstein and Watson 1997; Fried 1997). Medlin (2000) has noted that research on whether or not home schooled children experience adequate socialization is sparse and that which does exist often has hallmarks of poor research design and biased samples. The structure of school and the structure of the family are obviously very different. Look on the internet for official curriculum documents about moral education in Canada. Describe how peer victimization, peer rejection, and relational aggression impact on the socialization experiences of students. 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). Agents of Socialization: Family, Education, Media, and 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. There are many agents of socialization within the school environment, as indicated by Brints (1998) zones of socialization. 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. It can be difficult for teachers to be warm and supportive when behavioural disruptions from students make it challenging for the teacher to perform his or her instructional role (Jennings and Greenberg 2009). Since 2007 in Ontario and 2005 in Alberta, character education has been part of the official curriculum in public schools. 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. There are many new behaviours and experiences that children must adapt to when starting school for the first time. The Britney look consisted of tight jeans and midriff-baring tops, while the JLo look was characterized by figure-hugging velour track suits. In many provinces, courses in math, science, and English are divided into those that lead to post-secondary education options (e.g., university) and those that do not. Students who exhibit higher academic aptitude are put with similar students into advanced courses where they will be challenged. Pomerantz argues that dress codes are not simply neutral school policies; they also impact on the creation of gender, sexuality, and race. Schools codes of conduct serve to penalize those who do not conform. While school uniforms are standard attire in the United Kingdom, they have not been adopted in most North American schools until relatively recently. This is particularly striking because these differences in self-concept about abilities in math and science exist in studies even when there is no difference between the grades of males and females. 2004). Internationally, girls have also been achieving higher standardized reading scores than males since the 1990s (see Box 6.5 for discussion). Table 6.1 Structural Differences between School and Family Settings. Schools can be protective factors in childrens socialization if the right conditions are met. In other words, they felt that they were more likely to receive disciplinary action for a rule infraction than White students. The styles were adopted by girls largely based on race, with White girls sporting the Britney look and the Asian and Hispanic girls wearing JLo styles.