The Nature Of Educational Inequality

By Editorial Staff in Science and Technology On 26th August 2017
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#1 Importance Of Education

Education plays a vital role in shaping tomorrows’ leaders. Not only can we become a better nation by acquiring the skills necessary to be productive members of a civilized society. Increase knowledge to actively achieve and meet challenges that can produce changes in which are productive for attaining business innovations, political and economic objectives.

Our world is constantly changing and it requires a society that is well versed in understanding the problems deriving from culture differences and tolerance of one another’s beliefs and perceptions. We are dealing with systemic problems in education, economic, government, religion and culture differences.

#2 History of Education

Education began in prehistory, as adults trained the young in the knowledge and skills deemed necessary in their society. In pre-literate societies, this was achieved orally and through imitation. Story-telling passed knowledge, values, and skills from one generation to the next. As cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond skills that could be readily learned through imitation, formal education developed. Schools existed in Egypt at the time of the Middle Kingdom.Plato founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in Europe.The city of Alexandria in Egypt, established in 330 BCE, became the successor to Athens as the intellectual cradle of Ancient Greece. There, the great Library of Alexandria was built in the 3rd century BCE. European civilizations suffered a collapse of literacy and organization following the fall of Rome in CE 476.In China, Confucius (551–479 BCE), of the State of Lu, was the country's most influential ancient philosopher, whose educational outlook continues to influence the societies of China and neighbours like Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Confucius gathered disciples and searched in vain for a ruler who would adopt his ideals for good governance, but his Analects were written down by followers and have continued to influence education in East Asia into the modern era.

After the Fall of Rome, the Catholic Church became the sole preserver of literate scholarship in Western Europe. The church established cathedral schools in the Early Middle Ages as centres of advanced education. Some of these establishments ultimately evolved into medieval universities and forebears of many of Europe's modern universities.During the High Middle Ages, Chartres Cathedral operated the famous and influential Chartres Cathedral School. The medieval universities of Western Christendom were well-integrated across all of Western Europe, encouraged freedom of inquiry, and produced a great variety of fine scholars and natural philosophers, including Thomas Aquinas of the University of Naples, Robert Grosseteste of the University of Oxford, an early expositor of a systematic method of scientific experimentation,and Saint Albert the Great, a pioneer of biological field research.Founded in 1088, the University of Bologne is considered the first, and the oldest continually operating university.Elsewhere during the Middle Ages, Islamic science and mathematics flourished under the Islamic caliphate which was established across the Middle East, extending from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Indus in the east and to the Almoravid Dynasty and Mali Empire in the south.

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#3 Education sector

The education sector or education system is a group of institutions (ministries of education, local educational authorities, teacher training institutions, schools, universities, etc.) whose primary purpose is to provide education to children and young people in educational settings. It involves a wide range of people (curriculum developers, inspectors, school principals, teachers, school nurses, students, etc.). These institutions can vary according to different contexts.Schools deliver education, with support from the rest of the education system through various elements such as education policies and guidelines – to which school policies can refer – curricula and learning materials, as well as pre- and in-service teacher training programmes. The school environment – both physical (infrastructures) and psychological (school climate) – is also guided by school policies that should ensure the well-being of students when they are in school.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has found that schools tend to perform best when principals have full authority and responsibility for ensuring that students are proficient in core subjects upon graduation.

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#4 Education and technology in developing countries

Over the decade technology has transcended poverty, race and economics to become a driving force in the lives of people across the world. More than two billion of us now have access to the internet and five billion of us have mobile phones.Children are growing up in a world where social media, mobile technology and online communities are fundamental to the way that they communicate, learn and develop.Increasingly, technology is being seen as a powerful development tool, used in the global battle to hit child and youth-focused targets in global education, livelihoods and health.

"This technology wasn't developed as a development tool yet has become one of the greatest vehicles for change," says Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development.

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#5 Educational theory

Educational psychology:

Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Although the terms "educational psychology" and "school psychology" are often used interchangeably, researchers and theorists are likely to be identified as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists.

The intelligence–education relationship:

Intelligence is an important factor in how the individual responds to education. Those who have higher intelligence tend to perform better at school and go on to higher levels of education.

Mind, Brain and Education:

Educational neuroscience is an emerging scientific field that brings together researchers in cognitive neuroscience, developmental cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, educational technology, education theory and other related disciplines to explore the interactions between biological processes and education.

Philosophy:

As an academic field, philosophy of education is "the philosophical study of education and its problems, its central subject matter is education, and its methods are those of philosophy".The philosophy of education may be either the philosophy of the process of education or the philosophy of the discipline of education. That is, it may be part of the discipline in the sense of being concerned with the aims, forms, methods, or results of the process of educating or being educated

#6 Discrimination in Education

Various federal laws prohibit discrimination in the realm of education on the basis of race, gender, age, national origin, and other protected categories. Federal laws that ban education discrimination include Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and various other statutes. While these federal laws apply only to schools that accept federal funding, this includes the vast majority of K-12 and higher education institutions.

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#7 Examples of what could be discrimination in education

Unfair treatment in education happens a lot. But not every unfair act is illegal. Here are some examples of what could be illegal discrimination in education:

-A college will not accept applications from people who are over 50 years old.

-A teacher treats non English speaking students unfairly because he/she thinks these students cannot learn, and they should not be in school anyway.

-An Asian student is bullied a lot at school because of his race. -The student tells his/her teachers and the school principal what is happening. The school does nothing about the bullying even though it happens every week.

-A college acceptsfewer applications for enrollment from people of color than it does for white people. The college does this because it wants most of its students to be white.

#8 Areas That Are Protected by the Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against persons with a 'protected characteristic'. In total there are nine protected characteristics and they are as follows:

1.Age

2.Disability

3.Gender Reassignment

4.Marriage & Civil Partnership

5.Pregnancy & Maternity

6.Race

7.Religion or Belief

8.Sex (Gender)

9.Sexual Orientation

1.Age

Age, as a protected characteristic, does not apply to pupils in schools.

2.Disability

It is unlawful for an education provider to discriminate directly or indirectly against a pupil on the basis of their disability.

3.Gender Reassignment

It is unlawful for an education provider to treat a pupil less favourably because they have undergone gender reassignment, or they are in the process of undergoing gender reassignment.

4.Marriage & Civil Partnership

Schools must not be discriminatory when providing teaching about Marriage & Civil Partnership. Schools must accurately state the facts about marriage of same sex couples under the law of England and Wales, in a way that is appropriate to the age and level of understanding and awareness of the pupils.

5.Pregnancy & Maternity

It is unlawful for an education provider to treat a pupil less favourably as a result of her becoming pregnant, or because she has recently had a baby, or because she is breastfeeding.

6.Race

It is unlawful for an education provider to treat a pupil less favourably on the basis of their race. The definition of race includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins.

7.Religion or Belief

It is unlawful for an education provider to treat a pupil less favourably on the basis of their religion or belief, or their lack of religion or lack of belief.''Religion'' includes, for example, all of the major faith groups whereas ''belief'' includes non-religious world views such as humanism.

8.Sex (Gender)

It is unlawful for an education provider to treat a pupil less favourably on the basis of their gender.

9.Sexual Orientation

It is unlawful for an education provider to treat a pupil less favourably on the basis of their sexual orientation. Schools need to make sure that all gay, lesbian or bisexual pupils, or the children of gay, lesbian or bi-sexual parents, are not singled out for different and less favourable treatment from that given to other pupils.