Jennifer Provencher- Blog 2

            Having taken 1 or 2 sociology courses in my undergrad degree I was familiar with some of the theorists in the textbook. What I was not familiar with was how their work related to our education system. I found this aspect of their theories very interesting, but yet a little shocking.  I was mostly shocked to read how social standing and ethnicity still determines how students are treated in the classroom and outside world. On page (41) the textbook mentions that  “children from the working class perform at the same levels as middle- and upper-class children, they tend to have less ambition and education goals”. As a future teacher, I find this very sad and depressing. I would hope that everyone in my classroom no matter what class they came from would be equally ambitious. I think that perhaps as future educators, it is our job to create a space in which students know that their race, gender, or social standing that they are all treated the same.  As the reading progressed I found that Bronfendrenner’s Ecological systems theory gave me great insight as to why this occurred. His theory stated that “ a child’s environment had five distinct elements which interacted together and all has the potential to influence a child’s development: the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosytem (43). He also notes “child outcomes are the results of the many reciprocal effects between the child and his and her environment” (43). I think that Bronfendrenner’s work and contribution’s on school and environment is pretty accurate. I have personally seen how the five elements work together and either hinder or promote students.

Discussion Question: What are some ways that schools can become involved in at risk communities so that students feel that they are able to achieve the educational goals that they want/deserve?