athabasca university – Once More into the Classroom

What I have learned so far

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting much on my blog is that I am trying to study. I’m studying Educational Issues and Social Change: Current Debates. It’s a course that many teachers get to do while at university, in fact I think it’s pretty much required. It’s also required for me in order to get my teaching certification. So I have been reading and writing essays. Essay’s on Ideology and the Neoliberal Reforms, Professionalism and Proletarization in teaching, Equality of Opportunity and the Feminization of Poverty which are all done, leaving me with multiculturalism to navigate. It’s a lot of reading, and I have to say that I’ve been a pretty good student managing to study, most days, three hours or so. As I head into my final unit I thought I would share a few of the interesting things I have discovered over the last ten weeks.

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting much on my blog is that I am trying to study. I’m studying Educational Issues and Social Change: Current Debates. It’s a course that many teachers get to do while at university, in fact I think it’s pretty much required. It’s also required for me in order to get my teaching certification. So I have been reading and writing essays. Topics which have included: Ideology and the Neoliberal Reforms, Professionalism and Proletarization in teaching, Equality of Opportunity and the Feminization of Poverty which are all done, leaving me with Multiculturalism to navigate. It’s a lot of reading, and I have to say that I’ve been a pretty good student managing to study, most days, three hours or so. As I head into my final unit I thought I would share a few of the interesting things I have discovered over the last ten weeks.

About Myself

Things have either gotten easier or I am smarter than I gave myself credit for. Paper 1: 94% Paper 2: 100%. It may not be that I am smarter but that I am putting some effort into a subject I do find really interesting. I’m also somewhat more focussed than the last time I was writing papers, when beer, women and finding out who I was kind of got in the way. It does go to show though that it’s never too late to improve your education or your mind.

That having a three year old on your lap pretty much means an end to any meaningful studying – though it is good for giggles.

About Education

If you come from a poor background you are a lot less likely to succeed than someone from a privileged background. I love this quotation.

To be born poor is to face a greater likelihood of ill-health in childhood and throughout your adult life. To be born poor is to face a lesser likelihood you will finish high school; lesser still that you will attend university. To be born poor is to face a greater likelihood that you will be judged delinquent in adolescence and, if so, a greater likelihood that you will be sent to a correctional institution. To be born poor is to have the deck stacked against you at birth, to find life an uphill struggle ever after. ( Poor kids: A report. (1975). Ottawa: National Council of Welfare.)

The biggest indicator of how you will do in life is not your ability or your effort at school but what your parents do.
More women live in poverty than do men. In Canada if you are a woman you are 50 percent more likely to be living in poverty.
The neoliberal agenda in education is as pernicious as it has been successful in getting people to believe that their narrative is the only narrative.
That 41% of children are born out of wedlock, 22% of which are in single parent households.
That poverty is becoming generational and social mobility is pretty much a fiction. (There is some but not much – far less than you have been led to believe.)

Of course it’s not all gloom and doom but it does have to be said that teachers do an amazing job in-spite of governmental interference.

One of the promises I made myself as I got into education for a second time, is that I would concern myself with my classroom, my students and leave the big picture stuff alone. Of course having to think about these things this intensely for weeks on end does get to you, but the end is now in sight. After that I am off on a weeks road trip, with my family, before we all head SE to Alberta and Red Deer. I’m looking forward to that and my time at UofA.

June Update.

We escaped for a night down to Atlin. This was the view when we drove down to the water. Breath taking.

University Update

After a lot of faff my application was finally accepted at the University of Alberta. For a while it looked like they wouldn’t accept my ‘transcript’ from the University of Liverpool. But after a phone call it was all cleared up and it went through. There point to all this and that is when you need to get things sorted the best way is still to talk with people. Go figure.

On A Personal Note

It has become glaringly obvious that my website is, for the moment, definitely a vanity project for me. I think I have one or two visitors a week. Which is not surprising considering how little I have been posting or getting around. This isn’t due to a lack of desire but a serious lack of time on my part. Juggling work, studying and family is something that I am getting used to. I also have the handicap of being a male making the multitasking thing even harder. Unlike my super talented wife who seems to juggle work, family and her blog just fine.

I am now into assignment 2 of my Athabasca course. I am trying to do a minimum of three nights a week studying, which leaves little time for anything else. On top of that I have been lucky enough to have been working almost full time at Jack Hulland and Selkirk Elementary Schools in Whitehorse. Of course all that will come to a stop in a few days as school is finished here on the 10th of June. So I now have six weeks to really finish my Athabasca course and hoping that now school is winding up I will be able to get that done.

We intending to get a fair bit of camping in over the next month, Christa’s job allowing, before we have to think about relocating to Edmonton. That will be happening mid August.

Course Work Begins

Sociology is one of ‘those’ subjects. Arguably it doesn’t directly benefit society. Not like Doctors, engineers and dare I say it teachers. But the work they do, it turns out, is very, very relevant to creating a harmonious and functional society. My first course looks at some of the most important sociological questions facing education today.

Sociology. Is it Relevant?

As part of my prescribed ‘rehabilitation’ back into the teaching profession, I have recently started a program from Athabasca University. Most of Athabasca’s courses are delivered online and it is geared for people who need a flexible schedule and are typically juggling several things at once. I have signed up for Education 302; Educational Issues and Social Change. Basically, a sociology course. My father, when he was alive, was never a fan of the ‘ologies. In his mind, they were useless, a waste of time and energy. I’d never considered it and certainly didn’t have enough energy or experience at the time to dispute his argument. But having started this course I do believe he was wrong.

Sociology is the study of human social behaviour. It is more or less a science based discipline that endeavours to answer questions about social behaviour. A topic which and has, as you can imagine, a massive scope. As an educator sociology asks some of the most fundamental questions we need to consider.

There is the big picture questions like, “How does education impact society and visa versa?” Then at the other end of the scale, micro questions such as, “what are the most effective ways to communicate with my students?” As a class teacher big picture questions, while vitally important for policy makers, have little impact directly. But the questions that address behaviour and relationships, the micro questions, is key information that will help us become more effective at what we do.

It turns out without people studying these types of questions we’d have little knowledge beyond anecdotes of what works and what doesn’t. We want to find out what best practice is, what that means and how to implement it. Sociologists help us do that. I’m looking forward to learning more about these subjects.