•Eastern Illinois University

Nick Osborne, Ph.D

Case Study Time

• Meet with your group….

• Work on the development of your case study

• Build Strategies…review data…etc…

Labor Force in Education

• How do Sociologists view educators?• Describe the Labor Force in your school.• Is it different now than it was when you

were in school?• Is it different than your neighbors?• What are the social implications?

Labor Force Data

• Review the handouts Tables 237-240

• What observations can you make from the data?

Labor Force in Education

• Issues of Status• Professional Esteem• Public Disregard• Where do we rank in regard to

professional status?• Review page 148 in your text.

Who Becomes a Teacher

• Historical Perspective• Gender Factor• Demographic Characteristics• What is the level of commitment?• Review page 159 in your text.

Demographics of Today’s Teacher

• The average teacher has 15 years of classroom experience and more than half of today's teachers (56 percent) hold a master's degree or 6-year diploma.  Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) began full-time teaching within the past five years.

• Teachers spend an average of 50 hours per week on instructional duties, including an average of 12 hours each week on non-compensated school-related activities such as grading papers, bus duty, and club advising.

• Teachers spend an average of $443 of their own money each year to meet the needs of their students.

Demographics of Today’s Teacher• More than three-quarters of teachers (77 percent)

participated in system-sponsored professional development activities during the school year; more teachers than ever (35 percent) participated in such activities during the summer.  

• Three-fifths of teachers (60 percent) said they would become teachers again. More than one-fifth  (21 percent) said they would not choose teaching as a career if they could start over again. 

Analysis• NEA has produced Status of the American Public

School Teacher every five years since 1961, providing a chronicle of the teaching profession over four decades.  For the first time, the survey sought to identify the reasons for teachers not remaining in teaching until retirement.  The largest segment of teachers (37 percent) cited low salaries.  Minority teachers (50 percent), male teachers (43 percent), and teachers under 30 (47 percent) were most likely to claim low pay as the reason they will not stay in teaching.

Analysis

• The report also reveals a profession that is struggling to provide role models of both sexes and all races within a teaching workforce that is predominantly white (90 percent) and female (79 percent).  Since 1981, the ratio of male to female teachers has steadily declined - it now stands at a 40-year low (21 percent). 

Analysis

• "While the news in this report is encouraging on many fronts, the survey also includes some warning calls that can't be ignored," said Weaver.  "People are leaving our profession because of the low pay, and we're struggling to recruit and retain male teachers and teachers of color.  These are areas that we must address and correct." 

Conditions of Labor• Classroom Conditions• Fragmentation• Isolation• Student Control• Lack of Tangible Results• Multidimensionality

Average Salaries

• Median annual earnings of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers ranged from $41,400 to $45,920 in May 2004; the lowest 10 percent earned $26,730 to $31,180; the top 10 percent earned $66,240 to $71,370. Median earnings for preschool teachers were $20,980.

Journal Article Review

• Please select one of your two articles for presentation to the class.

• What is the topic.• What is the sociological impact• Your thoughts!

Teacher Specialization

“Educating Peter”

• View the Video

• Observe the role of the teacher and the students.

• Observe the disposition of the teacher and the students.

Alternative Practice

• View the video “Stand and Deliver”

• What worked for the teacher and students in this video?

• Can these methods be applied anywhere?

What about our Schools?

• Review the recent Gallop Report?

• Extract the data to create a profile about our public school systems?

• Identify the major sociological implications.

Social Class and its Relationship to Education

• What is Social Class• Marx…Weber…Bourdieu• Social Inequality and the

Structure of Society• Mechanism of Class Bias in

Education

What is Taught in Schools

• What is Curriculum• The Formal Curriculum• Stratification of the Curriculum• Hidden Curriculum• Alternative Curricula

Let’s Adjourn!!

• Thanks for your participation!• See you on December 1• All Projects due at that time.