A Crucial Element of Democracy

This is a blog by Robert Gutierrez ...
While often taken for granted, civics education plays a crucial role in a democracy like ours. This Blog is dedicated to enticing its readers into taking an active role in the formulation of the civics curriculum found in their local schools. In order to do this, the Blog is offering a newer way to look at civics education, a newer construct - liberated federalism or federation theory. Daniel Elazar defines federalism as "the mode of political organization that unites separate polities within an overarching political system by distributing power among general and constituent governments in a manner designed to protect the existence and authority of both." It depends on its citizens acting in certain ways which Elazar calls federalism's processes. Federation theory, as applied to civics curriculum, has a set of aims. They are:
*Teach a view of government as a supra federated institution of society in which collective interests of the commonwealth are protected and advanced.
*Teach the philosophical basis of government's role as guardian of the grand partnership of citizens at both levels of individuals and associations of political and social intercourse.
*Convey the need of government to engender levels of support promoting a general sense of obligation and duty toward agreed upon goals and processes aimed at advancing the common betterment.
*Establish and justify a political morality which includes a process to assess whether that morality meets the needs of changing times while holding true to federalist values.
*Emphasize the integrity of the individual both in terms of liberty and equity in which each citizen is a member of a compacted arrangement and whose role is legally, politically, and socially congruent with the spirit of the Bill of Rights.
*Find a balance between a respect for national expertise and an encouragement of local, unsophisticated participation in policy decision-making and implementation.
Your input, as to the content of this Blog, is encouraged through this Blog directly or the Blog's email address: gravitascivics@gmail.com .
NOTE: This blog has led to the publication of a book. The title of that book is TOWARD A FEDERATED NATION: IMPLEMENTING NATIONAL CIVICS STANDARDS and it is available through Amazon in both ebook and paperback versions.

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

JUDGING PAROCHIAL FEDERALISM, XVIII

 

An advocate of parochial federalism continues his/her presentation[1]

Teachers

With the parochial/traditional federalism’s account of the school – as a commonplace of curriculum development – completed, this blog will now address another commonplace, the teacher.[2]  Factors concerning teachers as they relate to the proposed curricular change that this presentation offers will be addressed in this posting and, at least, the next.  Specifically, these postings will provide answers for the following questions:

 

·      What relevant demographic information about teachers will affect the implementation of a parochial federalist construct? 

·      How do teachers associate with the broader citizenry that would, in turn, affect that implementation?

 

This posting focuses on the basic demographic data the literature reveals.

Teachers play a vital role in social studies classrooms.  Back in 1991, Stephen J. Thornton describes this role as one of gatekeeper:  “As gatekeepers, teachers make the day-to-day decisions concerning both the subject matter and those experiences to which students have access and the nature of that subject matter and those experiences.”[3] 

This notion is vibrantly supported by a more recent position paper by the National Council of the Social Studies:  “They [teachers] encourage students to be thoughtful, critical, and deliberate when examining issues both past and present.  Teachers want students to participate actively in a vibrant democracy.”[4]  With this context, it would be crucial for the implementation of any curricular change to have a willing teacher corps to carry out the prescribed elements of that change.

Demographic Teacher Information

          Of the roughly one and half million social studies teachers currently manning America’s schools, the following demographic information has been extracted:

 

·      48.4% of all Social Studies Teachers are women, while 51.6% are men.

·      The average age of an employed Social Studies Teacher is 42 years old.

·      The most common ethnicity of Social Studies Teachers is White (76.5%), followed by Hispanic or Latino (10.5%) and Black or African American (7.5%).

·      The majority of Social Studies Teachers are [sic] located in NY [as in New York state], New York [as in the city] and IL, Chicago.

·      Social Studies Teachers are paid an average annual salary of $49,265.

·      Social Studies Teachers average starting salary is $36,000.

·      In 2021, women earned 96% of what men earned. [These percentages are assumed to be among social studies teachers.]

·      The top 10% of highest-paid Social Studies Teachers earn as much as $65,000 or more.

·      11% of all Social Studies Teachers are LGBT.

·      Social Studies Teachers are more likely to work at Education companies in comparison to Private companies.[5]

 

Of interest here is the age-related information. 

It reflects a favorable state in that this more mature corps – which represents the average ages within the American workforce – offers advantages for two reasons.  One, these teachers are more cognizant of a time when the society was less entrenched in a natural rights culture (a culture that has gained vibrancy since its establishment as dominant in the years after World War II), and two, older teachers would be more dissatisfied with current school conditions because of their more extended exposure to those conditions – the “enough is enough” syndrome.

Evidence is that teachers have long been less and less satisfied with their work.  Of course, the pandemic has exasperated this trend.  But even before COVID, the teacher corps was finding it more and more difficult to find the job fulfilling.[6]  And what specific complaints do teachers have?  A recent study concluded:

 

Results indicate that a lack of resources, overcrowded classes and lack of discipline among learners were serious sources of dissatisfaction among teachers. Administrative issues, lack of recognition by principals and parents for good work done also caused dissatisfaction among teachers in this study. It was also indicative that job dissatisfaction caused disengagement of some teachers with a consequent lack of focus on professional activities and being negative in their job. The study concludes that teacher satisfaction is germane for the sustainability of social transformation.[7]

 

The general impression derived from the data is that teachers, including social studies teachers, are highly dissatisfied with the general malaise affecting education that has been commented on in this blog from time to time. 

And with that tale of woe, this posting ends.  The next one will look at the implications these complaints would have on teachers being asked to change their curricular approach to a parochial federalism-based one in the teaching of civics.



[1] This presentation begins with the posting, “A Parochial Subject Matter” (March 11, 2022).  The reader is reminded that the claims made in this posting do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or knowledge of this blogger.  Instead, the posting is a representation of what an advocate of parochial federalism might present.  This is done to present a dialectic position of that construct.

[2] William H. Schubert, Curriculum:  Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility (New York, NY:  MacMillan Publishing Company, 1986).  The meaning of this term has been shared in previous postings and refers to the political interests of students that curriculum developers should consider in their plans.

[3] Stephen J. Thornton, “Teacher as Curricular-Instructional Gatekeeper in Social Studies, in Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning, edited by James P. Shaver (New York, NY:  MacMillan Publishing Company, 1991), 237-248, 237.

[5] “Social Studies Teacher Demographics and Statistics in the US,” Zippia:  The Career Experts (n.d., reports information from 2019), accessed May 29, 2022, https://www.zippia.com/social-studies-teacher-jobs/demographics/ .

[6] Madeline Will, “Teacher Job Satisfaction Hits an All-Time Low,” Education Week (April 14, 2022), accessed May 29, 2022, https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/teacher-job-satisfaction-hits-an-all-time-low/2022/04 .

[7] Chinedu Okeke and Pamela Mtyuda, “Teacher Job Dissatisfaction:  Implications for Teacher Sustainability and Social Transformation,’ Journal of Teacher Education and Sustainability, 19, 1 (January 2017), accessed May 29, 2022, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318168100_Teacher_Job_Dissatisfaction_Implications_for_Teacher_Sustainability_and_Social_Transformation

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