Uneven distribution of education through the conflict perspective - Essay Example

VIEWING THE UNEVENNESS OF EDUCATION THROUGH THE CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE Introduction Education has been a crucial issue in several countries nowadays, especially for those with low literacy level. Its importance is seen in its outcomes, such as productivity, literacy, and poverty alleviation. Development specialists recognize these outcomes, and provide information on how education may be better in poor countries in order to be richer. A literate citizenship is a good source of engineers, economists, technologists, scientists, biologists, doctors, teachers, and so on, enough to produce infrastructures and improve the status of science and technology, medicine, and education itself. A low productivity due to lack of all mentioned places a country in a doom of poverty and economic insecurity. There is thus, a strong connection and a dialectical link between education and the economic security of a nation. This connection is seen in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and France, which all keep a high record of literacy rate of 99 percent as compared to others that keep low literacy rates, such as Arab states (70.3 percent) Sub-Saharan Africa (60.3 percent) and South Asia (59.5 percent) (United Nations, 2008). . Several nations are still keeping a low record of literacy level, particularly third world nations, despite the significant importance of education. Female literacy is also found to be lower than their male counterpart in these areas, indicating the pervasion of gender inequality in education and the traditional roles designated to women. The uneven distribution of education is seen as both a result and a manifestation of social stratification, showing diversity in economic and educational opportunities for different people in the social continuum. A Comparison Between Disadvantaged Children and Those with Better Opportunities The literacy statistics in rural areas of poor countries are alarmingly low, amidst efforts of governments to improve their quality of education. Bangladesh indicates an illiterate population (cannot read, write, calculate, and be socially aware) mounted at 50.6 million (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2002). Pakistan indicates a literacy rate of only 44 percent for rural areas while 72 percent for urban areas. In Ethiopia, a low 24 percent is indicated for their rural areas, while 83 percent for the urban places. It is clear that education has a strong link to economic capacity of the people and nation. Poor children who are able to study experience a large discrepancy of educational opportunities than those from middle class and upper class families. The Comparison of inequality in education may be seen in the following: areas: Teacher allocation, budget allocation, availability of books, and educational facilities and infrastructures. These areas are reflective of social stratification that exists in education. Despite the already high literacy rates, the first world nations like the United States also exhibit a discrepancy in education between poor and rich neighborhoods and schools. Teacher Allocation There is a low quality of teachers in low-income schools in the United States, and at times when there is a short supply of teachers in almost all parts of the country, those who are provided with teachers with the least training and experience are the poorest schools (Hill, 2008). The richest ones get the reverse of this condition. Far less- qualified teachers are consistently provided to students in low-income and minority schools, while children in the wealthier neighborhoods are allocated with the reverse. It reflects the fundamental flaw in the allocation of teachers and funds to schools, whose allotment depends on whether they are poor or rich. Contributory to this scenario is the fact that senior teachers possess total freedom of choice in where to work and most of them choose the most attractive schools and neighborhoods with few difficulties, and demands on teachers are less severe (Hill, 2008). It leaves the new and inexperienced teachers to deal with schools and students who have high learning needs and severe problems. Schools in poverty-areas usually end up with the weakest teaching staffs, while richer communities get the more experienced ones. Children are consequently affected by this condition, since those with higher learning needs are supposed to be allocated with more experienced teachers whose expertise is acquired from both education and a long experience. Significantly, children from rich schools and neighborhoods do not encounter the same problem and are able to meet the learning needs due to the character of teachers allocated to them. The result in the former may be insufficiency of the quality of education. It is apparent that poor and minority schools need more attention in terms of teacher allocation, but the reverse of it occurs in reality. The poorer the school, the less-experienced teachers are allocated, signifying an inverse relationship between the quality of school and teacher allocation. Social stratification is seen in this inequality, in which better teachers and better learning opportunities are provided to richer children while the opposite is what is experienced by the less-privileged ones. Marx has described that there are three main classes in the social class construct - the lower class, the middle class, and the upper class in which the lower class is always in the disadvantaged position with the upper class. This disadvantaged position is seen in the allocation of teachers according to whether the community is poor, middle, or rich. This is how the conflict perspective views the non-proportioned allocation of teachers in American schools. Budget Allocation Budget allocation of public schools is another reflective factor of inequality in education. The level of local revenues is related to and is dependent on the size of tax base in community. This consequently means that heavy reliance on local revenues in turn leads to disparities in educational resources across school districts (World Bank, 2005). There are poor and under-resourced districts challenging the constitutionality of state funding systems (World Bank, 2005). The disparity in budget allocation among poor and rich communities leads to a lesser funding allocation for less-advantaged children. Since a better budget allocation is given to schools in wealthier districts, children there are able to be provided with good school facilities, competent and experienced teachers, necessary learning aids, all of which enable them to learn with ease and less difficulty than their child counterparts in districts with lower revenues. This is another reflection of inequality in education. Educational Facilities and Infrastructures Facility spending is criticized as uneven for public schools. States and school districts spend almost $600 billion, which is supposed to be allocated on building and renovating schools from 1995 to 2004 (Greifner, 2006). However, the allocation did not go to the disadvantaged districts that needed it most, but to the already affluent ones (Greifner, 2006). This is another manifestation of uneven distribution in education. Poor children are the end-recipients of this unevenness, who are effected with poor state of facilities that need renovation and additional buildings. Wealthier children who go to schools that receive better allocation for building construction and renovation are more protected with new school facilities and infrastructures. The conflict perspective shows the uneven allocation of economic resources in education in which poor districts receive smaller allocations than the already affluent ones. Educational facilities and infrastructure development are areas in which inequality is reproduced in schools, making the recipients (students) receive lesser learning outcomes than what they are purported to receive. This scenario views the bureaucratic characteristic of the school system, in which administrative power emanates from the top organization, establishing control. This bureaucratization exhibits manipulation by few people who have access to resources. Similarly, those who have no access to resources do not possess this manipulation. In the conflict perspective, distinct to this is the use of power by people in the apex of the bureaucratic power. Their ability to control enables the delivery of facilities and infrastructure spending to become uneven. Literature Review Rikowski (2001) argues that education is a key process in the generation of the capital relation and serves as the skeleton in capitalist education's basement. This very character of education assumes a perverted form in contemporary capitalist society. The effects of school quality on students is seen in the study of Card and Krueger (1992) which is said to be measured by pupil/teacher ratio, average term length, and relative teacher pay. It was suggested that men who were educated in states with schools of higher quality produce a high return to additional years of schooling. There are also higher rates of return for individuals from states with better-educated teachers. Marx' proposition of the existence of three classes in society (lower, middle, upper class), derived based on their income and economic resources, is present in the unevenness of education. Max Weber views education as inextricably interconnected with the development of economic, political, and religious institutions as it contributes to the 'iron cage' rationalization of modern society (Samier, 2002). There seems a grim possibility for leadership in education, which only means a grim exercise of individual freedom and even of democracy (Samier, 2002). Marx saw the individual's position in the system of production as the basic determinant of class position, which is also found in education of children. Another vital element in his theory is a subjective awareness of class, which necessarily follows from the objective position (Blishen, 1958). The objective economic foundation of class is an important aspect in understanding inequalities, such as those in education. Class is the consensus of people about other people's position in the social structure, such as poor children and privileged children, who obtained such categorization based on their economic resources. Weber puts forward the bureaucratic view of school organizations in which control of rules and resources may be conducted, explaining the existence of inequities in school system (Campbell, et al., 1987). There is an erosion of the traditional assumption that schooling is fundamentally tied to education as a means of exercising civic leadership and public service (Allman, 2001). Schools are now key institution for producing professionals and educated citizenry whose demands for civic citizenship are subordinated to the high importance given to the marketplace and the commercial public sphere. The possibilities of education being wedded to the constructs of a real democracy are not only ideological, but also connote the backdrop of reduced funding for public schooling, in which larger social realities of material power and oppression are ignored (Allman, 2001). Poverty is a problem on the rise among children in the United States, and while black youth are disciplined and policed in the nation's schools, conservative and liberal educators alike design education in the lame discourse of market economy and global competitiveness. Cultural studies theorists and critical educators emphasized that understanding theory is an important baseline for "intervening into contexts and power in order to enable people to act more strategically in ways that may change their context for the better." (Grossberg, 1996) It paves way to the primacy of the political arena by calling for and struggling for producing critical public spaces, exploring popular cultural resistance as a form of political resistance about the status of education (Bailey and Hall, 1992). It posits that teachers need to participate in the redefinition of a new mission for education, towards one that engages and challenges the legacy of democracy (Allman, 2001). Initiators of critical education need a certain level of critical understanding before they can engage others in resolving the vicissitudes of education. As education is linked to economic resources and even health, children of poor countries are not the only ones that suffer from lack of education, poverty, and malnutrition. Out of five children in the US, one lives below the poverty line (Allman, 2001) Contemporary reality reports an increasing gap between the very rich and the very poor, in which the polarization of wealth and poverty are very much exhibited. Not only does polarization occur in this disparity, but also a growing distance between the extremes of wealth and poverty. Allman emphasized that a renewed and revitalized critical pedagogy can serve as a point of departure from a politics of resistance and counter-hegemonic struggle in the twenty-first century. Critical education can impact directly on improving the human condition leading to revolutionary social transformation. This critical education is synonymously understood as radical education and education for socialism and social transformation. Possible Solutions to Problems in Education Critical education is the solution in ending the disparate state of education posed in this paper, in which a widening gap exists between the disadvantaged children and children from wealthy households. Critical education is founded on conflict perspective, in which this paper is based. Its initiators shall be teachers and students, and a strong political and social awareness are necessary in pursuing this step. It is based on disrupting the structure of the prevalence of global competitiveness, privatization, and free market over education itself, which acts as the key in remolding the minds of both learners and educators in a capitalist state. It shall also end the unevenness in educational allocation depicted in this paper. Lobbying is one concrete move towards critical education, in which demands for equitable resources will be asked from schools and government authorities. It is also strategic to position some members in the local legislative body and local education bureau, which can be part of the lobbying efforts. A heightened social and political awareness attuned to realities of education is necessary in critical education. Thus, alternative education is called for among the initiators of this change, such as those that deal with the current situation of education and their linkage with the current political and economic condition of the country. It is not only the unequal distribution of teachers, budget, facilities, and school infrastructures that call for change through critical education, but also the end of the extremely distant gap between the poor students and the privileged ones. The establishment of civil society groups on education will help in realizing these goals. The civil society groups will serve as a venue for information and a heightened consciousness on the issue of education. Petition letters addressed to appropriate authorities will help in equal allocation of teachers, funds, and other resources in school districts, showing vigilance that results in checks and balances. It is apparent that in the recommended solutions to problems in education, concrete actions are put across. However, these actions should follow a heightened awareness of participants in order that the envisioned goals are consistently pursued. The participants should have a thorough understanding of the holistic scenario of the problems of education and link this understanding to how education may be prioritized instead of global competitiveness. Conclusion Conflict perspective provides a critical view of education and how its unevenness is seen in poor neighborhoods and rich communities of the United States. Inequalities in education are seen in teacher allocation, budget allocation, and school facilities and infrastructures. Poorer districts, which need more improvements in its physical structure, receive lower financial allocation than the already established ones in richer districts. The uneven allocation of teachers in which inexperienced and less competent ones are allocated to poor communities and its reverse, to the rich communities, is a clear-cut manifestation of inequality. Power struggle, bureaucratization, and control are all seen in the United States school system, emanating from the regard on schooling as subordinate to global competitiveness and free-market economy. The solution posed in this paper, as the reviewed literatures suggest, is critical education aiming to end the discrepancy and refocusing the real intent of education. References Allman, P. (2001) Critical education against global capitalism: Karl Marx and revolutionary critical education. Library of Congress. United States of America. Bailey, D. and Hall, S. (1992) The vertigo of displacement. Ten 8 Vol. 2, No. 3. Blishen, B. (1958) The construction and use of an occupational class scale. The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science. Vol. 24, No. 4. Campbell. R. F. (1987) A history of thought and practice in educational administration. Teachers College Press. N. Y. Card, D. and Krueger, A. B. (1992) Does schools quality matter Returns to education and the characteristics of public schools in the United States. The Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 100 (1) pp. 1-40. Greifner, L. (2006) Facilities spending criticized as uneven. Education Week. Grossberg, L. (1996) "Toward a genealogy of the state of cultural studies," in Gary Nelson and Fillip Pararneshwar Gaonkar (Eds.), Disiplinarity and dissent in cultural studies (New York: Rutledge, 1996), p. 143. Hill, P. (2008) Fairer pay for all teachers. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from on 13 July 2008 http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2000/1120education_hill.aspxrssid=hillp Rikowski, G. (2001) After the manuscript broke off: thoughts on Marx, social class and education. British Sociological Association Education Study Group Meeting. King's College London. Samier, E. (2002) Weber on education and its administration. Educational Management Administration and Leadership. Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 27-45. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2002) Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE). Quebec, Canada. United Nations (2008) United Nations Development Program Human Development Report 2007/2008. New York, N. Y. World Bank (2005) Funding an adequate education in urban schools: lessons from New Jersey (US). International Conference on Education Finance and Decentralization. Read More