Labaree, F David
1997 American Educational Research Journal Vol 34 No.1
"Public goods, private goods. : the American stuggle over educational goals"
p. 40 "I argue that the central problems with American education are not pedagogical or organizational or social or cultural in nature but are fundamentally political." "We are fighting among ourselves about what goals schools should pursue" KEY FINDING
Interestingly, Labaree thinks that educational problems in America are fundamentally political; "who supports which educational values." I thought before that educational problems are pedagogical and organizational because as a english teacher, I wanted the Ministry of Education to focus more on organizing curriculum aligning with communicative language learning method, which is purely pedagogical approach to solve the problem. But if I see the problem more broadly, the reason why they cannot change curriculum based on traditional language teaching & learning easily is due to the multiple choice test questions of the college entrance exam. The college entrance exam is the central mechanism "to pressure education to take on a meritocratic form" (p. 56) The societal system prefers objective evaluation measure such as multiple choice questions of reading and listening comprehension to (somewhat considered as) subjective evaluation measures such as writing and speaking test in order to maintain "a graded hierachy" (p. 52) smoothly without a hitch. Therefore, this educational issue - meeting curriculum to the needs of 21st century - can also be "fundamentally" political as Labaree said.
p.51 "the mobility goal focuses on the needs of individual educational consumers."
p.52 "the outcome for the individual is precisely what matters most." "The resuls is an emphasis on individual status attainment" "looking at schools as a private good" "distinguish myself from the rest of the pack and win the social competition"
The author is very critical about the social mobility goal. But the flipside of the social mobility goal through education can be conducive to the growth of fair society. If a low-income family should be stuck in the social class and cannot move up to the ladder, how unfortunate it is! A lot of Asian american immigrants including Chinese and Korean Americans who barely started a small bunisess like a drycleaning shop viewed their children's education as the pivotal tool for their family to move from working class to average (white American) middle class. I suggest that education encourage students to maximize their potential, and if possible, to break the vicious cyle of poverty through their education.
