Abstract
The system of power in educational setting involves some aspects which include inequality of resources, assessment system and parents’ role in educational curriculum, race, age, social class, physical ability and sexual preference. All these issues have a lot of effect on education as they interfere with equality of the learners. There are certain privileges that a group of students can enjoy, which another group may not necessarily have. This has a lot of impact on the education of the students especially on quality of education that is being offered and the eventual students’ performance. The impact is also much felt in entry of students into either higher learning institutions or the job market. This paper discusses the systems of powers and privileges and their effect on the education sector. The powers and privileges will be divided into three main sub-groupings which include the social power factors, the economic power factors and the political and administration policies.
Introduction
The system of powers and privileges that affect education can be divided into three major categories including the social power, the economic powers and the political or administrative policies. All these factors lead to some form of inequality among the education in different countries, educational systems in the same country but with different kind of schools, the choice of school attended by the students and the quality of education offered in the school.
Social Power Factors and Privileges on education
Social factors comprise of all the relational and classes of people living in the society. This is inclusive of race, sexual preference, class, physical abilities, Talents and gifts and religion (V. Spike, 1994). These factors, though some of them just natural like race or physical ability, have in history affected the education sector to a very wide extent.
There are some stereotypes associated with various groupings of people, which can easily lead to discrimination. For example, students who fall under the bisexual and homosexual categories are likely to face a lot of discrimination in schools (Morgan, 2003). This may subject them to humiliation by students and at other times even with teachers and their own parents. Learning in such depressive conditions is to a large extent associated with poor performance and school drop-out (Kathleen, 2005).
There are other forms of segregation that occur based on social factors. The elderly and the physically or mentally challenged groups are sometimes dismissed as being unproductive members of the society. This makes them have little access to internship vacancies, training and education. The race has also caused a lot of issues as far as the educational sector is concerned. In countries where there is a lot of mixed race, such as the United States, the rivalry based on the black students, Latino students and the white students is immense (Pole, 1978). The black and the Latino students are likely to face a lot of discrimination from the whites since the whites may view them as invaders in their country. This level of discrimination goes up to the job market where employment for the blacks becomes a major hustle as compared to whites.
Different religions also can affect the type and quality of education that is offered to a student of that country. In countries where the dominant religion is Muslim, the religious teachings are held with high respect and all children are expected to learn the Sharia laws. In Jewish countries, the Torah is given the priority over the formal education (Carlton, 2000). These religious groups are also more likely to discriminate against the girl child (Ramesh, 2000 & Sonbol, 2005). Schools, especially those of higher learning, are likely to have a large number of male student and women just having some basic education at other times only informal education.
Other social factors such as sports can also impact the educational sector (Cynarski, 2012). In counties such as China Poland and the United States where sports are important in the society, keen interest is given to students who have talents in other co-curricular activities such as athletes, sports, music and drama. Such students may receive awards and sponsorship which less talented students may not get; otherwise, the effect can also be contrary such that the students drop out of schools to follow their talents especially if they can get money from it.
Economic Power Factors and Privileges on Education
There are several economic factors that result in inequality in the educational sectors from the country’s level down to specific individual level (Stiglitz, 2000). Different countries with different economical level with give different amounts of funds to the educational sector (Hopson, 2008). This can well be explained using the world system theory which states that there are three kinds of countries mainly the core, peripheral and the semi-peripheral countries (sWallerstein, 2005). The core countries have more economical powers and privileges from exploiting the peripheral countries. If a core country such as Britain was to be compared to a peripheral country say Uganda then there will be a very big difference in their education, research and innovation. Britain can disperse a lot of money to the educational sector. This money can be used to enhance research to sponsor the less privileged students, construction of buildings for education and to buy the necessary resources needed for education. Contrasting this to the peripheral country the money that the government gives to the education sector is so small this implies that the number educational institutions are few and at other times they may lack basic facilities that are conducive for learning of children (Power, 2015).
Children from the different economical background within the same country are still likely to face different types of educational challenges. Children who come from the rich background are likely to be taken to high ranked schools mostly private while those from middle class or poor family may only afford to go to public schools. Advancing in education may also be more likely for the rich child than the middle class and the poor (Watson, 1997).
The Political and Administrative Policies and Impact on Education
The educational sector mainly comprises of institutions governed by policies which could be politically placed or set down principles from the school administration. For example, some countries demand for the compulsory schooling of children in their primary levels. Usually, the government will always cater for the expenses of education up to the level in which it has stated (Busher, 2007). Such policies have both some key advantages and a few disadvantages. For example, free and compulsory education may result to many people in a country getting the basic education, at least, so they get to understand how to read, write and do some basic arithmetic. On the other hand, free education may lead to overcrowding in classrooms and having few teachers with very many students which lead to poor quality of education. The syllabus and the curriculum to be followed in schools may also be authorized by the government
Different kind of school may also have different administrative policies which may or may not engage parents, government and other stake holders. The administrative policies impact the educational sector in dictating the number and qualifications of teachers to be employed, fee payments and student attendants. In the United States, for example, there are three major types of educational institutions which include the charter schools, private schools and the government schools (Yanushevsky, 2011). All this kind of school has different administrations which affect the resultant quality of education and the performance of the student.
It has reached a point where decision-making within education system is branded as a political process. In which case, the elites in the community coming in form of powerful sponsors have an upper hand in persuading the school boards and regional education administration. Consequently, all the reforms are institutionalized to help in driving a political agenda put forward by these elites. According to Power (2015), the governors have now acquired more authority and influence over operation of the state education systems. The decision made therein only favors the elite’s interest, especially the white privileged, while leaving out the individuals in lower socioeconomic race and class. They institutionalize framework that ends up giving much advantage to the white privileged. This gives the white privilege a platform for accessing better education system as the result of segregation coming through in political decision making process.
Conclusion
There exists a certain system of power and privileges that greatly impacts the educational sector. This system of power and privileges can be categorized as either, social, economic and political or administrative policies.
References
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