Education and Society: New Zealand Perspectives - Literature review Example

Running head: EDUCATION AND SOCIETY Education and Society: New Zealand Perspectives You’re Name University Abstract In New Zealand there are different societal roles within society itself. Race, gender, social class, religion, personal beliefs and many other individual factors play a part in what position individuals find themselves in within the country of New Zealand. Furthermore, there is not a noticeable variance of this in the educational experience either. This research focuses on the environment surrounding education from a social context. It gives an insightful idea into the social classes and what is meant by them. It also shows how the social pressures in New Zealand can affect academics of those initially entering into college as well. Also a focus is given on the idea of neo-liberalism and how it has a role in the educational identity which is just as powerful as the societal role. In conclusion the research finds that too many; New Zealand is not so variant from other countries all around the globe with regard to societal influences and how the educational system works. It finds that the sociological body has the headiest impact within all facets of life in the country, even influencing the governmental body as well. Education and Society: New Zealand Perspectives According to Rosabeth Kanter (1977), within the educational environment the more isolated the minority group members are among majority persons, the less likely they are to be successful academically. To point out though, neo-liberalism is an international idea that is developing and has been doing so for awhile in New Zealand to try and rectify problems such as these. This is meant to try and incorporate a sense of equality for all of those who are striving towards a higher academic goal. So to refute the previous statement, if a more intense authority of neo-liberalism is incorporated into the educational system then a sense of fairness for all students should be able to prosper more fluidly. Also, neo-liberalism is a useful tool that can possibly eradicate the more severe problems of inequality and deprivation among certain social classes. It can be seen though that even with its fundamental position in the country and elsewhere in the world there are still a number of issues that are creating specific adversities in many educational environments. Also it is realized that within a statistical outlook it is definitely found to be that the higher the proportion of minority members in a group, the more likely they are to be successful. However if there is only a minute few minorities in a group then there appear to be more red areas that create adversities for the students in their academic progress, as has been touched upon. Kanter (1977) also suggests that in New Zealand, the presence of female students in a male dominated law school tends to affect their achievements. She also claimed that minority students are perceived as “tokens” or symbols and not as individuals. This is an idea that shows how social class and other factors affect academic achievements as well. Research has found that social class exerts a sense of social pressure onto many students, especially when they are placed into specific groups, which sometimes happens in New Zealand. It is easily perceived that there exists three main characteristics of a “token student” that can be explained as forms of social pressure. First, they are highly visible, thus they face performance demands that can be met by over achieving. As a result, they face performance pressure and they tend to perform differently than other dominant individuals. Second: token individuals tend to polarize and this polarization leads to further isolation. Third: token individuals suffer from role entrapment. They are stereotyped and expected to behave according to those stereotypes that they are labeled with. Kanter utilizes these 3 characteristics of social pressure to hypothesize the fact that female students with fewer female colleagues won’t do as well academically (i.e. performance pressure), and therefore will be less integrated into law school (i.e. isolation) and will also choose stereotypical female careers and studies (i.e. role entrapment) Spangler, Gordon& Pipkin (1978) tested this token hypothesis to try and either validate the points or otherwise refute them. They also performed a study of female law students in a school that was basically male dominated. Operationally they defined the three social pressure characteristics of what defines a “token student” as well but theirs varied from what Kanter’s choices of social pressures appeared to be. For instance they defined grades, and volunteering to speak in class as two of the basic social pressures that could affect academic progress in New Zealand. In regards to social isolation they pinpointed the amount of leisure time each student had to spend with other students and how well they performed in extra curricular groups which detailed of how socially isolated they really were. They also looked at how often females picked career choices that could be considered role entrapments by testing to see if they were solely of a feminine choice or if males would choose the same careers as well which they found did show that there was a sense of isolation among the students in a more male dominated law school. They ultimately did find many of the same faults in the educational system that Kanter did in regard to the fact that when female students are a very small minority in a male dominated law school adverse difficulties do arise that affects their academic achievements. They also stated that these characteristics would influence the over all performance of these female students. In other words, social pressure does result in poorer performance in academic areas for college students. Also, peer groups and their opinions about others can also strongly influence the concept of attainment for members of a specific group education wise as well. So regardless of whether or not there is an influence of neo-liberalism in the school system in New Zealand there are still unique areas that can not be controlled and that do affect students’ abilities academically. . What is found to take place, according to Frith (1997), is the social pressure can affect a student’s performance by influencing his or her motivation. Putting doubts into a student’s mind is a form of social pressure that can reduce their eagerness to want to attempt certain academic subjects or even interact with other social classes of students as well. Ultimately, the grades a student receives and their social status can have great motivational power; but often it is found that this power is negative a majority of the time. Meanwhile praising from the instructor and stressing on the importance of learning more than anything else has a positive motivational power. Thereby Frith (1997) concluded that motivation to learn is internal and comes from the individual but external social factors (i.e. grades and educators) shape this motivation either in a positive way or a negative one. For emphases: “rewarding a behavior can sometimes make it less likely to occur or improve” (Tucker & Ladd 1996). Accordingly, a reward can sometimes be considered as a negative social pressure. For example, a student may study just to get a grade and not because he is interested in the subject he is studying. The desire to learn would be overlooked and hence performance can start to wane. Researches are finding that internal satisfaction in performing important tasks is definitely related to how much people achieve and what their attitudes are toward their work in the country of New Zealand. This is one of the main reasons why there is now a shift in the educational system to try and ensure the importance of a task so that the individual engaging in the work can feel worthwhile and want to perform the assignment well. Thus it can be concluded that most people in this pay-off society will definitely depend upon the praise and grades in order for their performance to improve rather than the quality of their efforts. Accordingly, students have been found to perform worse in school when the social attitude presented is not uplifting (i.e. negative social pressure). Brickman, Linsenmeir & McCareins (1976) had shown that success enhances motivation and future performance if this success is identified as relevant to the student’s expectancy about future performance. Meanwhile, a teacher can exert a positive pressure by telling a student that it is not the end of the world if they did not pass the midterm exam, and also if they can find a way to ensure to the student that he or she will still have a good statistical chance of passing the course regardless of their expectancy to do otherwise due to failing the exam. A teacher can also exert a positive pressure in a different way. He or she can do so by telling a student that did pass a midterm exam that their success means that they will exceed their expectations on their final exam and therefore the teacher can give them a realistic reason to assume they will do well in the finality of the course. To conclude this research it has been identified that there are a wide berth of reasons as to how social class and other societal influences affect a student’s academic progress. Not only do peer groups influence college students but teachers do as well. Comments made about race or other personal characteristics can ultimately destroy the motivation of a future doctor or lawyer which is why the idea of neo-liberalism was brought up in this research. Neo-liberalism has the power of transforming people’s way of thinking of others and it eventually dissolves issues of inequality. In finality, in order for their to be proper academic achievements and studies of all students then it is correct to assume that an idea of neo-liberalism is need to influence people’s frame of thought within New Zealand and elsewhere in the world. Equality will bring fairness and promote the same possible learning opportunities for all students regardless of any personal traits that are exhibited. References Brickman, P. & Linsemmier, J.A.W. & McCareins, A.G. (1976). Performance Enhancement by Relevant Success and Irrelevant Failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 149-160. Frith, C. (1997). "Motivation to Learn". University of Saskatchewan. Kanter, R.M. (1977). Some effects of proposition of group life: Skewed sex ratio and responses to token women. American Journal of Sociology, 82, 965-70. Spangler, E.& Gordon, M.A. & Pipkin, P.M. (1978). Token women: An empirical test of Kanter's hypothesis. American Journal of Sociology, 84(1), 160-69. Tucker-Ladd, C.E. (1997). Psychological Self Help. Journal of Mental Health, 30, 1-10. Read More