This week’s lecture was about Ideology and Prejudice. Prior to the lecture, I felt I had a firm understanding of prejudice but was not confident in my understanding of ideology. However, I now feel I have gained knowledge in both these concepts as well new concepts discussed in the lecture, tutorial and independent task. I learned that when a person acts on their prejudice it becomes discrimination, I found this interesting as it shows how prejudice and discrimination are linked but also very different. I also discovered that prejudices are often learned in childhood, from parents or others around us. Because of prejudices being learned in childhood, the person who has such prejucided views them as normal. I feel that it is important, as a future primary teacher, to exhibit a non-prejudiced attitude. By doing so, I hope this will have an impact on those I teach thus reducing prejudice amongst young children. I feel confident in my understanding of most concepts discussed, however, to prepare for the exam, I would like to study some concepts in more depth to further enhance my understanding.
All posts by Jennifer Maxwell
At Risk Behaviours & Society
The Glasgow Effect
The Glasgow Effect is a report exploring the reasons for the poor health status of Glasgow and why, when compared to equally deprived UK cities, Glasgow has a shockingly high level of premature mortality.
The report looks at many statistics for Glasgow – including poverty (fig.1 and fig.2) and mortality rates (fig.3 and fig.4) – and compares them to similar statistics for two other similarly deprived cities, Manchester and Liverpool. By comparing the three cities it becomes easier to understand ‘The Glasgow Effect’ as although the cities display similar levels and patterns of deprivation, the number for premature mortality is much higher in Glasgow. As stated in the report, “deaths among Glaswegians (relative to residents of Liverpool and Manchester) 27% higher in relation to lung cancer, 32% higher for external causes, almost 70% higher for suicide, 2.3 times higher for alcohol-related causes, and almost 2.5 times higher for drug-related poisonings.”
Perhaps these shocking statistics presenting the high number of premature deaths could also be related to Scottish Culture. When many people think of Scottish Culture they immediately think of a variety of unhealthy food and drink. Irn Bru, Whiskey, Tablet and deep fried food to name a few. Not only are these damaging to our health but many unhealthy food and drink is available at the touch of a button. With the introduction of takeaway apps and delivery services, we don’t even need to leave our house to get access to such foods. In addition to this, binge drinking is also a serious problem in Scottish Culture. Many people nowadays tend not to drink in moderation but drink to get drunk. This, for most people, involves consuming unhealthy amounts of alcohol.
Are Scottish People Healthy?
I find this question to be incredibly broad and I don’t think there is a definite answer to the question. There are many people in Scotland who live an incredibly healthy lifestyle – exercising daily, not smoking or using drugs, and eating a balanced diet. On the other hand, many people live very unhealthy lives – binge drinking, smoking, rarely exercising and eating unhealthy food.
In today’s lecture, we spoke about how unhealthy habits established in childhood often contribute to dietary habits, smoking, alcohol use and inactivity. As a future teacher, I think it is incredibly important to encourage children to live a healthy and active lifestyle.
Religion, Culture and Unchurched Spirituality
This week we looked at religion, culture and ‘unchurched spirituality’. Prior to today’s class I was unaware of the ways in which religion and culture are interlinked. Similarly to last week, I felt that learning about the views of different scholars enabled us to look at the topics in more depth from a non-biased approach. This week we could compare the two scholars – Max Weber and Karl Marx – as they both had completely different views about religion. Having previously studied Sociology I have come across these two theorists before when studying social class. Regardless of being familiar with their work I was unaware of their work on religion. I am going to read more of each theorist’s work on religion to prepare me for the exam.
We later looked at ‘unchurched spirituality’. Over several years there has been a great decline in the number of people who would consider themselves to be religious. Unchurched spirituality are forms of spirituality that are not associated with any organised religions. I found this part of the lecture incredibly interesting, however, I also found that unchurched spirituality – in some cases- is very extreme.
Religion, Society and Diversity
Monday 16th January – Reflective Blog
In our first lecture of the module, Society and Lifestyles we were introduced to the topic of religion. After having no education in religion for the last 5 years I found this input to be incredibly eye opening. I enjoyed the way the concept of religion was introduced to us. From my school experience of studying religion, we would consider individual religions and their beliefs and traditions. However, today I felt we could look at religion from scholarly approach, considering many aspects such as the Functions of Religion and Religious Diversities. From the classes I learned a great deal about theorists and their views on religion. I felt this was beneficial as we could have theory to back up the ideas being presented to us.
In my opinion, we were given a lot of information in a short time. Because of this I am struggling to fully understand some concepts such as functionalism. However, I hope to revise the notes given and complete the past exam papers. Doing so will allow me to have an overall better understanding in the areas I am struggling to comprehend at present and, additionally, allow me to understand how to answer the exam questions to a high standard.
Personal Response to ‘Room’
From a very young age I have always wanted to read for pleasure. However, I also have a tendency to get distracted very easily. I sit down to read a chapter and before long my focus is elsewhere. My lack of reading for pleasure has, in my opinion, had a great impact on my confidence in my abilities as a reader as I now tremble at the thought of reading aloud. However, after being prescribed the compulsory text “Room” by Emma Donoghue I knew this was firstly, a book I would read for cover to cover as it was part of my coursework and secondly, a book I would enjoy as I do typically enjoy books based on real life events. I was aware before reading the novel that Donoghue had based the plot largely on the Josef Fritzl case and so was excited to read the novel. Although, much to my dismay, I did not enjoy the novel at first. Had this been a book I sought to read purely for pleasure I would have given up within the first hundred pages. This is due to the main character’s poor spoken English. I found myself becoming incredibly frustrated and attempting to correct the way in which the book was written.
After taking a break from the novel and realising the book was clearly written in such way to convey a particular message I picked the book up once more and persevered. I was so relieved I did as I soon came the point in the novel with the night of Jack’s escape. I found myself furiously flicking through the pages, I felt as if I was there watching everything unfold and from that moment on I was hooked. As the book continued I became less interested in Jack’s illiteracies and more interested in the characters.
I would recommend Room to someone who hasn’t read it before as, overall, I feel it was a worthwhile read. I would also advise them to keep reading as it is certainly worth it. The novel is unique in a number of ways: drawing upon a real life event, the language of Jack and the way in which Donoghue approaches sensitive subjects.
The novel certainly challenged me as a reader. Having the narrator of the novel be a five-year-old boy with an underdeveloped vocabulary presents challenges I think most readers will have difficulty understanding at some point in the novel. I also feel that this was the perfect time for me to read this novel as I enjoyed being able to relate Jack’s language to concepts discussed in both my ‘Literacy for Understanding’ and ‘Situated Communication’ modules.
Reflections on Placement
My placement was an incredibly positive experience. Being in an area I was unfamiliar with allowed me to meet many new teachers and pupils which allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and make the most of my school experience.
Strength
Throughout my placement I felt my language was appropriate for the age of those I was speaking to. When speaking to younger pupils I would use more basic language and vary my tone of voice much more than I would when communicating with older pupils. In addition to this, when speaking to teachers my language would vary from the classroom to the staffroom or playground. For example, in the classroom calling the teacher by their surname and in the staffroom calling them by their first name.
Area of Most Progress
The area I feel I made most progress in was in my confidence when working with groups of children. In previous work experience I have been rather intimidated at the thought of taking small reading groups and helping a child when they are confused. Prior to my placement I felt I was in no position to help a pupil as I am not a qualified professional. However, I now realise that I do not need to have this mentality as any help, no matter how big or small, is benefiting the child. This is the mentality I will always have from now on as it is important to remember to always put the pupils first.
Area Requiring Progress
An area requiring progress is the speed at which I speak. Although I try to speak slowly I often find this difficult, particularly when nervous. I will make this an aim of mine in future placements to speak slower in order for the pupils to clearly understand what I am saying.
Action Plan
I think that having more school experience will help me to develop the areas of communication I am weaker in, such as pace. I aim to be more mindful about the pace at which I am speaking and the audience I am speaking to. I also hope to step out of my comfort zone more often and develop areas of my communication.
