Learning what is true: religion, science, and education

Three of societies institutions are central to our understanding of what is true: (a) religion has served a purveyor of truth for
thousands of years; for most of human history, its claims have been granted the greatest legitimacy. Religion continues to play a
significant role today as well. (b) after the Enlightenment, science became the institution whose claims to truth what are the most
legitimized, we often believe what a scientist tells us simply because he or she is a perceived authority. (c) education system
presents us with various facts and teaches us what is true; throughout its history, it has embodied both religion and science. But
facts and truth are not static they are dynamic and therefore subject to change.

Belief: to accept something as true, regardless of whether it is actually true or not. When beliefs are interconnected in a systematic
fashion and shared among groups of people, they are called belief systems. The different religions of the world, disciplines of
science, and even ideologies of political parties, are belief systems.

Belief systems have three components: (a) they include claims about the nature of reality or what is real. (b) Belief systems include
ethical and moral claims that tell us what is right. (c) Belief systems are enacted using technologies (techniques) to obtain or use the
knowledge that is considered to be true.

Religion

Durkheim (1915/1965), sociological definition: a united system of beliefs and practices related to sacred things.

Religious patterns

Three largest religions: Christianity (33%), Islam (21%), and Hinduism (14%).

Secular: the state of not being governed by religion (24% of Canada).

Religious affiliation: the identification with a particular religion (declined in Canada from 88% to 76%). Reflecting Canada’s
Eurocentric immigration patterns, the predominant religious affiliation is Catholicism (39%), followed by various forms of
Protestantism (20%), but as immigration patterns of increasingly included people from non-European countries, a variety of Eastern
religions have become more prevalent (7%).

Because religions affiliation has declined in recent decades, so has religious attendance.

Sociologists combine a religious affiliation, religious attendance, participation in private religious activities, and the importance of
religion into a single measure: religiosity indexed; people can then score as “low”, “moderate” or “high” on this measure. Example:
religiosity tends to be higher among immigrants than among Canadian born people, especially those from South and Southeast Asia,
the Caribbean, and South America.

Implications of religion

Implications for individuals

Microlevel: religion has an impact on various aspects of people’s everyday lives. Research has found that among the adolescents,
different aspects of religiosity may have different effects.

Study of Ontario students in grades 11 and 12, Good and Willoughby (2014): found that personal beliefs were of particular
importance. Youth with strong religious beliefs had lower levels of depression, social anxiety, and higher levels of self-esteem and
life satisfaction. Also suffered less stress from daily hassles and experienced more positive relationships with parents and strong
academic orientation. Limited effect, but an important one on low levels of substance abuse.

Adults: religiosity is also associated with better physical health, lower levels of depression and anxiety, and lower levels of substance
use. Religion provides them with a community and sense of belonging.

Religious involvement provides a social capital: refers to resources we accumulate by virtue of the social network to which we
belong. Our relationships with other people provide us with resources we can use in various aspects of our lives, they provide us
with knowledge, skills, understandings of the world and ourselves, a network of support, and a source of confidence and self-
esteem.
Religion can also provide us with bridging capital: where the resources we accumulate through interactions with our religious group
can be used outside the religious realm, just as religious attendance provides youth with intangible resources that stir them away
from drugs and alcohol.

It can also provide us with bonding capital: sense of community and belonging, as well as a social identity based on the particular
religious groups to which we belong. The bonding can have both positive and negative consequences for society, as had other
aspects of religious organizations.

Implications for society

Bramadat (2005): refers to positive bonding capital (religious community ties and forces of identity that are of benefit to the wider
society), and negative bonding capital (religious community ties and sources of identity that pose harm to the wider society). The
group cohesiveness, solidarity, and social identity that religion provides can bring benefits to society in some situations, while
causing harm in other circumstances. Example: through its affect on individual and group behaviours, religiosity can make the world
a better place, Canadians with religious affiliations are more philanthropic than those without such affiliations, donating more
money to social causes and volunteering more of their time.

Just as religious individuals donated their own money or time to social causes, religious groups have taken on social causes, both
historically and in present. During the Victorian era in Canada, that theology of social gospel give rise to the child savers movement,
which dedicated itself to the betterment of children’s social conditions. The efforts of the child savers movement resulted in several
new pieces of legislation, child labour laws placed restrictions on the employment of children. Compulsory schooling legislation
required children to attend school for a certain number of days each year until they reached a particular age. Criminal law prohibited
child abuse and neglect. Today, religious groups often engage in charitable and humanitarian work.

Not all religious bonding capital serves positive end, negative bonding capital contributes to social inequality, religious conflict, acts
of violence, and war. When a cohesive group sees itself as part of a purely embattled minority an us versus them mentality is
created. Members of these groups perceive their belief systems and associated way of living as the only moral path, their ways are
right, everyone else’s are wrong.

Sociology and theory

when sociologists study religion, they do not try to validate or to disprove particular belief systems. Rather, they analyse how
individuals, social institutions, and cultures construct God or the sacred, how these ideas penetrate public culture and individual
lives, and the implications of those interpretations for individuals, institutions, and societal processes.

Substantive approach: focuses on the meaning that are contained within specific doctrines and how those meetings are understood
by people in their everyday lives.

Functional approach: emphasizes the social aspects of religion, the functions of it serves, and its implications for individuals and for
society.

Durkhiem (1915/1965): a functionalist, suggested that religion plays an important role in creating and meeting social solidarity.
Stated that even in premodern societies, large number of people would gather to participate in religious rituals. This collective rituals
would transmit the accumulated wisdom of the culture to participants, a unified body of knowledge known as the collective
conscience. In their group worship of sacred objects and ideals, people would also be caught up in a collective effervescence: an
excitement or euphoria that enables them to transcend the challenges of every day, to a degree not possible when alone. Both the
Collective conscience and collective effervescence serve important functions: they strengthen social bonds and thereby maintain the
social order. In preindustrial societies, social order is maintained through mechanical solidarity, or bonding based on the sameness,
in this context, religion plays a central role.

Durkheim suggest that the industrialization and the ensuing organic solidarity, other institutions would increasingly take over some
of the functions that were traditionally fulfilled by the religion. Example: the school system now plays a greater role in socializing
children to treat others with kindness and respect.
Contemporary functionalists

continue to focus on the role religion plays in the social integration. Also studied the impact of religion on individual behaviours and
outcomes, such as those related to physical and mental health, substance abuse, and philanthropic behaviour. They also analyse
some of the dysfunctions of religion, such as residential schools, war, and acts of violence.

Karl Marx (1844/1970) described religion as the opium of the people. The oppressed proletariat escapes from the ugliness of their
lives into religion. This provides them with temporary relief from lives difficulties but also prevents them from seeing the structured
inequality within which they live. Consequently, it precludes them from raising up and overthrowing their oppressors. Contemporary
conflict theorists continue to look at ways religion can serve as an agent of social control, creating, maintaining, and justifying
inequality. Example: the conflict perspectives gives rise to analysis of inequalities that exist within religion, such as in religions that
restrict the participation of women as religious leaders. Macro level: perspective also draws attention to the role of religion in
perpetuating societal inequalities, such as the doctrine that rationalized colonization of the world’s non-Christians, and the religious
interpretations that are often drawn upon in opposition to same-sex marriage.

Max Weber: unlike Marx would suggest that changing economic structures create subsequent changes in thought, Weber argued
that changes in thought, the way people understand themselves and the world around them, precede structural changes.

Contemporary interactionist

study the way that the social interactions, rituals, and symbols that comprise religious beliefs and practices contribute to people’s
understanding of life and society and to the development of their identity.

Feminist perspectives

Focus on various aspects of religion, but with a shared emphasis on the absence or the oppression of women. Feminist research on
religion is intimately intertwined with forms of feminist religious and spiritual practices.

Revisionists: suggest that if the doctrines of the world of major religions are interpreted correctly the true message is one of
equality.

Reformists: draw attention to the sexist language and rituals that have become a part of some religions, they emphasize the
importance of removing those aspects of religious practices and integrating more female imagery and symbols.

Revolutionaries: look at how removing some of the traditional boundaries of certain religions and integrating some images and
rituals from outside those traditional boundaries can serve positive ends for women in society.

Rejectionists: perceive inherent sexism in the world’s major religions and call for abandoning those religions while adopting female
centred spirituality, such as goddess worship.

Postmodern perspectives

Highlight the plurality of all religions and spiritualties. There is no singular Hinduism, or Judaism that we can speak of, but rather a
multiplicity of different forms. Example: that Islam of the 9/11 terrorists is not the same Islam as that adhered to by most people
who consider themselves Muslims.

Even within the multiplicity of different forms of particular religious, each individual has his or her own experience and perceptions
of that religion and or spiritual pursuit. In terms of religious practices, postmodern perspectives are associated with individually
focused religious and spiritual practices, such as “new age” spirituality and “spiritual seeking”, which draw upon bits and pieces of a
variety of world religions and other nonreligious spiritual pursuits.

The transition to scientific truth

since the Renaissance and the scientific revolution, scientism: a worldview that uses the insights of natural science to inform
people’s way of living, a purpose in life, and the choices they make, has increasingly characterized society.

Science: is an institution that provides a way to understand the natural makeup of the world by means of rational methods of
inquiry. The truths provided by science are often granted the greatest legitimacy in society, if science tells us something, we presume
it must be true.
Robert Merton (1973)

: is often credited as the founder of the sociology of science. Present day: the study of science is highly interdisciplinary, studied by
sociologists, historians, feminists, and philosophers. Contemporary social studies of science shared the basic assumption that science
is a product in some form of social process. Outside of that shared assumption, there are myriad of ways in which science is studied.

What is the nature of scientific truth?: Sociologists do not agree on answer to that question, one approach proposes that scientific
knowledge is a distinct form of knowledge that provides an objective truth. The other approach suggest that scientific truths are no
different from any other types of truths. All forms of knowledge are socially constructed, emerging from a complex web of social
structures, processes, and attractions.

Scientific knowledge as objective truth

Focused their analysis on particular aspects of science, they study the institutional norms that regulate the activity of the community
of scientists, competition, the reward structure of science operating through recognition, and similar topics.

Mertor; describes the normative structure of science, as a set of norms that are embedded in the institution of science itself and
that makes science a self-governing institution based on objectivity. (a) norm of communism: the notion that scientific knowledge is
to be freely shared with others. (b) norm of universalism: scientific knowledge is to be free of any social biases such as racism. (C)
norm of disinterestedness: scientists do their work for the purpose of discovering truth rather than for any personal gain. (D) norm
of organized scepticism: the idea that scientific claims should be subjected to rigourous scrutiny before they are accepted. It is
because of these four norms that scientific knowledge is considered to be a distinct form of knowledge. Marton recognized that the
norms of science could be prevented in some societies, such as Nazi Germany, and acknowledged that some individual dentist might
violate these norms. But when the institution of science was in a fit state, objective truth was uncovered.

Scientific knowledge as constructed

focused their analysis on how scientific knowledge emerges, is accepted, and is affected by social and political forces. Thomas Kuhn
(1962) place scientists in an historical context and analyse the process by which scientific knowledge developed and comes to be
accepted as truth. Suggested that history of science is one of scientific revolutions rather than a gradual accumulation of knowledge.
Certain paradigms (conceptual frameworks or model for organizing information) characterize particular sciences, these paradigms
govern how reality is understood. Most scientists operate within those paradigms for extended periods of time, building knowledge
within them and refining that knowledge when necessary. But once in a while, a paradigm shift occurs, anomalies accumulate, a
scientist proposes a different way of understanding the object of study, and this changes the scientific discipline forever. But, this
shift is often resisted. Example: Galileo was imprisoned because he reiterated Copernicus’s claim that the planets in the solar system
revolved around the sun.

Other analysts draw attention to the fact that scientific knowledge is dependent on the social framework in which it is produced.
Some scholars emphasize the ways that social and political influences shape the topics scientists study and thus the scientific truths
that are created. Example: George W. Bush halted public funding for stem cell research in order to appeal to his conservative
supporters, given the central role of American biomedical research in the world, this political decision had a significant impact on the
development of scientific knowledge that might have benefited people with spinal cord injuries and Parkinson’s diseases.

Social and political forces can shape scientific knowledge outside the ideologies of specific political parties. Example: success of the
human genome project, which was completed in the early 21st century, opened up a new world of genetic research. But scientific,
social, and ethical concerns have emerged regarding the potential of that research to violate human rights if used in a wrong way.

Sociologist to study the social construction of scientific truths also draw attention to the impact of funding structures, such as those
associated with corporatization of science. Example: past few decades, the proportion of research funded by private enterprises and
conducted in commercial research centres has grown, especially the case with biomedical research.

Significant implications for the development of scientific knowledge: (a) the contracts between the corporations and the scientists
often give all publication rights to the corporate sponsored. The latter has a right to decide which research results will or will not be
submitted for publication, and this has a direct impact on the body of scientific knowledge in the area. (B) research that is sponsored
by private enterprises is more likely to have positive findings than research that is publicly funded through research grants. As a
result, the scientific truths uncovered within a certain funding structures can be very different from those obtained within other
types of funding structures.
Sociology theory

postmodern theories

Foucault (1980) explains that knowledge is not an independent, objective entity; rather it is deeply intertwined with power. When
particular truths emerge from positions of power in the social structure, those claims come to be recognized as legitimate
knowledge. As a result, when Galileo scientific claims contradicted those of the Christian Church, Galileo was persecuted because the
church had the ultimate institutionalized power and society at the time.

In science today:

power continues to be intertwined with knowledge, this is evident in the tangible economic power that governments and
corporations have to controlled research funds. In this case, power affects not only what is accepted as knowledge but also what
gets produced as knowledge in the first place.

Feminist theories

given the diversity of feminist perspectives, there is substantial diversity in the analysis of science emerging from those perspectives.
Broadly these researchers have emphasized (a) women in science, (B) tying science to social and political actions, and (C) proposing
new ways of doing science.

The position of women in science, in particular their underrepresentation, has been the subject of considerable work. Feminist
scholars address the underrepresentation of women as scientists and the challenges that women scientists have faced in a male-
dominated profession. They also highlight the absence of women from the knowledge that science produces. Example: medical
research has traditionally studied male research subjects and then presented the findings as applicable to all people. There is relative
lack of knowledge regarding how various diseases may vary in men and women and how pharmaceuticals may affect them
differently.

In the Social sciences, an androcentric (male) bias has also long been present. For these feminist scholars, making science better
means removing the obstacles women face in becoming scientists, as well as the androcentric bases that have long pervaded
scientific research. Other feminist scholars, improving science means tying it to social or political actions. Although the traditional
model of science dictates that science should be value-free, these scholars point out that knowledge and values are tightly
intertwined, that values should underline scientific practices, and that scientists should allow their own political affiliations or social
movement memberships to guide their research.

Some feminist scholars present a vision of a new way of doing science. Example, Harding (1991) applies feminist standpoint theory
to the realm of science. Argues that women occupy a distinctive location in society as a marginalized and oppressed group. Because
of their distinctive location, women see and understand the world in a different way than men do, women’s unique standpoint is not
only structural but also intellectual. She claims that science emerging from the standpoint of women, would create a superior body
of scientific knowledge.

Haraway (1991): suggest that women are not a single cohesive group and do not reflect a unified standpoint. That, each woman has
multiple standpoints based on all of the different aspects of their life. Given their various achieved and ascribed statuses, women’s
perspectives are constantly shifting and may even conflict with one another at times. Constructing better scientific knowledge means
having as diverse of a group of scientists as possible, who hold various statuses and have developed different standpoints
accordingly.

Religion and science

Four types of relationships between religious knowledge and scientific knowledge have been postulated: (a) relationship as one of
independence, with no common ground between the two bodies of knowledge. (B) relationship based on conflict, where in
accepting one of those bodies of knowledge necessarily means rejection of the other.(c) because both religion and science are
interested in questions of meaning and existence, some academics suggest that a meaningful dialogue is possible. (d): some scholars
take it a step further and address the integration that they believe is possible between the two bodies of knowledge.

Dialogue and integration are reflected in the academic journal Zygon: Journal of religion and science: Zygon’s hypothesis is that,
when long evolved religious wisdom is yoked with significance, recent scientific discoveries about the world and human nature, their
results credible expression of basic meaning, value, and moral convictions that provides valid and effective guidance for enhancing
human life.

Religion, science, and education

the interplay of religious and scientific belief system is especially evident in the education system.

The role of education in modern society

education: Maj. agent of socialization and a formal institution that systematically instills much of the knowledge that individuals
require in order to function as productive adults.

Sociologists are interested in: what is taught, who decides what is taught, how schools teach, what goes on during interactions in the
classroom, and what the overall functions are of education for individuals, groups, and society. Also examined the relationship
between education and other social institutions (family, politics) and how sociocultural forces such as religious beliefs, scientific
views, and cultural values influence education outcomes and personal development.

Sociology in theory

functionalist perspectives

Focuses on how educational practices help promote stability and order in society by training its members to obey the law, respect
one another, and work productively. Durkheim: emphasized the importance of education for instilling cultural values and norms
that help maintain moral order in society: education is the influence exercised by adult generations on those not yet ready for social
life. Objective is to arouse and develop in the child certain physical, intellectual, and moral states will be demanded of him by society
as a whole.

Parsons (1959) explains how schools transition individuals from informal, person centred roles in their families to more formal roles
required by a highly competitive, achievement oriented work demand. Example: preschool and kindergarten, a teacher provide a lot
of nurturing and encouragement, similar to that experienced in the world. As the children progress through the grades, more
emphasis is placed on structure and rules. Students in a row of desks, and they learn to be on time and to respect the rights of other
students and school property, as well as to follow the teacher’s directions, free time is limited to short periods. Students are
increasingly assessed and appeared on measures of individual achievement through assignments and exams. Over time, the
knowledge and skills taught become more specialized. Class time become segregated into distinct required subjects such as math
and science, and eventually includes optional programs of study such as Spanish and drama.

The manifestation and latent functions of education

The manifest (intended) functions of social institutions and their latent (unintended or hidden) functions. Functionalists emphasize
these different functions within the education system. Manifest functions are formally documented in provincial school acts, Inc.
into assessment practices by teachers, and communicated to parents via student report card.

Four main manifest functions of education:

1. skill and knowledge development: each grade level, students are taught a standardized curriculum relevant to their age
and/or existing level of knowledge and skills. Example: grade 1, expected to be able to sort objects and demonstrate an
understanding of repeating patterns as part of early math skills.
2. Historical and cultural transmission: School play a central role in passing on historical knowledge and teaching cultural values
and norms. Example: high school graduates in Alberta are expected to be well versed in the history and geography of
Canada, understand its political, social, and economic systems and show respect for cultural diversity.
3. Social development: education system helps socialized members of society so that they can get along with one another in a
variety of contexts. Teachers provide opportunities for children to play, cooperate, and share with one another, and
conversely enact consequences for behaviour considered to be unacceptable. As they progress through school, social skills
are taught more formally in health and life skills courses. Example: grade 9, students learn how to refine personal goals
relevant to a career path and to develop strategies for risk and stress management.
4. Social control: students learn the importance of respecting authority figures and following rules. This begins in early
childhood education and is reflected in various practices such as raising your hand before speaking, waiting in line to exit and
enter the classroom, sitting quietly at a workstation for a given period of time, and completing projects in a timely manner.
Expectations: students will achieve particular normative learning outcomes as well as some more specialized forms of knowledge
that will enable them to contribute to society as citizens and employees.

The education system also has latent functions because of changing patterns of parent total employment, they now provide primary
daycare functions, such as lunch hour supervision and after school care. Also serve as latent matchmaking functions: students
develop their first serious crushes on a classmate or begin to date fellow students. They also help develop important friendships and
social networks which can provide future benefits such as business contracts and perhaps eventually spouses.

Critical perspectives

functionalist views emphasize the many benefits of education for producing skilled employees. For their part, conflict and feminist
views highlight how the education system reproduces the existing social order and poses disadvantages for particular groups.

The social reproduction of class

because of hidden school costs, the school experience can be quite different for children of different social classes. According to
conflict perspectives, the education system does more than just treat the social classes differently, it actually maintains and
reproduces class differences and social inequality. Example: jobs in which women are overrepresented tend to be lower paying
lower status. More Aboriginal people are obtaining high school and postsecondary education than in the past, but non-aboriginal
people are still more likely to graduate from high school and pursue a postsecondary educator. These inequalities are often
discussed via critical theorists as resulting from educational based practices known as the hidden curriculum, streaming and
credentialism.

Hidden curriculum, conflict perspectives are concerned not only with whose values and norms are transmitted but also with how
learning takes place and the environment in which it takes place, something that Philip W Jackson (1968) originated the term.

Hidden curriculum: refers to the process whereby students inadvertently learned, through participating in the school system, a
subtle agenda of norms, values, and expectations that fall outside the formal curriculum. Much of the knowledge learned via the
hidden curriculum resembles indicators of social control, such as raising your hand before answering a question and sitting quietly at
a desk for long periods of time. But the hidden curriculum also includes more subtle lessons and messages learned during the
educational process as a function of teaching method and the interactions among and between teachers and students. It also
conveys important messages about gender that have a lasting impact on people’s lives.

Streaming: which places students in specific programs and levels off curriculum based on perceived individual levels of achievement,
also aid in social reproduction. Elementary School: used to identify children with learning disabilities or behavioural problems, may
require specialized assistance. High school: used mainly to sort students into an advanced upper tier bound for university and a
lower tier more towards vocational training. Streaming may also be influenced in part by processes and practices that inadvertently
include components of what Bourdieu called cultural capital, a mechanism whereby higher classes exclude the lower classes.

Bourdieu and Passeron: explained how initial differences in cultural capital are legitimized in the school system in ways that
contribute to social reproduction because the school is viewed as a neutral forum, students in the lower classes come to accept
status symbols associated with high culture, even though these are not cultural elements they are likely to experience for
themselves.

Students from lower classes are also socialized within their families in ways that may further differentiate them from those in the
higher classes within the education system. Example, Lareau (2011) found that middle-class parents take a concerted cultivation
approach to parenting: they impress on their children the value of education, and enroll them in structured afterschool activities that
enhance problem solving and critical thinking, and take a proactive role in identifying resources when there children are having
problems in school.(Better performance in school) Lower-class parents are less able to instill the value of education in their children
because they tend to have lower levels of education themselves, because of restricted resources they are less likely to place their
children in structured activities that facilitate learning, instead there children spend their free time playing with friends in the
neighbourhood, a natural growth approach to parenting.(Develop greater independence and ability to entertain themselves)

Critical approach to streaming

promotes social reproduction since those in the middle and upper classes are more likely to end up in the upper tracks on route to
university, while the lower classes are disproportionately streamed into lower educational tears.
Shavit and Muller’s (2000): comparative research on tracking found that vocational secondary education in a number of countries
served as both a diversion and a safety net. Tracking into vocational routes helped produce more skilled rather than unskilled
workers, but it also led to jobs of lower status compared to students with academic -based education. So, tracking helps lower-class
students obtain jobs, but less desirable ones.

Private schools: academic fees, usually in the form of an annual tuition, and are run by private individuals or corporations. They are
almost likely to be attended by individuals from the uppers Strata of society.

Public schools: are funded through provincial and local governments, most students attend public schools.

Credentialism: social stratification is fostered in the education system through this, which refers to the reliance on increasingly
higher educational qualifications as the minimal requirement for employment. Example: a PhD is now usually required for
permanent employment as a university professor, whereas for decades ago a master degree was sufficient.

Functionalists argue that higher educational attainment is necessary due to technological advancement in society and to ensure that
specialized occupations are filled by the most qualified people.

Conflict theorists refute this claim, pointing out that skills can often be learned on the job and that those with higher levels of
education are not always more productive. They also claim that credentialism reproduces inequality since it is linked to class
privilege, which indeed is why people with higher education attainment end up in better paying jobs. In other words, as education
requirements increase in relation to specific occupations, so do the odds that those positions will be disproportionately filled by
members of society who come from privileged families who could afford to send them to the best schools and universities.

Critical view also points out how increased education aid industrial societies have moved well beyond the technical needs of the
workforce, such as there is a surplus of overeducated unemployed individuals.

Interactionist views

to understand how educational practices influence individuals, necessary to understand how teachers perceive their students, how
teachers act and react in relation to the meanings they ascribe to the actions and words of pupils, and in turn how students interpret
their instructions, the curriculum, and the behaviour of fellow students.

Power differentials between students and teachers can play an important role in how meanings are constructed in classroom
settings. Teacher is the authority figure who can make and enforce rules, while a student is in a position of defence to the teacher,
who at any given time may label a student’s behaviour appropriate or inappropriate. Because of the generalized other and the
looking glass self, how one is labelled by others has important implications for further behaviour and one’s self-esteem. One
potential outcome of labelling in the education system is the development of self fulfilling prophecies: originally false belief that it
becomes true simply because it is perceived as much. Example: if a teacher believes a student has ADHD, and moves the student to a
table separated from the rest of the class for extra help, because the boy has now been moved into the special section, other
students become more tolerant and accepting of his infractions because he probably can’t help it. The student continues to fidget
and not complete his work because he now realizes that the teacher will perceive him as unable to finish it himself, and eventually
help him finish his work – a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Webb and Colleagues (2005): suggest that many children especially boys are actually gifted with higher IQ are misdiagnosed as
having ADHD. Because they are not being intellectually challenged by the school and subsequently become restless, teachers
incorrectly labelled their misbehaviour in the classroom as indicative of an inability to maintain focus.

Postmodern perspectives

discount traditional theories of education that make general assumptions about educational practices and processes and instead try
to locate educational issues in the context and tensions in which they occur. Example: in postmodernism and education, Usher and
Edwards (1994) note how the experiential learning practices that emerged in the 1980s can be seen in many different ways: as
opportunities for trying out innovative practices, as spaces for understanding the values and struggles of marginalized groups, or as
new middle-class movements that broke down some of the barriers of social and cultural reproduction. Similarly, while various
theorists argue for or against particular forms of testing, postmodern approach advocates the use of a variety of methods to assess
student’s achievement and the selection of methods that work best for individual outcomes.