Kayla Matkowski

Kayla Bouchard
Amanda High
Alyssa Winkelaar
Brenna Kelly

Social Reconstruction Ideology

Aims
- Eliminate from their culture aspects believed to be undesirable and to
substitute social practices and values they believe are more desirable.
- In doing so, they can reconstruct their culture so members can attain
the maximum satisfaction possible of their social, cultural, economic
and spiritual needs.
- As new problems in crisis arise, members are empowered to
continually reconstruct themselves and society.
- To educate youth to reconstruct our current society and to live in one
that is superior from the past.
The Child
- They are the social agents and actors who are a product of society and
can aid in its reconstruction
- A child is neither born good or bad and education can help guide and
develop them to act in ways to support a good future society.
- Students need to learn how to improve themselves to improve the
world.
Learning
- We have the power to educate our students to be able to solve and
understand social problems and we can teach them to have a vision for
a better society.
- Students need to learn to understand problems, to examine options,
clarify values, make a commitment, make a group vision and help
society.
- 2 components
o meaning making
Learning occurs when learners construct meaning out of
their sensations
Learning is a process of actively assimilating and
accommodating experience in order to make sense to the
learner
o meaning structure
Learning is based on what one already knows about the
world
Learning can take place only in relation to what one
already knows
- Nature of learning (characteristics)
o Learning is a social not individual act

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Kayla Matkowski
Kayla Bouchard
Amanda High
Alyssa Winkelaar
Brenna Kelly
Curricula requires two separate social settings for learning: inside
and outside the school
Learning is not limited to firsthand experiences but SR tries to
keep learning as close to firsthand experience as possible
Valuable learning requires thought and an emotional response to
what is understood (social position and action directed toward
reconstructing society)
Learning requires interaction of learners with the environment

Teaching
-The Discussion Method
Social means of educating a group of persons; requires
social context and social interactions
SRs believe that a discussion must start where participants
are and must start with what people have experienced and
what they understand.
Three crucial components: thought, commitment and
action
Participants expose their knowledge to the group so the
group can comment, reaffirm, and/or correct it.
- The Experience Method
Ones experiences and related knowledge play a crucial
role in the social reconstruction ideology.
Participants acquire feelings, a social perspective and a set
of values about what is socially just/unjust, good/bad,
fair/unfair or right/wrong.
- Social reconstructionists view the teacher as a colleague or companion
who students can look up to rather than seeing them as an
authoritative figure.
Knowledge
- Knowledge is a social construction which comes out of social
interaction
- Knowledge and values are interconnected; knowledge is only of worth
because it contributes to the attainment of a future good society.
- Construction of knowledge is a moral activity
- Knowledge is subjective not objective
- Knowledge is only created when someone gives data (information);
gives it meaning or value
- Schools must be seen as places where culture, power and knowledge
come together to produce a vision of the future.

Kayla Matkowski
Kayla Bouchard
Amanda High
Alyssa Winkelaar
Brenna Kelly
Evaluation
- Use formal objective evaluation during curriculum development
- Primarily use subjective evaluation
- It is believed that the only valid assessments are those made under
real world circumstances.
- Summative student evaluation and curriculum evaluation are
inextricably tied together in the particular social environment in which
students live.
- What students learn is thought to be testable only in their every day
life outside of school as they work to reconstruct themselves in society
in light of the curriculums vision of the future good society.
- Evaluation and feedback are for the purpose of aiding students in
reconstructing themselves so that they can aid in the reconstruction of
society.
Examples of theorists:
- Myles Horton
- Eisner
- McNeil
- Zeichner