Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-54gsr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-08T04:45:01.438Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - What Does the Term “School” Stand For?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2025

Moshe Israelashvili
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
Get access

Summary

While not ignoring individual differences, this book assumes that generalizations can be made across the different processes of school adjustment. Following a short overview of the history of schooling, this chapter discusses what the term “school” stands for and the essential features that turn any setting into “school.” The origin of the word is the Greek word scholē, which stands for “leisure.” However, in most modern schools the emphasis is on working hard and gaining knowledge. Interestingly, across the various formats, goals, and articulations of school throughout history, several aspects are common: institutional life, adults’ decisions, transfer of knowledge, skills acquisition, fluency in languages, delivery of values, exposure to social life, and invasion into students’ private life. The differences between schools appear in the level of intensity that each of the components gains within a given school, rather than a completely different conceptualization of what the term school stands for. Thus, these suggested universal components are of special importance to understand students’ school adjustment.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
School Adjustment
Why Some Students Fade and Others Flourish
, pp. 20 - 35
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barton, P. E., & Coley, R. J. (1994). Testing in America’s Schools. Policy Information. Educational Testing Service, Princeton. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED366616.pdf. Last accessed January 2025.Google Scholar
Carlson, S., Gerhards, J., & Hans, S. (2017). Educating children in times of globalization: Class-specific child-rearing practices and the acquisition of transnational cultural capital. Sociology, 51, 749765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, D. K., Spillane, J. P., & Peurach, D. J. (2018). The dilemmas of educational reform. Educational Researcher, 47(3), 204212. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X17743488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conner, C. J. (2021). Whitewashing US history: The marginalization of Latinxs in the Georgia Standards of Excellence. Journal of Latinos and Education, 22(3), 12991315. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2021.1951735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeBoer, G. E. (2023). The use of content standards for curriculum reform in the United States: A historical analysis. In Lederman, N. G., Zeidler, D. L., & Lederman, J. S. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Science Education (pp. 817849). RoutledgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. Policy Information Center. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED366616.pdf.Google Scholar
Einstein, A., & Calaprice, A. (2011). The Ultimate Quotable Einstein. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, R. W. (2001). Thoughts on redirecting a runaway train. Theory & Research in Social Education, 29(2), 330339. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2001.10505941.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FindLaw.com (2023). New York Consolidated Laws, Education Law: EDN § 801. Courses of instruction in patriotism and citizenship and certain historic documents, last updated January 1, 2021. https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/education-law/edn-sect-801.html. Last accessed February 2023.Google Scholar
Foster, M. E., Anthony, J. L., Zucker, T. A., & Branum-Martin, L. (2019). Prediction of English and Spanish kindergarten mathematics from English and Spanish cognitive and linguistic abilities in Hispanic dual language learners. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 46, 213227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.02.007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, S. (1923). The Ego and the Id. [authorized translation (1927) by Joan Riviere]. Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1962). Capitalism and Freedom. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, D. P., et al. (1983). A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. An Open Letter to the American People. A Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education. https://web.archive.org/web/20201029222248/https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E. (1961). Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Gottesman, I. (2016). The Critical Turn in Education: From Marxist Critique to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories of Race. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, P., & Chanoff, D. (1986). Democratic schooling: What happens to young people who have charge of their own education? American Journal of Education, 94(2), 182213. https://doi-org.rproxy.tau.ac.il/10.1086/443842.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, M. T., Domitrovich, C. E., Weissberg, R. P., & Durlak, J. A. (2017). Social and emotional learning as a public health approach to education. The Future of Children, 27(1), 1332. www.jstor.org/stable/44219019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalimtzis, K. (2017). An Inquiry into the Philosophical Concept of Scholê: Leisure as a Political End. Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Kunesh, C. E., & Noltemeyer, A. (2019). Understanding disciplinary disproportionality: Stereotypes shape pre-service teachers’ beliefs about Black boys’ behavior. Urban Education, 54(4), 471498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915623337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamy, P. (2006). Humanising Globalization [speech]. World Trade Organization. www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl16_e.htm.Google Scholar
Lee, T. H. C. (2000). Education in Traditional China: A History. Handbook of Oriental Studies (vol. 13). E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Levitt, T. (1984). The Marketing Imagination. The Free Press.Google Scholar
Mouzelis, N. P. (1971). On Total Institutions. Sociology, 5(1), 113120. https://doi.org/10.1177/003803857100500108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neil, A. S. (1993). Summerhill School: A new view of childhood. St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Pieper, J. (2009). Leisure: The Basis of Culture. Ignatius PressGoogle Scholar
Potter, H., Boggs, B., & Dunbar, C. (2017). Discipline and punishment: How schools are building the school-to-prison pipeline. In Okilwa, N., Khalifa, M., & Briscoe, F. (Eds.), The School to Prison Pipeline: The Role of Culture and Discipline in School (pp. 6590). Emerald Publishing Limited.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riviere, J. (2018). The Inner World and Joan Riviere: Collected Papers 1929–1958 [Editor: Hughes, A.]. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schelling, N., Rubenstein, L. D. (2021). Elementary teachers’ perceptions of data-driven decision-making. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 33, 317344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-021-09356-w.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, S., & Su, M. (2022). The intelligence quotient–math achievement link: Evidence from behavioral and biological research. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 46, 101160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soteropoulos, I. (undated). An inquiry into the philosophical concept of schole leisure as a political end. Apeiron Centre, last accessed March 2, 2023; https://apeironcentre.org/an-inquiry-into-the-philosophical-concept-of-schole-leisure-as-a-political-end/.Google Scholar
Spencer, H. (1860). Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical. Appleton.Google Scholar
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2015). Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/publications/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf.Google Scholar
Vaughan, M. (2006). Summerhill and A. S. Neill. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).Google Scholar
Volansky, A. (2023). The Three Waves of Reform in the World of Education 1918–2018: Students of Yesterday, Students of Tomorrow. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (2002). Globalization, Growth, and Poverty: Building an Inclusive World Economy. World Bank and Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Inaccessible, or known limited accessibility

The PDF of this book is known to have missing or limited accessibility features. We may be reviewing its accessibility for future improvement, but final compliance is not yet assured and may be subject to legal exceptions. If you have any questions, please contact accessibility@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com.

Content Navigation

Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.

Reading Order & Textual Equivalents

Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
Full alternative textual descriptions
You get more than just short alt text: you have comprehensive text equivalents, transcripts, captions, or audio descriptions for substantial non‐text content, which is especially helpful for complex visuals or multimedia.

Visual Accessibility

Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.

Structural and Technical Features

ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×