Economic and social development has been one
of the major concerns for modernization and progress. Human development
includes three factors: life expectancy, GDP and knowledge (education).
Education is an important condition for human development. In the 1960s, human capital
theorists reported that small developing nations in the Caribbean spent as much
as 60 percent of GDP on education in an attempt to produce a highly trained and
skilled labor force. The main objective of this paper is to deconstruct four
main perspectives on education: functionalist, Marxist, interactionist and
feminist for the purpose of gaining clearer insight into the nature of pupil
achievement. Early sociological works were deconstructed by coding key concepts
and statements within these four perspectives. Their language was deconstructed/analyzed/decoded
by identifying descriptors of achievement such as meritocratic, class
inequality, ethnic advantage, gender bias, innate ability, hidden curriculum
and equality of opportunity/treatment. Descriptors were compared to form
significant categories which were then categorized into three statements: the
nature of pupil achievement (pupil achievement as product and pupil achievement
as process), factors associated with pupil achievement, and the consequences of
pupil achievement. The overall findings are 1) pupil achievement is both
process and product of education; 2) the effects of home, school and social
environmental factors is complex; and 3) pupil achievement is significant to a
country’s economic and social development. Because these statements are complex
and interrelated, a multi-agency approach to education is advocated. It can be
stated as “the square of pupil/academic achievement”. It comprises “personal/individual”
(intelligence), “home”, “school” and “social environmental” factors.
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