Merriam-Webster's Definition Of Power In Education

Introduction

Education is essential in today’s American society if one hopes to find a job and support oneself. However, some students are finding their access to education more limited, because of gender, socioeconomic class, and/or geographic location. The result is that students who are born white, male, upper class, and in richer areas enjoy educational advantaging and privileging.

In order to better understand the concepts presented in this paper, I will be defining power, privilege, advantaging, disadvantaging, and oppression, and explaining their relation to the topic at hand. A summary of Merriam-Webster’s (2015) definition of power is the ability to exert control, whether over other people, or events. In the context of this paper, power is the ability to control who gets what education, and typically falls into the hands of white, upper-class men who were born into or live in well-to-do areas. Privilege, according to Merriam-Webster (2015), is an advantage granted to a select few, and in this context, is granted by those in power to those they share important characteristics with. Merriam-Webster (2015) found advantaging is being put into a better position than one’s peers, and in this paper, will often refer to white, male students. Merriam-Webster (2015) also found that disadvantaging is

4). Considering that Wright (2012) found 1.5% of urban schools cater to 31% of all students, it’s unsurprising that these schools lack the funding of others. Of course, low funding can affect something very important, something that can control these students’ futures: educational