The Sociology of Education

1. The Sociology of Education 14.1

2. Introduction • Society’s future largely depends on the successful socialization of new members • Young members must be taught norms and values and skills necessary to continue the work of the older generation • Education- consists of the roles and norms that ensure the transmission of knowledge, values, and patterns of behavior to one generation to the next

3. Introduction • Preindustrial societies: education is informal and occurs through process of socialization within the family; cooking, pottery making, food gathering, hunting, and fishing • More complex societies: the family shares the process of educating the young with formal established organizations • Schooling: formal education, which involves instruction by specially trained teachers who follow officially recognized policies

4. Functionalist Perspective • Believe that the functions performed by education work to maintain the stability and smooth operation of society • Teaching Knowledge and Skills • Basic function of education is to teach children the knowledge and skills they will need in the adult world • Use language, literature, history, geography, mathematics, science and foreign languages • Education serves to generate new knowledge

5. Functionalist Perspective • Transmission of Culture: To survive, societies must pass on the core values of their culture to following generations • Teach patriotism, loyalty, and socially acceptable forms of behavior • American Culture: salute the flag, recite the Pledge of Alliance, stand for National Anthem, free-enterprise system, individualism and democracy • Schools teach socially acceptable behavior by teaching children to be punctual, to obey rules, and to respect authority

6. Functionalist Perspective • Social Integration: Education serves to produce a society of individuals who share a common national identity • “melting pot”- immigrants identities were melted down to form a new, American identity • Today: view American society as mosaic- a picture formed by putting together small pieces of tile. Tiles represent separate and distinct people and cultures

7. Functionalist Perspective • Occupational Placement: Education often serves to screen and select the members of society for the work they will do as adults • Societies assign adult positions on the basis of ascribed status or on the basis of achieved statuses • United States: Identify and students who show special talents and abilities at an early age • Tested and evaluated • Steered toward college-prep courses while others are steered toward vocational courses or other non-college programs • Japanese: only admitted to college if they pass entrance exams • Very demanding and require large amounts of studying • “cram schools”- prepare for the tests • “examination war”- national event and have media coverage • Future employment depends on the university and scores

8. Conflict Perspective • Believe that educational system serves to limit the potential of certain individuals and groups to gain power and social rewards • Social Control: serves to produce unquestioning citizens who accept the basic inequalities of the social system • Hidden curriculum: school’s transmission of cultural goals that are not openly acknowledged • Teaching conservative set of values that center on obedience to authority • Goal: to produce cooperative adult workers who will willingly accept the demands of the those in power

9. Conflict Perspective • Tracking: the assignment of students to different types of educational programs, such as general studies, vocational training, and college-preparatory studies • View tracking as a means by which the wealthy and powerful maintain their position in society • Assigned tracks on the basis of intelligence and aptitude test scores, classroom grades, and teacher evaluations • Minorities and lower social classes are typically assigned lower tracks • Higher tracks: assigned college-track courses geared for college prep and higher paying jobs • Lower Tracks: blue-collar vocational jobs with low salaries and prestige • Jeanne Oaks: higher –track classes encourage the development of skills related to critical thinking, problem-solving, and creative writing; lower-track: memorization and class room drills

10. Conflict Perspective • Educational and Socioeconomic Status • Believe that education is the key to social mobility • Functionalist: view education as a system that gives all people the chance to succeed according to their own abilities and talents • Conflict Sociologists: argue that the opportunities for educational success and social mobility are distributed unequally • Education achievement appears to be tied strongly to socioeconomic status • Higher status families: assume that their children will succeed at school and therefore tend to motivate them toward the end • Lower Status families: hope their children will be successful, but do not necessarily believe education is the key to success

11. Conflict Perspective • Higher-status families are better able to provide a home environment well-suited to enrich learning • Homes contain books, and toys that stimulate creativity and thought • Higher-status families are better able to pay the expenses of putting their children through college

12. Interactionist Perspective • Seek to explain social phenomena in terms of the interaction among the individuals involved • Rist’s Study: student-teacher interaction in grade school; students put into three groups based on social class– fast, average, and slow learners; fast learners receive more attention and praise than the other learners; at end of year fast learners were performing at a higher level

13. Interactionist Perspective • Pederson and Annette Study: power of teacher expectations • Teacher encouraged all students, worked with slow learners as much or more then fast learners, stressed the value of education and the importance of hard work • Rosenthal and Jacobsen’s Study: tested grade school students; picked at random not the best scorers and showed them more attention and care and they proved to do better than those not selected • All three studies provide examples of the self-fulfilling prophecy- a prediction that leads to behavior that the prediction come true---”teachers, through words and actions, let students know what is expected of them, and the students perform according to these expectations