Transcript Chapter 18 Edicatopm

CHAPTER 17
Education
Chapter Outline



Education for a Changing World
Attainment, Achievement, and Equality
The Structure of Educational Institutions
Education for a Changing World
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
Poorer regions of the world face a dire need
for universal access to schools; in the more
developed regions, serious issues of
educational equity need to be addressed.
There is great concern with the need to
improve education in order to train new
generations of workers.
Education


Process by which a society transmits
knowledge, values, norms, and ideologies.
In the early history of the United States many
were excluded from schools:
 children
of slaves
 Native Americans
 the poor
 many immigrant groups
Why Education is so Important:
Sociological Explanations
1.
High stakes

2.
Educational success counts a great deal in
explaining success and failure for individuals
and entire social groups and communities.
Class and cultural diversity

Schools bring together diverse groups of
students, parents, and educators, whose values
about learning are often in conflict.
Why Education is so Important:
Sociological Explanations
3.
Citizen involvement

4.
People expect to influence changes in the
institutions they pay for and are involved in.
Rapid change in knowledge

Our expectations about what education can
achieve for society changes as scientific and
humanistic knowledge changes.
Manifest Functions Of
Education
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Formal education transmits the culture of a
society to new generations.
It prepares future generations for appropriate
occupational and citizenship roles.
Educational institutions evaluate and select
competent individuals.
Education transmits requisite social skills for
functioning in society.
Latent Functions Of Education

Helps reproduce the existing class structure of societies.
 Parents
with sufficient wealth can send their
children to better public schools by moving to
communities that recruit more highly qualified
teachers.

It brings young men and women from similar class and
cultural backgrounds together in an informal “marriage
market.”
Theoretical Perspectives on
Education
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To the functionalists, schools prepare children
for participation in adult activities.
Interactionists view the school as a set of
behaviors and relationships.
Conflict theorists view education as serving to
justify and maintain the status quo.
Classrooms

This photo of Tibetan
refugee children in a
class room in northern
India illustrates the
similarity of classroom
organization in many
parts of the world.
Global Perspectives on
Education
Functionalist Perspective
Issues in
Developed Regions
Issues in
Developing Regions
How can schools best be Are schools devoted to elite or
organized to carry out
mass education?
their mission?
How independent are schools
from other social institutions,
such as mosques and political
parties?
Global Perspectives on
Education
Conflict Perspective
Issues in
Developed Regions
Do schools promote equal
opportunity or reproduce the
status quo of inequality?
Do they foster or stifle free
inquiry?
Issues in
Developing Regions
Whose children get to go to
school?
Do schools allow freedom of
thought and critical thinking?
Global Perspectives on
Education
Interactionism
Issues in
Developed Regions
Issues in
Developing Regions
How does learning take
place in classroom
interactions?
What else is being taught in
addition to the lessons?
Questions are the same, based
on observation of classroom
interactions, but with emphasis
on how traditional cultures are
dealt with in classroom
interaction.
Thinking Critically
If one of the functions of education is to prepare
people to function well in society, won’t they benefit
from attending schools that reflect the nation’s
ethnic, racial, and class diversity?
 Many
parents feel the superior education
provided by private schools outweighs the
benefits of attending diverse public schools.
 What do you think?
% of Nations Developing Systems of Mass
Education, by Decade
Educational Attainment in the
U.S.
Year
Median Years of School Completed
2000
12.9
1990
12.9
1980
12.5
1970
12.2
1960
10.6
1950
9.3
1940
8.6
Tracking and Inequality
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Number of years of school completed is
correlated with income, occupation, prestige,
attitudes, and opinions.
Early in the 20th century many schools began
using tracking systems to separate higherachieving students from slower learners.
Research on tracking has found students in
lower tracks end up in lower-paid and lowerprestige occupations once they finish
schooling.
Drop Outs
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Research has shown that states that base
funding of schools on the results of
standardized tests, increase dropout rates.
The main reason for dropping out of school is
poor academic performance, but students also
drop out because of the demands of work and
family roles.
Educational Achievement
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How much a student learns, measured by
mastery of reading, writing, and mathematical
skills.
Studies have found that American parents tend
to be more positive about their children’s
schoolwork and to believe more in the effects
of ability than effort.
% High School Graduates
White
Black
Hispanic
Year
M
F
M
F
M
F
2003
84.5
85.7
79.6
80.3
56.3
57.8
2000
88
88
77
78
56
56
1991
80
80
67
67
51
51
1980
71
70
51
51
46
44
1970
57
58
32
35
NA
NA
1962
47
50
23
26
NA
NA
1947
33
37
13
15
NA
NA
% College Graduates
White
Black
Hispanic
Year
M
F
M
F
M
F
2003
29.4
25.9
16.7
17.8
11.2
11.6
2000
31
25
14
17
11
11
1991
25
19
11
12
10
9
1980
22
14
8
8
10
6
1970
15
9
5
4
NA
NA
1962
12
7
4
4
NA
NA
1947
7
5
2
3
NA
NA
Ability Grouping (“Tracking”) in the
U.S. Public Schools
International Secondary-School
Completion Rates
Mathematics Scale Scores of 8th
Grade Students, 2003
Country
Average Score
International average
466
Singapore
605
Korea, Republic of
589
Hong Kong
586
Japan
570
Belgium-Flemish
537
Netherlands
536
Estonia
531
Mathematics Scale Scores of 8th
Grade Students, 2003
Country
Average Score
Hungary
529
Malaysia
508
Latvia
508
Russian Federation
508
Slovak Republic
508
Australia
505
United States
504
Lithuania
502
Average Earnings by Level of
Education
Without High School
1979
2005
Males
$27,690
$19,676
Females
18,302
14,680
Males
34,978
25,811
Females
23,041
18,679
Males
55,068
46,914
Females
29,919
30,022
High School Graduate
College Graduates
Social Class and Educational
Attainment and Achievement
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Studies find a high correlation between social
class and educational attainment and
achievement.
Ray Rist claims that the U.S. system of public
education is designed to perpetuate social and
economic inequality.
Inequality in higher education is primarily a
matter of access, or ability to pay.
Major Findings at Age 19 in the
Perry Preschool Study
Category
Responses
Preschool
NoPreschool
Employed
121
59%
32%
High school
graduate
121
67%
49%
College or
vocational
training
121
38%
21%
Major Findings at Age 19 in the
Perry Preschool Study
Category
Responses
Preschool
NoPreschool
Ever detained or
arrested
121
31%
51%
Females: teen
pregnancies,
per 100
49
64
117
% Distribution of Public Schools According
to School Condition, by Region
Rates of Victimization in U.S.
Schools, 1992–2003
QUICK QUIZ
1. Sociologists employing the ________
perspective focus on schools at the micro-level
of everyday behavior, for example, centering
attention on patterns of communication that
transpire in classes, in hallways, and on
playgrounds.
a.
b.
c.
d.
conflict
functionalist
interactionist
human ecology
Answer: c
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Sociologists employing the interactionist
perspective focus on schools at the micro-level
of everyday behavior, for example, centering
attention on patterns of communication that
transpire in classes, in hallways, and on
playgrounds.
2. Sociologists coming from the ________
perspective stress the role schools play in
maintaining inequality and reproducing the
class structure.
a.
b.
c.
d.
conflict
functionalist
interactionist
human ecology
Answer: a

Sociologists coming from the conflict
perspective stress the role schools play in
maintaining inequality and reproducing the
class structure.
3. The most basic criticism of tracking is that the practice
a. contributes to the maintenance of social
inequality.
b. significantly improves opinions of high-tracked
students about themselves.
c. significantly improves opinions of lower-tracked
students about themselves.
d. leads to better jobs and higher incomes for
those students who are placed in higher tracks.
Answer: a

The most basic criticism of tracking is that the
practice contributes to the maintenance of
social inequality.