Education

Education vs. Schooling

Education The social institution through which

society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms and values

Schooling Formal instruction under the direction

of specially trained teachers

Functions of Schooling

Socialization Primary schooling

Basic language and mathematical skills Secondary schooling

Expansion of basic skills to include the transmission of cultural values and norms

Cultural innovation Educational systems create as well as transmit

culture Social integration

Brings a diverse nation together Social placement

The enhancement of meritocracy

Functionalism: Latent Functions of Schools Latent functions are hidden,

unintended, unstated goals or consequences

Latent functions of schools include: Schools as child-care providers Schools consume considerable time &

energy- activity thus fostering conformity Engages young people at a time in their

lives when jobs are not plentiful Sets the stage for establishing

relationships & networks Link between particular schools and

career opportunities

Critical Analysis Functionalism overlooks that the quality

of schooling is far greater for some than for others

U. S. Educational system reproduces the class structure in each generation

System transforms privilege into personal worthiness and social disadvantage into personal deficiency

Conflict Analysis:Schooling and Social Inequality Social control

Mandatory education laws encouraged compliance, following directions, and discipline

Hidden curriculum: Subtle presentations of political or cultural ideas in the classroom

Learning the importance of race and gender Standardized testing

Is it biased based on race, ethnicity, or class Tracking

Assigning students to different types of education programs

Does it segregate students into winners and losers? Inequality between schools

Public vs. Private schools Parochial schools – operated by Roman Catholic Church

Suburban vs. Urban districts

Critical Analysis

Social conflict approach minimizes the extent to which schooling upward social mobility for talented men and women from all backgrounds

Today’s college curricula (including sociology courses) challenges social inequity on many fronts

Access to Higher Education

Money is largest stumbling block to higher education Even for state-sponsored schools

Family income is still best predictor for college attendance Families making at least $75,000 send 64%

of their children to college Families making under $10,000 send 21.1%

of their children to college On average, a person with a college degree

will add almost $500,000 to his or her earnings over a lifetime

A woman with a bachelor’s degree will earn two-and-a-half times as much as a woman with eight or fewer years of schooling

Credentialism

Evaluating a person on the basis of educational degrees

Diplomas and degrees are viewed as evidence of ability

Over-education is often the case when people are overqualified for the job at hand

Problems in Schools Many believe that a so called “State of Emergency”

best characterizes our system of education today School discipline

Many believe schools need to teach discipline because it isn’t addressed within the home setting

Violence in schools Students and teachers are assaulted Weapons are brought to school Society’s problems spill into schools

What is the answer? Adjust attitudes so learning is the focus Skillful and committed teaching Firm disciplinary standards enforced Administrative and parental support

“Cooling Out” the Poor

Transforming Disadvantages Into Deficiency Just as schools can transform social privilege into

personal merit, they can transform social disadvantages into personal deficiency

Cooling out The self-fulfilling prophecy by which poor students end up

settling for no more than society offered them when they were first born

Some believe that community colleges play an important part in the cooling out process

Allowing students to fail in community college allows society to point the finger at them and ask them to accept personal responsibility for “blowing their opportunities”

Are the students at fault here, or is the educational system guilty of not caring enough?

Theodore Sizer’s Ways in Which Bureaucratic Schools Undermine Education Rigid uniformity

Insensitive to cultural character of community Numerical ratings

Success defined in terms of numbers on test scores

Rigid expectations Age and grade level expectations

Specialization Many courses, many teachers No one teacher knows a student

Little individual responsibility Little empowerment to learn on one’s own Don’t upset or accelerate learning for fear of

disrupting system

The “Silent” Classroom

The norm is to not talk in class, and students can get upset at others who talk “too much”

No matter what the class size only a handful of students speak

Passivity is the norm and it is seen as deviant to speak up in class

What makes a difference Female instructors tend to call on men and women

equally, whereas male instructors tend to call on men

Reasons Students are conditioned to listen Instructors come to class with lectures prepared and

students do not wish to get sidetracked

Apathy in Education

Many students expect learning to be delivered and don’t realize they are part of the process

Apathy is high among students Reasons:

Television Parents Schools Other students

High tech may hold one key for sparking interest Bringing multimedia into the classroom

Academic Standards

A Nation at Risk - 1983 governmental commission Troublesome findings concerning what students

are and are not learning in school 40% of those screened could not draw inferences from

written materials 33% of those screened could complete multi-step

mathematical problems Other insights:

Functional illiteracy – a lack of reading and writing skills needed for everyday living

Lack of interest in the importance of education apathetic attitudes toward classes, course materials, doing assignments, and attendance

Belief that good grades need not be “earned,” but rather just rewarded (as if they had a right to them)

Academic Standards

Global performance U.S. Eighth graders still placed 17th in the

world in science and 28th in mathematics Recommendations from A Nation at Risk

All schools should require several years of English, math, social studies, general science & computer science

No more “social promotion” of failing students from grade to grade

Teacher training and salaries should improve

School Choice

Introduction of competition to public schools and giving parents options might force all schools to do a better job

Critics charge that these programs erode our nation’s commitment to public education especially in inner city schools Magnet schools – schools that offer special facilities

and programs to promote educational excellence in a particular area, i.e. Arts, computers,foreign language, etc

Charter schools – public schools that are given more freedom to try out new policies and programs

Schooling for profit – school systems operated by private profit-making companies (including public schools)

Integrating Students With Special Needs Into the Overall Educational Program

Five million students are classified as mentally or physically disabled

Many of the five million receive marginal classroom experiences

Inclusive education maintains that it is good to integrate all children

Mainstreaming needs to be approached with a measure of common sense In cases where one has to serve the severe

and profound populations, a segregated classroom may be best

Mainstreaming

21st Century Schooling

Computers and other high-tech tools will become increasingly important The amount and quality of high-tech equipment

may become one of the new marketing tools for schools to out-perform one another

Computers, however, only hold part of the answer. We need humans to put into place a program that aims at providing high quality education

Will the education system play a role in dividing people into two groups in the future

Those literate and illiterate in computer skills Will we become a country of “haves” and “have

nots” divided along lines of high-tech competencies

Interactionist Analysis

Health and medical care are socially constructed by people in everyday interactions

Socially constructing illness How people define a medical situation may actually

affect how they feel Socially constructing treatment

Understanding how people construct reality in the examination room is as important as mastering the medical skills required for treatment

Critical Analysis: This paradigm reveals the relativity of sickness and health, but seems to deny that there are any objective standards of well being.

Conflict Analysis Points out the connection between health and social

inequality. Access to care

The access problem is more serious in the US than in other industrialized societies because our country has no universal medical care system.

The profit motive Some conflict analysts argue that the real problem is the

character of capitalist medicine itself. Medicine as politics

Scientific medicine frequently takes sides on significant social issues.

Critical Analysis: Conflict theory minimizes the improvements in health brought about by the present system.

Looking Ahead: Health in the 21st Century The health of Americans overall will

continue to improve into the next century, but certain health problems will continue to plague US society.

The US falls short in addressing the health of marginalized members of our society.

Problems of health are far greater in the poor societies of the world than they are in the US