EducationChapter 14 pg.378-390

EducationIs the social institution through which society

provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, jobs skills, and cultural norms and values.

Education also takes place in different ways:

1. Informal family discussions2. Lectures3. Labs in large Universities

Schooling

Formal instruction under the direction of specially trained teachers

How much money can an Education earn you?

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Schooling and Economic Development

High-Income Countries(Canada-United Kingdom-United States)

Available Formal Schooling. Available mainly to wealthy people. Especially well-off males. Greek root of school means “leisure”. Famous teachers such as Plato,

Socrates, and Aristotle taught aristocratic, upper-class men.

K’ung Fu-Tzu shared wisdom with privileged few males.

Low and Middle-Income Countries

(China-Turkey-Bangladesh-Iran-Africa)

Schooling shaped by cultural traditions. There is not much schooling available at

all. School that is available tends to go to the

boys and opposed to the girls.. Boys more likely to attend than girls. Only half of all children get to secondary

school, and girls are less likely to attain this level of education.

As a result, one third of people around the world cannot read or write.

Schooling in India

• Middle-Income Country• Earn 10 percent of income of people in Canada.• Children continue to work in factories (60+ hours weekly).• Greatly limits chances for schooling.• 77 percent of children complete primary school.• Less than half continue to secondary education.• Very few enter college or university.• 60 percent are literate as a result.• Patriarchal society shapes education.• No investment in girls schooling.• 65 percent of females are literate compared to 80 percent males.

Schooling in Japan

• Produces some of the world’s highest achievers• Before industrialization brought mandatory education in 1872 only privileged few received schooling.• Early grades concentrate on transmitting Japanese traditions (obligation to family, striving to get into preschool)• Early teens partake in rigorous and highly competitive examinations.• More men and women graduate from high-school in Japan (94%) than Canada (89%) and the United States (88%)• Because of competitive examinations in 2000 (34%) of people aged 25-64 compared to (41%) in Canada had completed a college or university degree.

Schooling in United States• Among first countries to set goal of mass public education for white males.• In 1918, a mandatory education law was passed.• Children had to attend school till the age of 16 or until completion of grade 8.• Schooling in the United States tries to promote equal opportunity.• Opinion expresses cultural ideals rather than actual reality.• Century ago, women and blacks were excluded from higher education.• Even today most who attend college or university come from above-average incomes and non-whites remain under-represented.

“Little Rock Nine” 1951. Scheduled to enter and desegregate the all-white Arkansas Central High School. But the Arkansas National Guard, under state orders, turn them away.

On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court determined that school segregation was unconstitutional

Schooling in Canada• Education shaped by patriarchal traditions and cultural norms.• Mixture of public schools, private schools and publically funded Roman Catholic Schools.• Throughout 20th century educational participation is influenced by gender, geographic location, and social class.• Turn of 20th century school attendance remained sporadic, men and women equally dropped out after grade 3. Especially rural children.• Despite egalitarian ideology they served to reproduce existing social class.• Canadian taxpayers spend an estimated $70.8 million on education. $2277 per Canadian.• Second largest expenditure after health.

Canadian Prejudice in Schools.• Prejudice restricted females from public teaching until second half of the 19th century.• Conditions were hardly equal between the sexes.• As the 20th century unfolded, women came to dominate the teaching profession.• Quality of instruction greatly improved.• Legislation passed that both sexes remain in school until mid-teens.• In 2001 52.6 percent of females in the working population aged 25-64 had completed post-secondary programs up from 40.8 percent in 1991.• Women who had not completed decreased from 31.7 percent to 22 percent in 2001.

Dr. Emily Howard Stowe the first Canadian woman to practice medicine in Canada, but she was also a lifelong champion of women's rights. Graduated in 1854 from Toronto’s Normal School for Upper Canada.

Reasons for Schooling?

•Sociologists use the structural-functional approach to better focus on the primary functions of education in our society:

•Socialization: The transmission of ways of life from one generation to another. With training and advanced technology, societies rely on “teachers” to pass on this knowledge and skill set. •Cultural Innovation: With

training comes new forms of thinking which lead to research and technological advancement.

Reasons for Schooling? (Cont’d)

•Social Integration: Public schools often contain a population with mixed backgrounds, ethnicities and values in to one society. This, interestingly, is the reason that mandatory provincial education laws were enacted almost a century ago, when immigration was very high.

•Social Placement: Schools reward hard work and ability regardless of a student’s background.

•Latent Functions: Not overtly advertised, these are things like childcare for growing families. Schools also allow young adults to develop their skills and occupy themselves before heading in to the work world. As well, schools provide social networks and give young people the chance to hone their social abilities.

Higher Education:Canadian Perspective•In 2003, only 59 percent of graduating high school students enrolled in any form of post-secondary training in the year after their graduation.•More young Canadians are attending courses at post-secondary institutions than in the last twenty years, but their is still under-representation from students of less privileged backgrounds. •Government funding has dropped sharply in 20 years, raising student fees 34 percent by 2003.•Students who took out loans graduating in 1995 owed on average $11 000. •It is apparent that the financial burden is often discouraging to students of less affluent backgrounds, leading to a personal privilege over personal merit dilemma.

Problems with Schooling?

•Other sociologists assert that schooling is contrary to social development, and that it maintains issues of social inequality. •The Social-Conflict Approach asserts that:

•Public education in the early 1900’s was meant to teach new immigrants to speak English and become obedient workers.

•Standardised Aptitude tests are unfair as they reflect the dominant side of society, leaving minorities unfairly categorized. Contenders of the social-conflict approach feel that this advantage turns personal privilege in to personal merit.

•Rigid classroom guidelines condition students to be passive and uninvolved with their own education.

Problems with Schooling? (Cont’d)•Other issues such as dropouts affect the Canadian school system. In 1999, 12 percent of 20-year-olds had not completed their high school diplomas.•The dropout rate for males was 1.5 times higher than females.•The perceived bureaucracy of the public school system had led to criticism of the administration that focuses purely on numerical standing (population, test scores, etc.)•The fear of student violence in our school system is growing , with one third of Canadian students alleging that violence had increased in their schools in the last 5 years (1999).