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Week6_SchoolsandEducation.pptxSchools and Education
Week 6
Overview
Education: “the social institution through which a society teaches its members the skills, knowledge, norms, and values they need to learn to become good, productive members of their society”
Informal and formal education
The history of compulsory education
Began to develop in mid-1800s
Original intentions included unifying the nation and teaching “American” values to immigrants
Industrialization required more people to read, write, and do math
Definitions from Social Problems: Continuity and Change
2-minute Write-up
Should the government require that children receive a formal education, as it now does, or should it be up to parents to decide whether their children should receive a formal education?
What kind of education did you have growing up? Public, private, homeschool, or something else? Was your school district well-funded? Do you feel as though the curriculum was helpful for children? Was the curriculum accurate (in terms of history and other scientific facts)?
Overview (continued)
Differences in educational attainment
Social class: Students from high-income families are more likely to go to and graduate from college
Gender: Older women have lower edu attainment than older men, but the opposite is true of younger generations
Race and Ethnicity: Black and Latinx individuals tend to have lower edu attainment than whites and Asians
US ranking: behind many other industrial nations on edu attainment
ranked 21st out of 28 nations for high school graduation rates (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)
Impact of education on income
Sociological Perspectives on Education
| Theoretical perspective | Major assumptions |
| Functionalism | Education serves several functions for society, including (a) socialization, (b) social integration, (c) social placement, and (d) social & cultural innovation. Latent functions include childcare, establishing friendships, and lowering unemployment by keeping HS students out of the full-time labor force. Problems in the educational institution harm society because all these functions cannot be completely fulfilled. |
| Conflict | Education promotes social inequality through tracking and standardized testing and the impact of its “hidden curriculum.” Schools differ widely in their funding and learning conditions, and this type of inequality leads to learning disparities that reinforce social inequality. |
| Symbolic Interactionism | Focuses on social interaction in the classroom, on the playground, etc. Specific research finds that social interaction in schools affects the development of gender roles and that teachers’ expectations of students’ intellectual abilities affects how much they learn. Certain educational problems have their basis in social interactions and expectations. |
| Intersectionality | Inequality develops through standardized testing, differing levels of resources, learning conditions, etc. that manifest differently depending on intersections of gender, race, class, nationality, etc. |
Issues and Problems in Elementary and Secondary Education
Perpetuating social inequality
Schools in poor communities have fewer resources and less funding than schools in wealthier communities
Segregation
De jure: segregated by law
De facto: segregation stemming from neighborhood residential patterns
School violence
Violence on decline since 1990s; Less than 1% of homicides involving children take place in or near school
Mass shootings
Bullying and cyberbullying: common and cause serious psychological problems
Zero-tolerance policies
Studies show these policies actually have adverse effects
Social inequality in education levels
Issues and Problems in Higher Education
Struggling college students
Homesickness, feeling alone, academic difficulties, relationship problems, family issues, serious illness or death of family member, personal illness, financial troubles
Legacy admissions: students who are the children (or sometimes otherwise related) of graduates of an institution are given preference in admissions
College and university graduation rates
6-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time undergraduates seeking a bachelor’s in fall 2012: by 2018 62% of students graduated
65% for females, 58% for males
Racial breakdown for 2012 starting cohort, graduating within 6-years: 65.9% of whites, 42.4% of Black students, 56.7% of Latinx students, 75.5% of Asian students, 49.1% of Pacific Islander students, 40.6% of American Indian/Alaska Native students, and 71.5% of undocumented students (race & ethnicity not identified)
Physical and sexual assault on US campuses
Most common type of violence on college campuses: physical assault, sexual assault, and rape
Think-Pair-Share
If you were the director of admissions at a university, what steps would you take to increase the number of applications from low-income students?
Do you think alcohol use is to blame for most campus violence, or are there other important factors at work? Explain your answer.
Improving Schools and Education
Schooling as a tool to improve future opportunities for low-income children
General social reform: poverty and racial inequality must be addressed
Schooling can help students attain upward class mobility
Importance of good teachers
Good teachers in grade school have a lifelong impact on their students
Strategies to improve education for low-income children
smaller schools and smaller classrooms; more funding; repair decaying school buildings; increase number of teachers and salaries; hold teachers more accountable for their students’ learning; recognize the obstacles that teachers must overcome; expand early childhood (preschool) education.
Discussion
You are the principal of a middle school in a poor urban neighborhood. Your classrooms lack basic supplies, your roof often leaks, and an ominous odor often arises from your school’s water system. You have appealed many times to the school district for additional funds to deal with all these problems, but these funds have not been provided. What, if anything, do you do next?
