Chapter 13Education

Goals of Education

1.) Fulfilling a social role as a good citizen.

2.) Fulfilling a social role as a consumer

3.) Fulfilling a social role as a taxpayer.

Democratic Equality and Value Climate

Democratic Equality: A goal of education that refers to the function of education to prepare good citizens.Value Climate: The atmosphere in a school. Value climate is influenced not only by the individuals in the student body but also by factors such as principal leadership, student behavior, and teacher morale.

Education: Past and Present

Emile Durkheim believed, as many early sociologists did, that education served as a morally unifying force that could counteract social divisions in modern society.In today’s society, educational institutions serve more as a product, whereby students and their parents have become the consumers.

Education vs. Schooling

Education: Refers broadly to the processes by which individuals develop their capacities by acquiring knowledge and receiving training in life skills.

Schooling: Refers to the time spent in formal educational institutions.

Democratic Equality and Citizenship

Education has been shown to be positive and directly related to voter participation in the U.S.

The initial goals of training children and young people for citizenship grew out of the process of nation-building.

Citizenship

Due to large-scale immigration, the new American republic feared individualistic economic striving and cultural fragmentation in the mid-nineteenth century.

As an effort of prevention, people believed that future citizens should be educated into a common sense of citizenship and devotion to the public good.

Social Efficiency

Social efficiency: A goal of education suggesting that the purpose of education is to train workers.

Vocationalism: The shift in educational curriculum away from academic learning toward providing training for skills necessary to carry out job roles.

Functional Illiteracy

Functional Illiteracy: The inability to read or write at a level sufficient for everyday living.

Table 13.1 U.S. Citizens Registered to Vote

Figure 13.1 Highest Level of Educational Attainment (U.S.)

Social Mobility

Social mobility: A goal of education pertaining to the ability of individuals or groups to change their social position or status within a social hierarchy.

The negative influence of social mobility is that it can limit the other two goals of education: democratic equality and social efficiency.

Table 13.2 Educational Attainment by Race

Figure 13.2 Four or More Years of College Completed by Race

Figure 13.3 Education and Income by Gender, 2002

Overcredentialing vs. Credential Inflation

Overcredentialing: The overproduct of academic qualifications relative to the occupational need for advanced skills.

Credential Inflation: The rising level of educational attainment required for jobs whose skill requirements remain largely unchanged.

Figure 13.4 Bachelor’s Degree or Higher and Income, 1972-2002, by Gender

Figure 13.5 Some College and Income, 1972-2002, by Gender

Historical Summery of Education and Goals

1.) Mid-nineteenth century: In the era of the common school, democratic equality was the dominant goal.

2.) Late-nineteenth century and early twentieth century: Social efficiency and social mobility goals became more prominent.

Historical Summary (cont’d)

3.) 1960s and 1970s: Goals began to turn toward democratic equality (although it was still linked to social mobility).

4.) 1980s and 1990s: Goals shifted politically to issues of social efficiency, such as maintaining or raising educational standards.

Historical Summary (cont’d)

5.) End of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century: Education has increasingly been treated as a consumer good.

Functionalism

Functionalism: The functionalist, or structural-functionalist, perspective focuses on the contribution of the parts of a structure to the maintenance of the whole. It assumes that there is no fundamental conflict between the demands of the parts.

Conflict Perspective

Conflict Perspective: The view that education contributes to maintaining the status quo by revealing how education molds individuals to fill the needs of an unequal society. It assumes that there are conflicting groups/interests in society, and that education reflects these conflicts.

Interactionist Perspective

The Interactionist Perspective became popular in the second half of the twentieth century.

Labeling Theory: A microsocial attempt to explain differences in educational attainment. Labeling Theory maintains that students who are given the impression that they are dumb and not expected to succeed may incorporate this label as part of their identity and behave accordingly.

Pierre Bourdieu and Speech Codes

French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu noted that children of middle-class families go to school and already possess many of the cultural qualities that are prized in the educational system, including the “right” language (linguistic capital) necessary for a successful formal education.

Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Capital

Cultural Capital: A term coined by Pierre Bourdieu referring to cultural qualities that are prized in the educational system as well as by society overall.

These qualities include having the “right” language, access to books, and exposure to cultural forms such as art, music, and theater.

Figures 13.8 and 13.9 SAT I Scores

Figure 13.10 Class of 1999 SAT I Total Scores

Multiculturalism

“Western culture does not try to understand the diversity of experiences of different people…If you think American culture is centered on the Constitution and the Founding Fathers, then you’re going to exclude a major part of what this country is” (pg. 416).

Cultural Relativism

Cultural Relativism: In contract to ethnocentrism, a perspective whose advocates see all cultures as equally valuable and reject any ranking of cultures and their products in terms of quality.

Magnet vs. Charter Schools

Magnet Schools: Schools which aim to distribute students and desegregate schools on the basis of special interests or talents.

Charter Schools: Schools that focus on a particular methods, theme, or curriculum.

Figure 13.11 Adult Literacy Rates by Gender, 2000

Study Questions

Which of the three examples related in the first paragraph of this chapter is most consistent with the concerns of the functionalist perspective?

Which of these examples corresponds most closely to the Weberian conflict perspective?

Study Questions (continued)

Which example offers evidence supporting the Marxist conflict perspective?