October 1

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October 1 2, 2007 Session 3 - Agenda

• Time Activity
• 830 Announcements
• - Quote Card Assignments Due
• 835 Lecture Conclusion to Ch. One
• DVD A History of Social Classes
• 945 Break
• 1000 Lecture What is Sociology of Education?
• 1115 End of Class

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Relationships

• The relationship between schooling and society
  is closer and more complex that ever the
  School Society

3
What do schools do?

• Not what they profess to do rather what do they
  actually do
• Three main processes
• Socialize youngsters
• Shape society its inhabitants by selection
• The organization legitimation of knowledge

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1. Socialize youngsters

• Prepare new adults for generational succession
• Passing along know-how
• Determination of what is to be taught and which
  values are stressed
• This process of passing along, can be contentious

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1. Socialize youngsters

• Historically
• In a more homogeneous society focuses more
  heavily on values and virtues
• Forging of civic responsibilities
• Defining societys moral codes
• Currently
• In our diverse society, policy makers call for
  schools to teach technical knowledge and skills
• This too is contentious - fears society is
  already too individualistic

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1. Socialize youngsters

• Calls for orientation towards community and the
  traditional arts
• Suggesting that the humanizing or civilizing
  aspect of education has become secondary
• Others argue that schools are differentiating -
  observing some cultural traditions over others
  and thus nurturing some students for positions of
  advantage and others for a life of subordination

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1. Socialize youngsters

• Durkheim
• (1858-1917)
• Schooling a tool to combat the rising culture of
  individualism in modern society.

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2. Shape society its inhabitants by selection

• Awarding badges of ability through
• Sorting, differentially rewarding certifying
  graduates
• Best marks to highest achievers (Short-story
  example.)
• We are challenged in sociology to look at the big
  picture
• Schooling shapes and is shaped by patterns of
  social inequality and stratification.
• Credentials income, success, life opportunities

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2. Shape society its inhabitants by selection

• Recently - growing disparities in wealth and
  income
• Widening gap selective nature of education
• Schools are inclusive in some ways and yet
  selective in others.

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2. Shape society its inhabitants by selection

• Marx (1818-1883)
• Issues pertaining to how economic structures can
  create patterns of inequality.
• His theories led to the enduring debate is
  equality of educational opportunity a myth or a
  reality?

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3. The organization legitimation of knowledge

• Creates professions and professionals through a
  classification system
• Codifying of knowledge requirements for certain
  occupations
• Assessing and certifying the standards for
  entering an occupation

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3. The organization legitimation of knowledge

• Weber (1864-1920)
• How modern institutions rationalize the world.
• Schooling has the impact of organizing the
  teaching of knowledge in ways that are
  bureaucratic and that create formal pathways to
  jobs and labour markets through the proliferation
  of credentials.

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3. The organization legitimation of knowledge

• Webers theories have led to the exploration of
  the role of schooling in rationing access to jobs
  and legitimizing the access.
• Challenging of conventional wisdom that schools
  simply teach skills and employers hire the most
  skilled.

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Thinking Sociologically..

• What is sociological thinking?
• Connecting attributes of schooling to society
  examining links between various realms of social
  life and education
• Must think beyond our own immediate experience
• What is the difference between familiarity and
  knowledge?
• Familiarity undermines knowledge where one does
  not question the big picture (But thats the way
  it is...)

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Thinking Sociologically..

• What is sociological thinking?
• 2. Having some affinity with science but
  differing in important ways
• Rigorous pursuit of knowledge - objective
  examination - logically sound theoretical
  explanations
• Differences between people quarks.
• Quarks fundamental matter particles that are
  constituents of neutrons and protons and other
  hadrons.

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2. Having some affinity with science but
differing in important ways

• The universal exactitudes and predictability of
  physical science have no parallel in the social
  world
• Social behaviour is not subject to the same
  absolutely binding regularity
• Social life is not characterized by regularity
  and uniformity.
• People usually act according to choice - although
  sometimes predicable
• Social behaviour is subject to laws - societal
  laws - social constructions

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2. Having some affinity with science but
differing in important ways

• In the social structure of modern schools
• key players are students and teachers - each role
  has a defined set of expectations
• Curriculum determines what is taught
• Curriculum in authorized by govt
• Differing cultures, physical layout of school
  building - shape how players interact!
• social structure of schooling

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Thinking Sociologically..

• is to rigorously use evidence to study meaningful
  human activity and its context.

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What is Sociology of Education?

• Classical Sociological Approaches to Education
• We will return to the texts Chapter 2 after
  study week.
• We are going to look at related material that
  reviews
• What is Sociology of Education?
• Background on major Theorists

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Sociology of Education- a subfield of Sociology

• Two major foci
• Focuses on the relationships of schooling
  processes, practices and outcomes to the
  organization of society as a whole (How is
  education serving the needs of society?).

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Sociology of Education- a subfield of
Sociology

• 2. At the level of the school system and within
  the school itself, Sociology of Education focuses
  on the social groups (students, teachers,
  parents, school administrators etc.) and their
  interactions to produce outcomes (mainly student
  success).

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Three Types of Education in Modern Society

• Informal education Learning that takes place
  outside of school, through the process of social
  interaction.

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Three Types of Education in Modern Society
(contd)

• 2. Formal education the set of organized
  activities that are intended to transmit skills,
  knowledge, and values as well as to develop
  mental abilities.

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Three Types of Education in Modern Society
(contd)

• 3. Nonformal education organized instruction
  that takes place outside school settings (e.g.
  girl scouts, music lessons, sports groups).

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Education is sociological

• Education is sociological because it is part of a
  network of interrelated societal institutions
• Education is a social process
• Social Process sequence of activity driven by
  social interaction.

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Education is sociological

• It involves human beings and requires them to
  interact in order for the intended knowledge,
  skills, and values to be transmitted and for
  mental abilities to develop.

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Education is sociological

• Key players - teachers and students bring to
  class their prior life experience, their social
  class background, their language, their gender,
  their beliefs about each other and about
  education, and their notions about how boys and
  girls are supposed to behave in the classroom.
• Social class an individuals position in
  societys hierarchy based on their possession of
  whatever criteria (e.g., education, income,
  athletics) are most highly valued by the dominant
  class.

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Education is sociological

• Some school settings are more complex that others
• Large immigration to Canada since WWII (1945)
• Schools, in large urban areas, tend to be very
  multicultural and multilingual

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Education is sociological

• This diversity means teachers need to be prepared
  to teach children who bring many different kinds
  of prior experiences.
• Diversity a society in which the members are of
  different ethnic backgrounds, races, cultures, or
  religions.

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Education is sociological

• It is not only the social context of teaching and
  learning that is important, but the context of
  the experience that each child brings to school.
• Social context the societal circumstances in
  which an event takes place.
• To contextualize instruction is to address these
  aspects of the culture of schooling.

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Functions of Formal Schooling

• Functions of schooling can be categorized as
• Intended (manifest)
• Unintended (latent)
• There is considerable overlap between the two.
• The unintended functions are also considered to
  be a part of the Hidden Curriculum

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Functions of Formal Schooling

• 1. Transmission of generalized as well as
  specialized knowledge.
• Specialized knowledge facts in subjects
  (history, geography, art, music, and literature)
  procedures and formulae (science and
  mathematics) computer skills and other job
  specific skills
• Teaching children so that they become
  functionally literate.
• Functionally literate the ability to
• read, write, and calculate well enough
• to get along in ones society.

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Functions of Formal Schooling (contd)

• 2. Transmission of the existing culture from one
  generation to the next and to new members of the
  society.
• Culture the ways of perceiving, thinking,
  believing and behaving that characterize the
  members of a particular social group.
• This social structure is stratified in Western
  cultures.
• Social structure Society conceived of and
  organized as a unit distinct from the particular
  individuals who make it up

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Functions of Formal Schooling (contd)

• 2. Transmission of the existing culture
• The structure is also maintained through the
  division of labour, which to a large extent is
  determined by education.
• Division of labour the organization of economic
  activity into parts.

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Functions of Formal Schooling (contd)

• 3. Schools transmit new knowledge that is
  produced in universities and industry
• This is part of the transmission of culture which
  involves cultural diffusion the dissemination
  of a societys knowledge and culture.
• Cultural production the role that higher
  education institutions play in producing new
  knowledge in technology, science, the social
  sciences, the humanities, business, art, and
  other areas
• Through a complex decision making and
  implementation process, new knowledge is
  incorporated into the school curriculum and
  passed on the next generation

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Functions of Formal Schooling contd)

• 4. Schools provide opportunities for social
  mobility
• Social mobility takes place within an established
  structure or network of personal and
  institutional relations where people occupy
  difference statuses and roles
• The persistence of inequity is considered
  functional for the society as a whole, though not
  for individuals
• Functional perspective the theoretical view that
  sees education as a structure that contributes to
  the stability and equilibrium of society.
• society compared to an living organism that is
  basically stable

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Functions of Formal Schooling (contd)

• Conflict perspective a perspective that
  characterizes formal education as a system that
  contributes to social inequality. This approach
  emphasizes dominant class interests and how these
  are imposed on the lower and middle classes.
• Inequity is considered dysfunctional - something
  imposed by those in positions of power and tends
  to be taken for granted by most people

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Functions of Education (contd)

• Social Stratification the system of organizing
• individuals and groups into a hierarchy based on
• societys values (e.g. education, income,
  occupation)
• - Every society is stratified
• - society is organized in a hierarch based on
  peoples access to and possession of whatever is
  most valued in the particular society
• - Individuals are accorded prestige and
  power/status based on such matters as education,
  income, occupation, race, ethnicity, religion,
  language, and gender.

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Functions of Education (contd)

• - Canadian society is stratified on the basis of
  ethnic and linguistic background, occupation,
  education, and income.
• - Stratified on both ascribed status and achieved
  status
• Ascribed status Social position (status) based
  on characteristics that are present from birth,
  such as gender, ethnicity, and social class
• Achieved status Social position gained largely
  through ones own efforts.

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Other relevant Sociological Terminology

• Dominant group the group that hold the most
  important and powerful positions in society
• Acculturation the changes that occur in values,
  attitudes, and ways of behaving within a group
  through first-hand cultural contact.
  Socialization into a new culture.
• Culture contact the contact that occurs when
  members of one cultural group live in close
  proximity to members of another cultural group.

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Other relevant Sociological Terminology

• Equality of educational opportunity equal access
  to schooling, equal treatment within schools, and
  the potential for equal results.
• Meritocracy a system of stratification based on
  personal achievement.
• Legitimating ideology a set of beliefs that
  justifies or supports the status quo.
• Selection and allocation function the
  distribution of individuals into certain roles
  and positions based on social class, ethnicity,
  and other ascriptive criteria within the
  educational system.

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Unintended Functions of Schooling

• 1. Social Control social pressures that ensure
  compliance with established norms.
• Not just the control of undesirable behaviour
• The definition and imposition of the expected
  behaviours
• The role the school plays in perpetuating social
  class differences unwritten rules about who is
  to get ahead and who is not
• Sometimes results in subtle or not-so-subtle
  rejection of the individual who steps out of
  line or by choosing an inappropriate
  occupation

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Unintended Functions of Schooling (contd)

• 2. Custodial the role of the school in looking
  after children during school hours.
• Elementary schools are places for children to be
  looked after
• Guaranteed the same safety as at home
• Now many schools provide daycare during working
  hours
• Reinforced through laws teachers to be
  substitute parents in loco parentis
• In loco parentis - Latin for in the place of
  parents refers to the assumption of parent-like
  responsibility by the schools.

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Unintended Functions of Schooling (contd)

• 2. Custodial - contd
• Schools held responsible for safety and care
• Not yet legally responsible when children fail
  academically
• Failure belongs to the individual
• Secondary schools responsibility not so clear
• Some schools not safe drugs, violence,
  rudeness, defiance and truancy

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Unintended Functions of Schooling (contd)

• 3. Establishment of social relations and subgroup
  maintenance
• Learn how to get along with their peers
• Learn to work in groups
• Geographic location of schools tend to have
  students working with people of similar
  socio-economic ethnic backgrounds
• Friendships last into adult life reinforcing and
  maintaining the cohesion of particular ethnic,
  linguistic, social class, and other subgroups

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Unintended Functions of Schooling (contd)

• 4. Promotion of critical analysis
• May be a myth that schools teach students to
  think critically about the society they live in
  as well as about global issues
• Very little critical analysis actually occurs
  until the graduate level of university