10 - Sociology of Education Flashcards
Influence of education
- Socialisation
- Status formation
- Social order
- Economic productivity
- Can be used as tool as assimilation
Education and industrial revolution
- Before IR there was little interest in educating the masses
- IR demanded more disciplined, trainable, and literate workforce
- Consequently, industrialisation and public education became interdependent
Three ways in which children of different intellectual abilities were sorted out of the mainstream
- Truancy laws, punishing those who did not come to class
- Tests and curriculums that standardize expectations of educational success
- “Health” testing conducted via medical and psychological examinations
Human capital thesis
- Industrial societies invest in schools to enhance the knowledge and skills of their workers
- Used to justify low income among marginalized groups, which is attributed to low human capital
Models of public education in Canada
- The assimilation model
- Multicultural Education
- Anti racism and anti oppression education
Assimiliation model
- Education in Canada has historically been based on a
monocultural model that emphasizes assimilation into the dominant culture - English Canada was perceived as a white Protestant nation and newcomers were expected to assimilate to fit in (e.g. focus on English literature)
- This model fails to recognize racial bias and discrimination inside and outside the school system
Multicultural education
- Preserve and promote cultural diversity
- Remove the barriers that denied certain groups full participation within Canadian society
- Study and celebration of lifestyles, traditions, and histories of diverse cultures
Three fundamental assumptions of multicultural education
- Learning about one’s culture would improve educational achievement. (E.g., Indigenous Knowledge System)
- Learning about one’s culture would promote equality of opportunity
- Learning about other cultures would reduce prejudice and discrimination
Hidden curriculum
- The lessons about expectations for behaviour that tend to be more informal or unwritten
- Conflict sociologist might argue that the hidden curriculum is performing a latent dysfunction
Correspondence principle
The argument that the norms and values instilled in school correspond to the norms and values expected of individuals in a capitalist society
Inclusive education
- Decolonizing knowledge through engaging in multiple ways of knowing and being
- Centering the benefit of
transformative learning - Sociological imagination
- Envisioning a better world
Discipline as part of the hidden curriculum
Refers to controlled behaviour, not to the punishment administered for, say, speaking out of turn or passing notes in cla
Docile body
Representing an individual that has been conditioned, through a specific set of procedures and practices, to behave precisely the way
administrators want it to
Three forms of disciplinary control
- Hierarchical observation
- Normalising judgement
- The examination
Hierarchical observation
People are controlled through observation and surveillance
Normalising judgement
Individuals are judged on how their actions rank when compared with the performance of others
The examination
A normalizing gaze [that] establishes over individuals a visibility through which one differentiates them and judges them
Stereotype threat
- The idea that negative stereotypes about a group to
which an individual belongs will have negative impacts on their academic performance. - Even when the expectation is not directed explicitly to an individual student, negative outcome is still possible
The hidden curriculum of tracking
The process whereby students are divided into categories so that they can be assigned in groups to various kinds of classes
Important element of cultural reproduction
The reproduction of social structure
Socioeconomic status (SES)
Largely impacts an individual’s educational achievement
5 categorisation of schools
- Working class schools
- Semi skilled or unskilled jobs
- Middle class schools
- Affluent professional schools
- Executive elite schools
Working class schools
- Students’ fathers held semi-skilled or unskilled jobs; some were unemployed
- Schoolwork primarily entailed:
- Following the steps of a procedure
- Mechanical adherence to rules
- Very little decision making or choice
Middle class schools
- Students’ parents worked in skilled, well-paid trades, professional jobs or owned small businesses
- Schoolwork focused on “getting the right answers”
- Follow directions to get right answers, but required some choice and decision making
- Answers are found in books and by asking the teacher
