chapter 7 Flashcards
education
- is a key, secondary socialization agent
- occurs in formal or informal contexts
informal context of education
learning informally through experience or when coming into contact with situations and contexts
formal context of education
- organized
- institutions: schools, colleges, universities
- provisions of courses, learning activities or credentials
formal education in canada
- 3 interrelated factors are salient in the growth of education:
1. overall expansions of educational requirements and opportunities
2. increasing levels of educational attainment
3. recent emphasis on the selection of highly-educated immigrants
social reproduction of class and inequalities
- hidden school costs affect classes differently
- hidden curriculum transmits subtle norms
- streaming benefits students who occupy positions of privilege
- credentialism is linked to social class privilege
- cultural capital of students is stratified
- educational segregation
streaming in Ontario schools Follwell & Andrey
- students streamed into non-academic courses experience depressed achievement, delayed graduation, and increased rates of drop-out
- children being told they are not strong enough academically to achieve a higher level of education are stigmatized and internalize that stigma
women in education
- women were often denied education because it was believed women were not fit, capable of attending school, and were not encouraged to pursue education
- it is also believed that it’s taxing for women to be educated and if women are educated all their energy will go to their brains which will compromise their reproductive functions
- women were teachers as cost-saving measures in the 19th century
structural functionalism
- we are more governable when we are better educated
- structural functionalists argue that education reinforces various norms including:
1. independence
2. achievement
3. universalism
4. specificity
independence - structural functionalism
- acting without supervision
- teaching independence in children so they can be the adults we need
achievement - structural functionalism
- desire/drive for excellence
- create achievement-oriented children
universalism - structural functionalism
- impartial treatment
- everybody gets the same tests, homework and overall equal treatment
specificity - structural functionalism
- focus on personal characteristics
- e.g. a good teacher will recognize the gifts/strengths/uniqueness of their students
structural functionalism examines the positive aspects of education
- functionalism proposes that education is a meritocratic ideal
- education enables people to gain economic success regardless of their social backgrounds
- assumed consensus regarding what should be taught
functionalism proposes that education is a meritocratic ideal
in reality that is untrue because there are external factors such as money that impact someone’s ability to pursue an education
education enables people to gain economic success regardless of their social backgrounds
belief in education as a grand equalizer no matter the class or economic background is also untrue in current society because the higher the class the more privilege
assumes consensus regarding what should be taught
e.g. opting in or out of sex ed.
human capital theory
education is a tool for developing human capacities to advance economic productivity
symbolic interactionism
- focus on interpersonal dynamics and how people make sense of their social interactions
- not focused on educational structures
- examine the importance of how meanings and symbols affect human behaviour and interactions
- e.g. how schooling contributes to the development of personality and identity
- e.g. The Pygmalion Effect
pygmalion effect
- went into a classroom and told the teacher she had 3 students coming into her class next year that have very high IQ and suggested they will do very well and perform well academically
- set up this expectation for her to have in these students
- by the end of June the 3 students did better than their peers
- however those 3 students were picked out of a hat, it was randomized and they were never actually determined to have a high IQ before entering the classroom
- found four mediating factors that contributed to those 3 students doing well throughout the year
- this study has never been able to be duplicated
four mediating factors - pygmalion effect
- climate factor
- input factor
- response-opportunity factor
- feedback factor
climate factor - pygmalion effect
teacher was warmer and more engaging to these 3 students
input factor - pygmalion effect
- she put more into the students
- e.g. every student got 3 pages of math, but these students she gave them 5
response-opportunity factor - pygmalion effect
called on those 3 students more frequently and gave them more opportunities to correct mistakes when speaking in class that she didn’t give to others
feedback factor - pygmalion effect
gave more feedback to those 3 students on how to improve
conflict theory of education
- focuses on the power relations among people and inequality
- education stratifies people economically, politically, and socially
- structures of domination and subordinate create barriers to educational access for some social groups
- decreased government funding reduce access to secondary education institutions
education as warehouses for students
- education is about warehouses for students seeking access to the workforce
- universities were all about getting students into one place to prevent them from going out onto the street and causing problems
decreased government funding reduce access to secondary education institutions
- if the government doesn’t provide funding they must turn to students to pay higher tuition or to corporate sponsorships
- e.g. coca cola sponsoring a university means only Coca-Cola products can be sold on campus
- the ise of corporate donations/sponsorships promote inequality through commercialization and marketization
- e.g. pressuring universities to use specific literature or resources in return for funding them
