Education

Question 1

Education

Answer 1

The acquisition of knowledge, beliefs, values, etc transmitted by society to its members.

Question 2

Schooling

Answer 2

A formal instruction under the direction of specially trained teacher. This institution gives credentials, is considered legitimate, and acts as a secondary agent of socialization.

Question 3

Fractured/composite identity

Answer 3

When we enter school, we bring multiple identities. These identities shape how we experience others and how others experience us.

Question 4

Education: A Global Survey

Answer 4

In Canada’s past and in low-income countries, schooling was for the small elite; most people received little or no schooling.
In present-day Canada, people spend most of the first 18 years of life in school.

Question 5

Schooling and Economic development

Answer 5

In many low and middle income countries, there is very little schooling. Families and communities teach economic survival while all other knowledge is taught to the privileged few. More than 1/4 of children never attend school, more than 1/3 of children receive no post-secondary education, and more than 1/5 of the word’s people can’t read or write.

Question 6

Functional illiteracy

Answer 6

The lack of reading and writing skills needed for everyday living.

Question 7

Schooling in Japan

Answer 7

In the pre-industrial era, few people attended school. In early grades, schools focus on transmitting tradition. In high school, students get competitive exams which allow entrance into post-secondary. Some students attend cram schools to prepare.

Question 8

Schooling in India

Answer 8

Children are still working 60 hours per week in factories. While 90% of children attend primary school in overcrowded classrooms, only 60% go to secondary schools and few go to post-secondary. Girls are less likely to go to post secondary school. 34% of people can’t read or write.

Question 9

Schooling in Great Britain

Answer 9

Schooling became mandatory with industrialization. The elites go to public schools. In order to eliminate class differences, admission is linked to entrance exams. Some elites still go to university despite low scores.

Question 10

Schooling in Canada

Answer 10

Early schools were church controlled with the upper class schooling focusing on the classics while working class schooling focuses on learning by rote. With industrialization, changes were made to reflect this change. In 1920, education became compulsory until the age of 16. It favours practical learning. Secularization and french immersion programs are also new changes.

Question 11

Structural-Functional Theory of Education

Answer 11

Key thinker: Emile Durkheim
Functions of school: preparation for life, gives kids a place to go, extra socialization, teaches good and bad, schedules and discipline
Two types: Manifest and Latent

Question 12

Manifest Functions

Answer 12

Are obvious, stated functions. They include socialization, cultural innovation, social integration, and cultural/social placement.

Question 13

Socialization in schools

Answer 13

Societies need specialized knowledge as they gain advanced technology. This knowledge is needed for adult roles; we start as blank slates. This exposure starts early. In primary grades, we learn basic language and math skills, which we build on in secondary school. In university, we gain specialized knowledge. There is also social knowledge/skills (co-operation and teamwork), cultural values/norms, political socialization and national unity/partiotism.

Question 14

Cultural Innovation in Schools

Answer 14

Culture and knowledge in transmitted. New ideas from research in university allows for change in fields. They also act as agents of change and students’ needs change in order to adapt. It introduces and reflects new ways of thinking.

Question 15

Social Integration/ Social control in schools

Answer 15

People are encouraged to integrate, conform and be on the same page. The social glue involves speaking a common language and sharing a common curriculum in schools.

Question 16

Cultural/Social Placement

Answer 16

Schools identify talent and match to ability. I f someone shows promise, they are encouraged to go on. Grades determine where someone goes to post-secondary. Extracurricular activities determine interest.

Question 17

What are the needs of society and how do schools play this role?

Answer 17

Your placement is determined through meritocracy. This opportunity involves working hard and competing with everyone.

Question 18

Meritocracy

Answer 18

Placement is based on credentials; it is about how you use your talents and it involves hard work.

Question 19

Assumption of Meritocracy

Answer 19

Everyone has equal opportunities but they have to work hard. If everyone has interest and ability and puts in effort, they will succeed. One can rise to the top and get a higher education or fill other roles if they don’t succeed.

Question 20

Logic of Society for Placement via Credentials

Answer 20

Schools are gatekeepers and not everyone is accepted. People get the certificates, diplomas and degrees as proof. They are weeded out in the process. In the ideal scenario, we have the right people in the right jobs.

Question 21

Beneath Logic for placement via credentials

Answer 21

The people with the credentials are not always the best for the job. Some people have the ability but get weeded out. The process does not always work.

Question 22

Latent functions of schools

Answer 22

Are hidden, unstated, unintended functions.

1. Restrict some activities: keeps kids off of street and out of work force.
2. Matchmaking: College and university are the prime years; historically, women went to find educated men.
3. Social Networks: We meet future colleagues, employers and coworkers.
4. Generation gap: We learn things that challenge ideas we learn at home.

Question 23

Underlying themes of Structural Functionalist Theory on Education

Answer 23

1. Optimistic outlook: promises for society and individual, everyone is equal and has the same opportunities
2. Rationale for success and failure

Question 24

Social-Conflict Theory

Answer 24

Society is not a cohesive unit. It is a site of struggle. Schools don’t eliminate inequality, the power groups control school and want to maintain it.

Question 25

Cultural Capital

Answer 25

Non-financial social assets that promote social mobility beyond economic means

Question 26

Pierre Bourdieu

Answer 26

Says education and class are closely related. Schools reinforce elite by upholding dominant culture.

Question 27

What does more or less cultural capital mean?

Answer 27

1. Middle and upper-middle class parents provide their children with more cultural capital than do working class and poverty-level parents.
2. Cultural capital is important to acquiring and education, so children with less cultural capital have fewer opportunities to succeed in school.
3. Students with more cultural capital are more highly rewarded in the school system.
4. The educational system teaches and reinforces those values that sustain position of the elite.

Question 28

Basil Bernstein & Sociolinguistic Codes

Answer 28

He studies how language connects with other parts of society and gets at language and its power. We read people by the language we use.

Question 29

Code

Answer 29

The structure of language and the foundations of communication. It gives rise to patterns of interactions with people.

Question 30

How are codes and class related?

Answer 30

All codes differ according to social class. Different social classes have different speech patterns.

Question 31

What is the source of codes?

Answer 31

People made up codes that caught on. The codes that helped people of different classes survive are passed on. The source is social interaction.

Question 32

Research experiment 1: Kids and Pictures

Answer 32

Kids from different social classes were shown a pictures. The kids from the working class described what is in the picture. They gave a restricted description, using restricted language and were very concrete. Kids from the middle class analyses the picture, elaborated and gave lots of detail.

Question 33

Research Experiment 2: Moms and Tots on Bus

Answer 33

There are observation of interactions of moms and their kids on the bus. Working class moms were concrete and direct in telling their kids to sit down. Middle class Moms elaborated by telling their kids if they don’t sit down they might fall.

Question 34

Findings from both research experiments

Answer 34

Restricted codes reflect working class. They are condensed, concrete and direct.
Elaborated codes reflect middle class. It has abstraction, elaboration, symbolism and analysis.

Question 35

Why do codes matter?

Answer 35

1. Social class has an influence on code usage.
2. It is through social class interaction that kids learn codes.
3. Schools favour elaborated codes.
4. Codes influence school success because schools use elaborated codes. You either know the code already or you have to learn it.
5. Students start with either advantage or disadvantage depending on their social class background.

Question 36

Hidden curriculum

Answer 36

Subtle presentations of political/cultural ideas.

Question 37

Standardized testing

Answer 37

Tests created for measuring academic ability. They are biased to white middle/upper-middle class. Today, IQ tests are discontinued in favour of provincials.

Question 38

Streaming

Answer 38

Students are assigned to different educational programs that prepare them for university, college or trades.

Question 39

Tracking/Streaming and inequality

Answer 39

Different students are placed on different streams/tracks. These track are thinly veiled and perpetuate privilege based on social class, cultural capital, sociolinguistic codes as well as gender, ethnicity and race. Affluent kids are often placed in university-bound streams while poor kids are on streams toward entry-level jobs. Students see who is placed in what kind of stream and those on higher streams are more likely to succeed.

Question 40

What does research show on tracking/streaming/ability grouping?

Answer 40

1. Students in lower tracks tend to come from lower-class and minority backgrounds.
2. Students from affluent families are typically placed in university-bound streams.

Question 41

Access to higher education

Answer 41

Post-secondary enrolment increased after World War II. University enrolment twice as high as college enrolment while apprenticeships increased by 40%. There is a move towards equality with more women graduating than men and bursaries/scholarships for people with low income.

Question 42

Ethnicity and Education

Answer 42

Black people and Aboriginals are the least rewarded for their education. French and English are in the middle while Chinese and Japanese people have the most degrees and the highest income. Aboriginals are earning more degrees while status Indians are lagging because of living in remote areas and the effects of residential schools.

Question 43

Education and Work

Answer 43

Education expands work opportunities. Women experience this to a greater effect and are more involved in the workforce. Increased education also means increased income.

Question 44

Privilege and personal merit

Answer 44

Privilege is transformed into personal merit. With individualism, success is seen as a result of interest effort and ability. For a graduate, social resources are overlooked while a drop-out is seen as personally deficit with no though of their personal circumstances.

Question 45

School discipline and Violence

Answer 45

Today, violence and pregnancy are issues. Poverty and drugs are blamed for violence. These problems of discipline result from a distain for learning, rudeness, challenging authority, skipping, disrupting class, and interfering with learning. Teachers are trained to teach and have difficulty maintaining order.

Question 46

Dropping out

Answer 46

This involves quitting school before finishing education. It leaves many people ill-equipped for work and at an increased risk of poverty. Factors include single-parent households, parents with low education, early marriage/children, lower grades, failing one grade of primary school, working more than 20 hours per week, using drugs. Many are unemployed and work low-paying jobs. The rate declined since the 1990’s.

Question 47

Academic Standards

Answer 47

In Canada and the United States, there is concern with the quality of schooling. By the age of 17, 40% can’t draw inferences from text, 1/5 can’t write an essay and 1/3 can’t solve math problems with multiple steps. 1 in 8 graduate without knowing how to read and write because they get passed to the next grade despite deficits. Concerns include low scores in international tests.

Question 48

Homeschooling

Answer 48

Increase in popularity in Canada and the United States. Parents do this because they want to give their kids a strong religious upbringing or they feel they can do better than the schools.

Question 49

Gender and higher education

Answer 49

Post-Secondary is dominated by women while more women are earning degrees. More women are going into traditional male areas such as math, science and engineering. The lack of men results from an anti-intellectual culture and the lure of “male” occupations. Questions of gender relation are about more women not marrying and having kids as well as the notion that men are taller, educated, older and taller than women in relationships.