lecture 11: Education Flashcards
history of mass education
- 300yrs ago with only nobels and wealthy able to access it
- few professions requiring extensive schooling
mass education today
a universal feature
of European and North American life by
the early 20th century
mass education statistics
- 1/5th of Canadians are in institutions currently
- over 5 million in school
- 2.5 million in college and university
- 13.5% of worlds people are illiterate
- 774 million people can’t read or write
- 63% of the worlds people being illiterate are women
- 54% of canadians (age 25-64) had certificate, diploma or college/uni degree
goal of mass education
universal literacy
eurocentrism and mass education
European people nobility were those who predominantly had educations
- Creation of residential schools
origins of public education
Ryerson
1844-1855: toured europe to study
1846: Published Report on a system of public
elementary education for Upper Canada
what was Ryerson’s conclusion of public education?
- Schools should be free, mandatory for all children
- Teach Christian morals
Post-secondary education: society would be improved through religion and education promoted through denominational universities
rise of mass education
- replaced family and religion with centralized and rationalized system
- created strong pressure towards uniformity and standardization
- huge social change
reasons for mass education
- printing press
- Protestantism
- Democracy
- Industrialization
printing press
Enabled literacy to spread
beyond elite circles
Protestantism
Protestants
were encouraged to read
scriptures regularly
Democracy
Led to the
demand for free education
for all children
Industrialization
Mass education is
widely recognized as an
absolute necessity for
creating an industrial
economy
reasons for rise of mass education:stats
- rise of
mass schooling was
industrialization - evident that a
highly productive
economy requires an
education system - large enough to create a
mass labour force - rich enough to train and
employ researchers able
to work at the cutting
edge of modern science
jobs and earnings: rise of mass education
Higher educational attainment helps people get jobs
and earn more
jobs and earnings statistics
- Employment rates of university graduates are about one-third higher
than high school graduates. - Average annual income is 82 percent higher than that of high
school graduates
mass schooling and national wealth
- widely acknowledged
that investment in education is important step in achieving
great national wealth - education is source and product of wealth
educational attainment
- # of years of school thatstudents complete.
- Believed to be largely an outcome of
individual talent and hard work
educational achievement
how much students actually learn
sociological theories of education: functionalism
- Manifest Functions
- Latent (unintended) Functions
Manifest Functions
- Sort students.
- Train students.
- Socialize students.
- Transmit culture
Latent (unintended) Functions
- Encourages development of a separate youth culture.
- Serves as a “marriage market.”
- Acts as a custodial service.
- Promotes social change.
Latent (unintended) Functions
Marriage Market
competitive forum for the establishment of long-term, intimate relations between individuals
Functionalist stats
2.1 million full-time and part-time students were enrolled in Canada’s 179 colleges
college tuition fees are generally lower than university fees and that most college students live with their parents
sociological theories of education: conflict theory
- schools distribute educational benefits unequally
- children from the upper classes
- children from higher-status racial
and ethnic groups - results in a
reproduction of the societal stratification system.
conflict theory and educational attainment
2/3rd of top 10% income earners have university degrees
bottom 90% don’t
conflict theory beliefs in education
deny that the college system increases upward mobility and equality.
think it is the entire stratification system that is upwardly mobile
community colleges reinforce prevailing patterns of inequality by
- directing students from disadvantaged backgrounds away from universities
- decreasing the probability that they will earn a four-year degree and a high-status position
parents social class and education
- increase in one-parent households
- parents who earn low income more likely to experience financial problems
one-parent household education stats
- unable to rely on adults for
- tutoring
- emotional support
- supervision
- role-modelling - 19yr olds from economically marginalized communities are 6x likely to be in raised one-parent household
lack of cultural capital stats: education
- Parents with high income are 2 1/2x as likely as parents with low incomes to have earned undergraduate degrees
importance of cultural capital
university education gives people cultural capital that they can transmit to their children, thus improving their chance of financial success
cultural capital meaning
widely shared, high-status cultural signals used for social and cultural exclusion
cultural signals
- attitudes
- preferences
- formal
- knowledge
- behaviours
- goals
- credentials
cultural capital stats
families with high income are 61%x likely than those from families with low income to be enrolled in university at the age of 19
60% of 25-34yr olds whos fathers are professionals or managers attend uni
streaming
academic practice where
students choose academic or applied
stream before beginning high school
why are IQ and standardized test are employed to students?
channel students into:
1. high-ability (enriched)
2. middle-ability
3. low-ability
high-ability
enriched
middle-ability and low-ability
basic or special education
2 factors of symbolic interactionism and education
- stereotype threat
- Pygmalion effect
stereotype threat
negative impact of stereotypes on the school performance disadvantaged groups
Pygmalion effect/self-fulfilling prophecy
high expectations lead to high-performance, low expectation leads to low performance
symbolic interactionism facts
- Students who are treated as inferior may
come to feel rejected by teachers, other
classmates, and the curriculum. - eventually reject academics achievement as a goal.
- Discipline problems, ranging from apathy to
disruptive and illegal behaviour
Robinson: changing education paradigms and reasons why for change
- economic
- cultural
Hidden curriculum
unstated or unofficial goals of the education system
hidden curriculum: streaming stats
july 2020:
- Ontario Minister of Education ended streaming
- black & indigenous peoples were overrepresented in applied and essential stream
- black GTA students were discriminated from taking academic courses
consequences of hidden curriculum
- Limited post-secondary
options - eurocentrism “universal normal”
- academic outcomes
education and feminist theory facts
- women have higher grade point averages then men
- men receive 56% of degrees granted
- men receive more degrees at a PhD level
degrees and men
- large # of men earn degrees in engineering, comsci, dentistry and specialized fields of medicine
- large # of women earn PhDs in education, english, foreign language, and low-paying fields compared to math and science
- gender gap earnings increase 1st and 5th yr of employment
gender pay earnings gap
- education
- health
- business
Corporatization
The reshaping of
universities, utilizing a business model
corporatization facts
- Consumers of higher education paying a
larger share of the cost of the services
they enjoy. - Universities responding to market demand for particular skills.
history of corporatization
- started 1980s
- unis were heavily subsidized by gov
- Academic personnel had more freedom to shape uni priorities
- Few instructors were cost-cutting part-
timers
tuititon inflation
fell from 1965-1981
remained study in 1982-1989
began to rise rapidly
in 2017-18 average fees were 2.6x higher
consumers (students and their families) paid dearly
canada and corporatization uni facts
- gov contributes 41% of post-secondary revenue
- tuition covers 28%
- private doners are big corporations and their owners
canada and corporatization
- 37 well-do countries in OECD, Canada ranks 32nd in gov contribution to Canada
- 6 northern Europeans countries govs pay more then 90% of post-secondary avenue
uni enrollment field in canada: highest (2018 recent)
- health
- 167k - business
- 253k - architecture
/engineering
- 142k - science
- 139k - math & computer science
- 65k
Canadian Schools: Public Attitudes and
International Comparison: 1979 and 2007
% of adult Canadians giving public
schools grades of A or B declined from 59% to 48%
Ontario – Between 1980 and 2015
% of adults expressing
satisfaction with the schools rose from 51% to 60%
Canadians believe that the public school need to become
more rigorous with increased focus on
- math
- science
- language.
Between 1979 and 2007
% of adult Canadians giving public
schools a grade of A or B declined from 59% to 48%
worlds top 10 school systems
reading:
- Singapore
- canada
- finland
science:
- singapore
- japan
- estonia
(canada is 5th)
math:
- singapore
- taiwan
- japan
(canada is 7th)
overall:
- singapore
- japan
- estonia
(canada is 6th)
