Soc 100 - Education I

Question 1

Formal vs Informal Education

Answer 1

Formal: Education in recognised and accredited schools.Highly-institutionalised�Informal: How we learn for ourselves outside of institutions.Less organised/controlled

Question 2

How does education help prepare people for the wider world (in two ways)

Answer 2

Training in specific routines for jobs. (Foucault attacks this.)Learning values and norms of society – the hidden curriculum, and basic social interaction outside family�

Question 3

Meritocracy

Answer 3

Social rank should depend on your ability, not on your birth or wealth.By ensuring educational opportunities are open to all, those with greatest talent will have chance to rise to top�-Equality of Opportunity emphasized, everyone gets same chance to succeed, in contrast with equality of outcome, in which everyone gets the same reward regardless of input

Question 4

Credentialism

Answer 4

Addition of qualification requirement to take a job, e.g. degree, medical school.Growing numbers of jobs have such requirements – including doctor, truck driver, acupuncturist�.

Question 5

Who argues that credentials for jobs are not necessary for most of them? Why?

Answer 5

Frank ParkinEver more qualifications needed for jobs that previously had no such requirement�

Question 6

Who adds these needless qualifications to requirements for jobs?

Answer 6

Interest groups band together to add these requirements for jobs, in order to minimise the number of people who can do them, and reduce competition for jobs�.

Question 7

Research Univesrity

Answer 7

Higher educational institution focused on production of original research; professors evaluated by publication & citation.Often causes decline in importance of teaching�.

Question 8

Who examined the emergence of the modern research university after WWII, and in what book?

Answer 8

Christopher Jenks & David Riesman, in Academic Revolution.

Question 9

Summarize the work of Jenks & Riesman in Academic Revolution. How are universities now viewed?

Answer 9

Colleges & universities amalgamated into single cohesive system of national education, placed in hierarchies:Focus on producing research and PhD programs; colleges that do not do so are labelled as subpar.Professors assessed by research in peer-reviewed journals; teaching less important, and only an appendage to research. Leads to large classes taught by adjunct professors.Universities viewed as producers of knowledge: aim to generate as much research as possible, regardless of teaching�. (in contrast with PROVIDERS of knowledge)

Question 10

Liberal Education

Answer 10

Schooling that aims to teach ‘whole person’: focused on ability to read, write, argue.Not just ‘learning by rote’�.

Question 11

Credential Inflation

Answer 11

it’s increasingly difficult to get a higher-status job without a university degree (however ‘useful’)�.

Question 12

What are the consequences of a focus on research excellence and credential inflation for universities?

Answer 12

Consequently, universities have larger and larger classes of students, increasingly taught by lower-ranked academics & contract instructors:Tendency for senior academics to do less teaching; classes taught by non-tenure-track adjuncts.Funding focuses on high-reward areas like medicine, science, business, and less on all-round education�.

Question 13

Cliques

Answer 13

Small groups held together by self-defined set of norms and taboos.Often deliberately seek to exclude others or to set strict conditions of membership�-small groups in which students engage in exclusionary practices to limit membership, and follow certain strict rules.�

Question 14

Who explored rules governing relations between teenagers in The Adolescent Society? What sociological approach did he take?

Answer 14

James Coleman.-Symbolic interactionist approach explains how adolescent norms are created and enforced�

Question 15

How did he describe the different roles that students played? What happened when they moved between groups?

Answer 15

Sporty, good-looking teens were favoured; the ‘nerd’ was rejected and ostracised. Students attempt to be popular: Coleman observed role conflict as they moved between groups�.

Question 16

How does Coleman argue that adolescent behavior constitutes a specific SUBCULTURE, distinct from mainstream life?

Answer 16

Whilst mainstream culture values e.g. good looks, it also requires self-discipline, learning, work. High school subculture ignores many of these: focuses only on immediate signs of success�.

Question 17

What does Coleman think about how schools prepare students for adult life?

Answer 17

Coleman suggests that schools are bad at preparing students for adult life: whatever the formal system of education does, the subculture in which they live causes them to devalue education�.

Question 18

What do some sociologists believe adolescent subculture reflects in adult life?

Answer 18

reflects same problems of conflict, inappropriate values etc as adult life�

Question 19

How can a microsociological approach help us understand student success?

Answer 19

can help us understand why some students succeed and some don’t:Do the less successful hold to cultural values that prioritise looks over learning? Why this rejection of education?

Question 20

Hidden Curriculum

Answer 20

The surreptitious way in which children are taught to expect a certain place in society.Seen in gendered classes (e.g. ‘cooking’ for girls), or in careers people are prepared for�. (Crit Th perspective)

Question 21

What function do Crit Th think education has? How does it achieve this?

Answer 21

it prepares them for subordinate positions.� (students)-keeps kids of streets so can be closely supervised/monitored-lessons subtly prepare people’s expectations about their life, in a way that makes them accept an inferior social status-classes may be gendered - cooking for girls, manual classes for boys; ‘tough’ sports for boys, ‘soft’ ones for girls�

Question 22

Trophy Child

Answer 22

Treating one’s child as a status symbol; valuing a child by its educational or sporting achievements alone�

Question 23

Who wrote Crestwood Heights and what did it examine? What did it find?

Answer 23

John R. Seeley’s 1956 study Crestwood Heights examined the sorts of expectations inculcated in children of wealthier families through micosociological examination.-families wanted children as perfect and successful as their ‘model’ homes and careers-kids pushed to succeed, to focus increasingly on grades

Question 24

What was the side effect of making children to focus increasingly on grades?

Answer 24

Teachers pressured to give higher grades, leading to grade inflation.Increased tensions in system as a whole due to extreme pressure for measurable success.

Question 25

Disciplinary Society

Answer 25

Foucault’s term for a micropolitics of power, manifest in numerous small institutions and everyday instances of control. Educational system is part of broad system to train you�.

Question 26

In Foucault’s Discipline & Punish, what does he compare the modern education system to? How? What is the consequence?

Answer 26

The prison system.Emphasis on measurement; constant scrutiny in pointless exams; clearly-defined boundaries of achievement�.The consequence is students who learn by rote in order to pass exams in which they only have to regurgitate facts.They are disciplined: they automatically produce the model response, without any critical engagement whatsover�.

Question 27

‘Banking’ model of education

Answer 27

Students treated as ‘empty bank accounts’, to be filled with valuable knowledge by the teacher. Students are passive, teacher alone acts�.

Question 28

Who is Paolo Freire and what model of teaching/education does he criticise. Why?

Answer 28

Radical philosopher.the traditional model of teaching ,for treating students as mere empty receptacle to have knowledge poured into them.Students remain passive in this model: teacher is the authority figure, who simply transmits facts to the class. (like banking model of education)

Question 29

What did Freire want for oppressed groups?

Answer 29

To be freed from their subordinate position.

Question 30

How had well-meaning education reformers failed before Freire?

Answer 30

Well-meaning reformers who sought to ‘educate’ the masses would actually leave them as passive as before, and therefore just as oppressed in reality�.

Question 31

Critical Pedagogy

Answer 31

Teaching inspired by Freire that encourages students to think, to behave as problem-solvers, and to be critically aware in their own learning�.

Question 32

Conscientization

Answer 32

Freire endorsed this: making students self-aware as learners, aware of own abilities.

Question 33

What did Freire suggest about the teacher/student relationship?

Answer 33

That teachers themselves must learn from their students: they shouldn’t try to remain above the process of learning, as if they already know everything�.

Question 34

Model Minority

Answer 34

Minority group that has much greater success in education and employment than most other groups.Often held up as a ‘model’ by dominant groups, for how others ‘should’ behave�.-Even when we control for other variables (e.g. whether parents have degrees), these groups still much more successful�

Question 35

What kinds of qualities are model minorities thought to have?

Answer 35

said to have ‘strong work ethics’ or ‘good family values.�’

Question 36

How are model minorities held up by dominant groups as evidence against racism?

Answer 36

‘If they can be so successful, then there’s obviously no problem, and no excuses for others.’-used to attack disadvantaged groups by blaming their lower achievement on ‘lack of work ethic.�’

Question 37

How can much of the difference in success for underprivileged groups be explained (deliberate or inadvertent)

Answer 37

Segregation of Education.-Long history of deliberate segregation in US, but other countries see similar effects even without legalised racism�.

Question 38

What report exposed systemic inequalities in US education? Who was it by? What did it investigate?

Answer 38

James Coleman’s ‘Coleman Report’-investigated opportunities available to people based on ethnicity

Question 39

What kinds of schools does James Coleman think we need? Explain.

Answer 39

Integrated, Desegregated Schools!Students learn more than just facts at school: they make networks of connections, and learn ways of behaving.Students whose only access to schools in deprived areas wouldn’t acquire all the extra knowledge and opportunities�.

Question 40

Capital

Answer 40

A resource you can ‘invest’ in order to acquire more of it; something you use to increase your overall wealth, not just for pleasure�.

Question 41

Economic Capital

Answer 41

Money used for further investments, or production for profit; raw materials

Question 42

Social Capital

Answer 42

People you know, connections you can trade on in order to get a good job etc.

Question 43

Cultural Capital

Answer 43

Values & knowledge of culture, or other ‘prestigious’ status markers & signals of class position.(good fashion, go to opera, drink wine)

Question 44

What did Coleman think students in deprived areas lacked?

Answer 44

Social and Cultural Capital-they needed the broader cultural knowledge and social connections to climb higher�.

Question 45

Streaming

Answer 45

Practice of sorting children into classes or schools by educational achievement at young age.Higher performers taught more challenging material & told to expect better jobs�.

Question 46

How is Streaming intended to work?

Answer 46

Intended to allow stronger students to attempt harder tasks, while giving weaker students extra guidance�.

Question 47

What is streaming’s unintended effect? What is a solution?

Answer 47

limiting access to social & cultural capital. Those who perform well earlier on may have had family advantages. Separating them from weaker students limits chances for transfer of social & cultural capital by peers.Thus, streaming preserves inequalities of upbringing�.-a deprived group needs to be integrated with a group that has traditions of higher educational aspirations.