Social
Institutions: Education
Chapter
16: Sociology, Schaefer, 1995-2012
- Over
66 million attend (2010, See 2009 report)(2016 tables)-~25% of population.
- Biggest
industry-20% of labor force.
- Schooling
historically associated with leisure activity: available to those with the time
and money.
- Increasing
relevance and importance with Industrialization: 19th century and primary education,
1930 and secondary, next few years--?
- Secondary
socialization-Knowledge and Skills-Bureaucratic and Formal--introduces us to
the rest of our lives.
American Education
Mass Education
- Basic Right, necessity for democratic
society
- USA-first free schools
- ~85%
High School, 50% some college, 28% degree (2009)( 88%, 57%, and 31% in 2012)(other countries)(Education Index)(Worldwide--50% illiteracy)
- Urbanism
and Education
- Urbanism and Education 2
- We pay the price--lower standards
- Also, compulsory.
- All pay--education benefits all.
Utilitarian Emphasis
- Variety of Goals:
- Democracy
- Solve social problems
- Assimilation
- Little success, especially as
problem solver
- Still, we have faith in education
as a cure all
Community Control
- Financing
- Curriculum
Education and/as Consumption
(from: Wiedenhoft Murphy, Wendy. 2017. Consumer Culture and Society. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Chapter 7: Higher Education, pages 119-137.)
- Higher Education Act of 1972: students as consumers (direct recipients of federal aid)
- Decrease in state funding to higher education.
- Introduction of "corporate marketing strategies" to attract students
- Advertising, "luxury housing", corporate sponsorships
- Product versus learning
- Shift from industrial to postindustrial economy: demand for credentials
- Increased selectivity at 4-year schools
- Rise of the Community College
- Growth of for-profit schools
- Stratification of the student body
- Higher Education as a "field" of struggle. Competition among various institutions: capital--prestige.
- What constitutes legitimate knowledge?
- What "certifies" accomplishment?
- Who has access?
- Corporate Colonization
- Private control of the public sphere--threat to automony and democracy
- Knowledge becomes an "object of consumption": buying and selling knowledge
- Student athletes or workers?
- Success by any means
- Limit on critique of coporate power
- Cost-cutting: adjuncts, special fees, etc.
- Higher Education as an Object of Consumption
- Costs up, completion rates down (4 year graduation rates at public non-profits: 19%)
- Degree as economic capital (graduates earns 60% more over lifetime compare to non-graduate).
- Social and cultural capital, too (social networks, reputation, credentials)--all marketed to students and parents.
- Human Capital versus Credentials
- Students as Consumers:
- Debt
- Building character or buying careers?
- "Pay the fee and get the B"?
America as 100 college students, Washington Post, Grade Point Analysis, June 8, 2016
Functionalism
- Knowledge and skills
- Cultural transmission
- Social Control
- Agent of Structured Change: social
programs, mobility, diffusion and innovation.
Conflict
- Reproduces social order--control
of resources (Affirmative Action and Education (NY Times, August 24, 2017: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html).
- Hidden curriculum, training good
little workers.
- Intolerance
and Inequality
- Credentialism (Randall Collins)
- Status: Standardized
Testing, Tracking, Public/private, Gender,
Class, and Race.
(see also: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107003/chapters/Educating-Everybody's-Children@-We-Know-What-We-Need-to-Do.aspx) (see http://www.census.gov/hhes/school/index.html
for more details)
- Correspondence Principle (Bowles
and Gintis): Social relations in schools reproduce and replicate those in the community and workplace.
- Hierarchy and authority structures.
- Meritocracy
- Wealthiest School districts spend more than $20,000 (some as much as $40,000) per student,
poorest less than $5000. 2016 St. Louis City: $9,826; Clayton: $19,681. See, "Analysis: Vast differences in how much St. Louis-area school districts are spending per student", Tim Lloyd, St. Louis Public Radio, April 19, 2016.
- Priced
Out?
Interactionism
Schools as Formal Organizations
Bureaucratization: Specialization,
rules, hierarchies, impersonal (large classes), technical competence (publish
or perish)
- Functionalism-positive, quality
control, efficient.
- Conflict: harmful, benefits some,
standardization glosses over individual talents.
- Teachers: Role conflict, strain,
and ambiguity.
- Money and work--employee, yet
professional
- Burnout
Student Subculture-Youth subculture
- Collegiate
- Academics
- Vocational
- Non-conformists
Trends:
- Grade inflation
- Quality (Finn-reform and lack
of direction, focus on production vs. the product, impact of non-academic
pursuits, Educator education, Thinking Critically vs. Knowing Something.
- Desegregation, Mainstreaming,
and Title IX
- Adult education
- Online
Education (trends 2011; 2016)
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/010/eduction.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and Credits for this Page of Notes
Monday, November 6, 2017 13:45