Sociology of Education

1
Sociology of Education

• It is a subfield of sociology with 2 major
  focuses
• Focuses on the relationships of schooling
  processes, practices and outcomes to the
  organization of society as a whole (how is
  education serving the needs of society?).
• At the level of the school system and within the
  school itself, it focuses on the social groups
  (students, teachers, parents, school
  administrators etc.) and their interactions to
  produce outcomes (mainly student success).

2
Three types of education in modern society

• Informal education where education takes place
  normally in the family.
• Formal education refers to the set of organized
  activities that are intended to transmit skills,
  knowledge, and values as well as to develop
  mental abilities.
• Nonformal education refers to organized
  instruction that takes place outside school
  settings (e.g. girl scouts, music lessons, sports
  groups).

3
Functions of Education

• Socialization transmitting general and
  specialized knowledge to be productive members of
  society
• Transmission of Existing Culture from one
  generation to the next where culture refers to
  the ways of perceiving, thinking, believing and
  behaving that characterize the members and the
  transmission of culture helps maintain the social
  structure which is stratified in Western
  cultures. The structure is also maintained
  through the division of labour determined by
  education.

4
Functions of Education contd

• Social Control/Custodial Social control refers
  to the rules that are set up for individuals who
  step out of line, and custodial refers to the
  care of children during the day.
• Placement of Individuals/Streaming - streaming
  refers to the placement of students into
  different programs based on their aptitude,
  ability, or special interests and needs.
  Advocates of streaming say it is an efficient use
  of resources when students are taught at their
  own ability levels and all children can succeed
  (practicing meritocracy), while critics maintain
  it is harmful to students through the process of
  labeling (particularly for minority groups).

5
Other functions of education

• Selection and Allocation Function states that
  because there are fewer interesting and
  prestigious jobs than there are intelligent
  people some will be selected to perform high
  status roles while others will be persuades to
  perform low-status jobs.

6
Other functions of education contd

• Legitimizing ideology the common sense
  understanding or belief that justifies or
  rationalizes the way things are and thus supports
  the status quo.
• They say this is accomplished through the Hidden
  Curriculum where teachers insist on proper
  English and good manners from students with
  prosperous backgrounds because the teacher knows
  where they are headed. Lower status children are
  not encouraged to use these skills by teachers
  and are destined for low status positions.

7
Problems in Canadian Education

• Grade inflation, Social Promotion and Functional
  Illiteracy.
• Grade inflation the rewarding of As and
  generally higher grades to students whose work
  warranted a lesser grade.
• Social Promotion passing students to the next
  grade even though they have not mastered basic
  materials.
• Functional illiteracy people who have
  difficulty with basic reading and writing even
  though they have graduated from high school.

8
Problems in Canadian Education contd

• 2. Violence in schools
• 3. Teenage Pregnancy
• 4. Dropping Out
• Stereotypical dropout is a poorly motivated
  underachiever who prefers to live on social
  assistance and use drugs. (true or false)

9
Debates in Education

• Education is scrutinized and criticized by both
  the right and the left.
• Right We need to go back to basics.
• Left Child centered learning is needed to
  produce people who are able to adapt to a rapidly
  changing society.