Chapter 13 Education and Religion

1
Chapter 13Education and Religion 

• Education in the United StatesTheoretical Views
• Inequality and the Schools
• College Who Goes and What Does It Do for Them?

2
Chapter 13Education and Religion 

• The Sociological Study of Religion
• Why Religion? Some Theoretical Answers
• Tension Between Religion and Society
• Religion in the United States 

3
The Functions of Education

1. Cultural reproduction.
2. Social control.
3. Assimilation.
4. Training and development.
5. Selection and allocation of statuses.
6. The promotion of change.

4
Latent Functions and Dysfunctions

1. The production of a generation gap.
2. The custodial care of children.
3. The creation of a youth subculture.
4. The rationalization of inequality.
5. The perpetuation of social inequality.

5
 Conflict Model of Education

• The hidden curriculum teaches students obedience
  and conformity.
• Credentialism amounts to using diplomas as
  passports to higher status.
• Those of higher status can pass on their
  status-heritage in procuring superior education
  for their children.

6
Social Class and Schooling

• Schools are a middle class domain dominated by
  middle class teachers.
• Middle class or upper middle class children have
  likely been read to, and given opportunities to
  understand art and music.

7
Excellence Campaigns and Inequality

• Efforts to improve the achievement of American
  students led to mandatory testing.
• Teachers are forced to teach to the test, not
  to the goals of learning.
• Research suggests that raising teacher
  expectations of students, smaller schools, and
  flexibility in the curriculum would help.

8
Going to College

• 45 of recent high school graduates are enrolled
  in two or four-year colleges.
• The number of minorities in college has declined
  relative to Whites since 1975.
• Non-Hispanic white women are most likely to be
  enrolled in college and the group most likely to
  graduate.

9
Structural-Functional Theory of Religion

• Durkheim identified the forms of religion
• Distinction between things sacred and things
  profane.
• A set of beliefs.
• A body of rituals or practices.

10
Functions of Religion

• At the social level, religion gives the normative
  order a moral imperative.
• At the personal level, religion provides support,
  consolation and reconciliation in times of crisis
  or need.

11
Conflict Theory

• Marx saw religion as an opiate of the people.
• Modern conflict theorists are more interested in
  how religion may act either to express or repress
  class and ideological struggles.

12
Weber Religion As an Independent Force

• Weber combined ideas from structural and conflict
  perspectives.
• Interested in the forms of religion and their
  consequences for individuals and society.
• Argued that Protestantism incubated fundamental
  values, such as the work ethic which linked work
  to salvation.

13
U.S. Civil Religion

• Important source of unity for the U.S.
• Beliefs God guides the country.
• Symbols The flag.
• Rituals Pledge of Allegiance.

14
Consequences of Religiosity

• People with higher levels of religious
  affiliation tend to be friendlier, happier,
  cooperative, and more satisfied with their lives
  than others.
• Religious affiliation has also been linked to
  socially conservative and authoritarian attitudes
  that maintain the status quo.