1. Sociology of Education
Intro. to Sociology

2. Course Outline
• An Overview of Education and Religion
• Sociological Perspectives on Education
• Problems Within Elementary and Secondary
Schools
• Opportunities and Challenges in Colleges and
Universities

3. An Overview of Education
and Religion
• Education and religion are socializing institutions.
• The sociology of education examines formal education
or schooling in industrial societies.
• The sociology of religion focuses on religious groups and
organizations, on the behavior of individuals within those
groups, and how religion is intertwined with other social
institutions.

4. Education
• The social institution responsible for the
transmission of knowledge, skills, and
cultural values within a formally organized
structure.
• In all societies, people must acquire certain
knowledge and skills in order to survive.
– In simple technology societies, this might
include hunting, gathering, fishing and farming.
– In complex technology societies, knowledge
and skills are related to the requirements of the
job market.

5. Sociological Perspectives on
Education
• Functionalists suggest that education
contributes to the maintenance of society
and provides opportunity for upward
social mobility, and meritocracy.
• Conflict theorists argue that education
perpetuates social stratification.
• Symbolic interactionists focus on
classroom dynamics and the effect of
self-concept on grades and aspirations.

6. Manifest Functions of
Education
• Socialization
• Transmission of culture
• Social control
• Social placement
• Change and innovation

7. Latent Functions of
Education
• Restricting some
activities.
• Matchmaking and
production of social
networks.
• Creating a generation
gap.

8. Conflict Perspectives
• Education reproduces existing class
relationships.
• Unequal funding is a source of
inequality in education.
• Access to colleges and universities is
determined not only by academic
record but also by the ability to pay.

9. Cultural Capital and Class
Reproduction
• According to the sociologist Pierre
Bourdieu, students come to school
with different amounts of cultural
capital.
– socially approved dress and manners,
knowledge about books, art, music
• The educational system teaches
and reinforces values that sustain
the elite’s position in society.

10. Tracking and Social
Inequality
• Tracking is the practice of assigning
students to specific groups based on
their test scores, previous grades, or
other criteria.
• Conflict theorists believe tracking
affects educational performance and
overall academic acheivement.

11. The Hidden Curriculum
• A study of five elementary schools in different
communities found:
– Schools for working-class students
emphasize procedures and rote
memorization.
– Schools for middle-class students stress the
processes involved in getting the right
answer.
• Schools for affluent students focus on activities
in which students express their own ideas.
• Schools for students from elite families work to
develop critical thinking skills, applying abstract
principles to problem solving.

12. Symbolic Interactionist
Perspecitive
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - students
perform according to expectations
of teachers.
– Girls learn to attribute success to
effort.
– Boys learn to attribute success to
intelligence.

13. Unequal Funding of Public
Schools
• State and local governments contribute
about 47% each toward education and the
federal government pays the remaining 6%.
• In recent years, some states have been
held accountable for unequal funding that
results in rich and poor school districts.
• Voucher systems would allow families to
spend government money to purchase
education at the school of their choice.

14. School Violence
• In the 1990’s violent acts resulted in
numerous deaths in schools across
the nation.
• Schools in Pearl, Mississippi, West
Paducah, Kentucky, Jonesboro,
Arkansas, Springfield, Oregon, and
Littleton, Colorado, witnessed a series
of killings in schools by students that
shocked people across the world.

15. Contrary to public perception, violent crime in schools has
declined dramatically since 1994. The annual rate of serious
violent crime in 2007 (40 per 1,000 students)was less than half
of the rate in 1994. These data are victim reports collected as
part of the National Crime Victimization Survey and are not
derived from school records.

16. The rate of homicides in U.S. schools has declined substantially since
the early 1990s. There was an apparent interruption in the downward
trend during a period of highly publicized shootings that may have
generated some copycat shootings.

17. Dropping Out
• About 10% of people between the
ages of 14 and 24 left school before
earning a high school diploma.
• Dropout Rates:
– Latinos/(Hispanics) - 24%
– African Americans - 12.2%
– non-Hispanic whites - 7.9%
– Asian Americans - 1%

18. Racial Segregation and
Desegregation
• In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that “separate but equal” segregated
schools are unconstitutional.
• Five decades later, racial segregation
remains a fact of life in education.
• Efforts to bring about desegregation or
integration have failed in districts
throughout the country

19. Community Colleges
• In 1948 a presidential commission
report called for the establishment of
a network of public community
colleges that would:
– charge little or no tuition
– serve as cultural centers
– be comprehensive in their program
offerings
– serve the area in which they were
located.

20. Community Colleges
• According to the American Association of Community
Colleges (2005):
– There are 1,166 community colleges in the U.S.
– They enroll almost 12 million students.
– Community college enrollment accounts for 46% of
U.S. undergraduates.
– Almost 40% of community college students receive
financial aid.
– Women make up 58% of community college
students.

21. The Cost of a College
Education
• According to some social analysts, a
college education is a bargain at about
$90 a day for private schools or $35 for
public schools.
• Others believe that students who lack
money may be denied access to higher
education, and those who are able to
attend college tend to receive different
types of education based on their ability
to pay.

22. Racial and Ethnic Differences
in Enrollment
• Latina/o enrollment as a percentage of total college
enrollment increased from 5.7% to 9.8% between 1990
and 2001.
• Although African American enrollment increased between
1990 and 2001, today it remains at 11%.
• Native American enrollment rates have remained at
about 0.9% from the 1970s to the 2000s; however, tribal
colleges on reservations have experienced an increase in
enrollment.

23. Educational Achievement:
Persons 25 and Older