Unit: Education
Aim: How can we identify both the latent and manifestfunctions of education in the United States?
Do Now: Describe some aspects ofeducation that you enjoy, and some
that you do not - why?
What do you see the purpose of mandatory education to be? In other words, why are American students
forced into schools until at least the age
of 16 (with some exceptions)?
1. Functionalists – What purpose does formal school have for society?
2. Conflict Theorists: schools reproduce the social inequalities of a society
3. Interactionists: study education on a micro-level, how teacher/student interaction shapes how students perform in school
Sociological Perspectives on Education
Manifest Functions include:
1. Transmission of content knowledge and academic skills
Latent functions (sometimes called the ‘hidden curriculum”) include:
1. transmission of dominant cultural values
2. Socialization and social integration of students into larger society
3. Replacing family functions
Manifest vs. Latent (hidden) Functions
What values are being taught here?
Why would a school want to instill values such as this in
students?
What values are being taught here?
Why would a school want to instill these values in students?
The Pledge has been modified four times since its composition, with the most recent change adding the words
"under God" in 1954.
Changing cultural values?
What values are being taught here?
What interest doschools have in enforcing a dresscode (or uniforms)
Latent Functions of Schools
I. Obedience to Authority:
• Students are taught to obey rules without question
• Students are punished for disobeying rules• What is your opinion of Sewanhaka’s system of rules/punishments? Which are good/bad? Why?
II. Gender StereotypesII. Gender Stereotypes
•Career advice still gendered for boys and girls. Some subjects, activities, programs, or sports are seen as “male” or “female”
•Can you think of examples?
III. Acceptance of Inequality
• Conflict theorist sociologists view education as a mechanism for maintaining social inequalities and reproducing the class system.
• Sets students apart by perceived ability (A.P., Regents, Honors)
• Encourages the idea that some people are inherently better than others. Prepares students for acceptance of societal inequalities.
What are some differencesbetween ‘rich’ and ‘poor’
Schools?
Weaver Indian SchoolThroughout the first half of the twentieth century, Alabama schools were segregated into white, black, and Indian institutions. The Weaver Indian School at Mount Vernon, northeastern Mobile County, was an Indian-only school.
Pope Chapel Elementary School, Panola County, 1955.
A Tale of Two Schools (New York Times - 2014)
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/04/magazine/tale-of-two-schools.html
Unequal Funding:• Public schools supported by property taxes, so richer communities have more to spend on students/schools
• Richer areas can offer higher salaries and recruit the best teachers and buy better equipment (computers, books, etc.)
• Because of this, students from richer areas are better equipped for success after school than poor students.
Credentialism and Status
Credentialism refers to the increase in the minimumamount of education
needed to enter a field
Conflict theories believe thatthis reinforces inequalities,
as poorer people cannotafford to earn higher degrees
Tracking: the practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups based on test scores or perceived abilities
Academic Tracking• Students attend academic classes only with students whose overall academic achievement is the same as their own.
• Advanced tracks study higher mathematics, more foreign languages, and literature.
• Students in less academic tracks acquire vocational skills such as welding or cosmetology, or business skills, such as typing or bookkeeping.
• Students are usually not offered the opportunity to take classes deemed more appropriate for another track, even if the student has a demonstrated interest and ability in the subject. Has anyone had this experience?
Tracking Discussion Questions:
1. What are the benefits/disadvantages of having students of similar abilities in the same class, as opposed to having students of different abilities in the same class?
2. Does tracking accurately separate students of differing abilities, or does it actually serve to create differences in abilities?
3. Should there be a separation between A.P./Regents level courses? Why or why not?
4. Should there be trade programs in school ( Cosmo, Auto, Culinary, etc)?
5. Should the military recruit in schools?
The Correspondence Principle: how schools mirror society
Capitalism Promotes Competition
Social Inequality Unequal funding for schools
Racial-ethnic prejudice
Minorities funneled into job training programs which are not academically based
Need for submissive workers
Make students submissive to authority
Need for dependable workers
Promote punctuality in attendance and homework
Harlem Children’s Zone part 1:• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di0-xN6xc_w
Little Rock: 50 Years Later:
Interactionist Perspective
Describe the ways in which a teacher treats you(either good, bad, or indifferent) impacts
how you do in school (if at all).
Study classroom interaction. They study how teacher expectations
cause a self-fulfilling prophecy, producing the very behavior that
the teacher is expecting.
Two Famous Case Studies ofInteractionst Approach
Rosethal/Jacobson(1968)
Ray Rist(1970)
Ray Rist Experiment (1970)• In a kindergarten classroom where both students and teacher were African American, the teacher assigned students to tables based on ability; the “better” students sat at a table closer to her, the “average” students sat at the next table, and the “weakest” students sat at the farthest table.
• Monitoring the students through the year, Rist found that the students closer to the teacher received the most attention and performed better. The farther from the teacher a student sat, the weaker that student performed.
• Rist continued the study through the next several years and found that the labels assigned to the students on the eighth day of kindergarten followed them throughout their schooling.
Table 1: Mrs. Caplow assigned those she considered to be ‘fast learners’ They sat
closest to her in the front - came from better social classes
Table 2: ‘Average students’ sat in between tables 1 & 3
Table 3: ‘Poor Students’ - lower social classes, less expectations, sat in the back
of the room.
Rist continued the study through the next several years and found that the labels assigned to the
students on the eighth day of kindergarten followed them throughout their schooling.
Teacher
The Rosenthal/Jacobson Experiment: Teacher Expectation
• Predicted that, when given the information that certain students had higher IQ’s than others, elementary school teachers may unconsciously behave in ways that facilitate and encourage (or discourage) the students' success
• Those labeled as ‘spurters’ made more progress because teachers expected them to, and encouraged them more
