The document discusses the differences between education and schooling. Education refers to the social institution through which society transmits knowledge, skills, and values, while schooling refers to formal instruction under trained teachers. It then examines various functions of schooling, such as socialization, cultural transmission, integration, and social placement. It also discusses latent functions of schools and analyzes schooling through functionalist and conflict perspectives. Some key issues addressed are the reproduction of social inequality through schools, problems in schools like violence and discipline, and debates around academic standards, school choice, special education, and 21st century schooling with technology.

1. Education

2. Education vs.
Schooling
 Education
 The social institution
through which society
provides its members
with important
knowledge, including
basic facts, job skills,
and cultural norms and
values
 Schooling
 Formal instruction
under the direction of
specially trained
teachers

3. Functions
of
Schooling
 Socialization
 Primary schooling
 Basic language and
mathematical skills
 Secondary schooling
 Expansion of basic skills to
include the transmission of
cultural values and norms
 Cultural innovation
 Educational systems create as well
as transmit culture
 Social integration
 Brings a diverse nation together
 Social placement
 The enhancement of meritocracy

4. Functionalism:
Latent Functions of Schools
 Latent functions are hidden, unintended, unstated goals or
consequences
 Latent functions of schools include:
 Schools as child-care providers
 Schools consume considerable time & energy- activity thus
fostering conformity
 Engages young people at a time in their lives when jobs are
not plentiful
 Sets the stage for establishing relationships & networks
 Link between particular schools and career opportunities

5. Critical Analysis
 Functionalism overlooks that the quality of
schooling is far greater for some than for
others
 U. S. Educational system reproduces the
class structure in each generation
 System transforms privilege into personal
worthiness and social disadvantage into
personal deficiency

6. Conflict Analysis:
Schooling and
Social Inequality
 Social control
 Mandatory education laws encouraged
compliance, following directions, and
discipline
 Hidden curriculum: Subtle presentations of
political or cultural ideas in the classroom
 Learning the importance of race and
gender
 Standardized testing
 Is it biased based on race, ethnicity, or
class
 Tracking
 Assigning students to different types of
education programs
 Does it segregate students into
winners and losers?
 Inequality between schools
 Public vs. Private schools
 Parochial schools – operated by
Roman Catholic Church
 Suburban vs. Urban districts

7. Critical
Analysis
 Social conflict approach minimizes
the extent to which schooling
upward social mobility for talented
men and women from all
backgrounds
 Today’s college curricula (including
sociology courses) challenges
social inequity on many fronts

8. Access to
Higher
Education
Money is largest stumbling block to higher education
• Even for state-sponsored schools
Family income is still best predictor for college
attendance
• Families making at least $75,000 send 64% of their children to college
• Families making under $10,000 send 21.1% of their children to college
On average, a person with a college degree will add
almost $500,000 to his or her earnings over a lifetime
A woman with a bachelor’s degree will earn two-and-
a-half times as much as a woman with eight or fewer
years of schooling

9. Credentialism
Evaluating a person
on the basis of
educational degrees
Diplomas and
degrees are viewed
as evidence of
ability
Over-education is
often the case when
people are
overqualified for the
job at hand

10. Problems
in
Schools
Many believe that a so called
“State of Emergency” best
characterizes our system of
education today
School discipline
•Many believe schools need to teach
discipline because it isn’t addressed within
the home setting
Violence in schools
•Students and teachers are assaulted
•Weapons are brought to school
•Society’s problems spill into schools
What is the answer?
•Adjust attitudes so learning is the focus
•Skillful and committed teaching
•Firm disciplinary standards enforced
•Administrative and parental support

11. “Cooling Out”
the Poor
 Transforming Disadvantages Into Deficiency
 Just as schools can transform social privilege
into personal merit, they can transform social
disadvantages into personal deficiency
 Cooling out
 The self-fulfilling prophecy by which poor
students end up settling for no more than
society offered them when they were first
born
 Some believe that community colleges
play an important part in the cooling out
process
 Allowing students to fail in community
college allows society to point the finger at
them and ask them to accept personal
responsibility for “blowing their
opportunities”
 Are the students at fault here, or is the
educational system guilty of not caring
enough?

12. Theodore
Sizer’s Ways
in Which
Bureaucratic
Schools
Undermine
Education
 Rigid uniformity
 Insensitive to cultural
character of community
 Numerical ratings
 Success defined in
terms of numbers on
test scores
 Rigid expectations
 Age and grade level
expectations
 Specialization
 Many courses, many
teachers
 No one teacher knows
a student
 Little individual responsibility
 Little empowerment to
learn on one’s own
 Don’t upset or
accelerate learning for
fear of disrupting
system

13. The “Silent”
Classroom
 The norm is to not talk in class, and
students can get upset at others who
talk “too much”
 No matter what the class size only a
handful of students speak
 Passivity is the norm and it is seen as
deviant to speak up in class
 What makes a difference
 Female instructors tend to call on
men and women equally, whereas
male instructors tend to call on
men
 Reasons
 Students are conditioned to listen
 Instructors come to class with
lectures prepared and students do
not wish to get sidetracked

14. Apathy in Education
 Many students expect learning to be
delivered and don’t realize they are part of
the process
 Apathy is high among students
 Reasons:
 Television
 Parents
 Schools
 Other students
 High tech may hold one key for sparking
interest
 Bringing multimedia into the classroom

15. Academic
Standards
 A Nation at Risk - 1983 governmental commission
 Troublesome findings concerning what students
are and are not learning in school
 40% of those screened could not draw
inferences from written materials
 33% of those screened could complete
multi-step mathematical problems
 Other insights:
 Functional illiteracy – a lack of reading and
writing skills needed for everyday living
 Lack of interest in the importance of education
apathetic attitudes toward classes, course
materials, doing assignments, and attendance
 Belief that good grades need not be “earned,”
but rather just rewarded (as if they had a right to
them)

16. Academic Standards
 Global performance
 U.S. Eighth graders still placed 17th in the world in
science and 28th in mathematics
 Recommendations from A Nation at Risk
 All schools should require several years of English,
math, social studies, general science & computer
science
 No more “social promotion” of failing students from
grade to grade
 Teacher training and salaries should improve

17. School Choice
 Introduction of competition to public schools and giving
parents options might force all schools to do a better job
 Critics charge that these programs erode our nation’s
commitment to public education especially in inner city schools
 Magnet schools – schools that offer special facilities and
programs to promote educational excellence in a
particular area, i.e. Arts, computers, foreign language, etc
 Charter schools – public schools that are given more
freedom to try out new policies and programs
 Schooling for profit – school systems operated by private
profit-making companies (including public schools)

18.  Integrating Students With Special Needs Into the
Overall Educational Program
 Five million students are classified as mentally or
physically disabled
 Many of the five million receive marginal classroom
experiences
 Inclusive education maintains that it is good to integrate
all children
 Mainstreaming needs to be approached with a measure
of common sense
 In cases where one has to serve the severe and
profound populations, a segregated classroom may
be best
Mainstreaming

19. 21st Century
Schooling
 Computers and other high-tech tools
will become increasingly important
 The amount and quality of high-
tech equipment may become one
of the new marketing tools for
schools to out-perform one
another
 Computers, however, only hold
part of the answer. We need
humans to put into place a
program that aims at providing
high quality education
 Will the education system play a
role in dividing people into two
groups in the future
 Those literate and illiterate in
computer skills
 Will we become a country of
“haves” and “have nots” divided
along lines of high-tech
competencies