Education as an InstitutionDefinition: What do we mean when we talk about education as an intuition?- One of the systems of transmitting particular attitudes knowledge and skills through formal systematic training. - Social Structures that allow for thisHistory- Earliest schools date back thousand of years ago-Limited to preparation of select few for very specialized work- Medical training- Military training - Government training - Used to reproduce knowledge, pass to generation to generation- The next major advance in education is found in the medieval era - Birth of University- Used to train highly selective people- Growth of philosophy and logic as areas of study - Dominated by clergy who then taught the powerful and other clergy- Focus of school shifts from pure reproduction to some creation of knowledge- Creation of primary school- Access to education conceptualized as a right, not a privilege- School now available to everyone- Rules set in place to require attendanceThought Exercise- What would functionalism and conflict theory say?Functionalism- Provide complete socialization into the society- Produces social integration with diverse groups- Screening and signaling based on talent- Outcomes of - Produce a better generation of citizens, improving society- Should decrease harmful inequalityConflict - Changes in the economy required more skilled laborers- Enforces power dominated relationships - Trains worker to move from the school to the assembly line- Ranking vs. Socratic teaching methods - Outcomes- Useless specialization to maintain credentials - Reproduce a constantly less costly work force Symbolic Interactions? - Must look at education as a process and its outcomes- 91% of 5th graders time spent either being addressed as a group, or doing individual work- Replication of inequality- The Ophelia complex (teachers prefer males)Education and Socio - Economic - Status Socio – Economic - Status- Income- Occupation- Education Thinking Sociologically - Which is more important in terms of one’s life outcomes education or parents social class? Education and Class Mobility - Education and class replication- Only prepares for the same level of education - Structural access to education- Relative levels of education - Education as source of hope- Goal of new immigrant groups- Very much tied to “American Dream” Biases in Measuring Intelligence / Education- What methods do we use to measure a persons intelligence- Who creates the tests? - What knowledge is tested? Educational Inequality - Within the US- Educational Deserts- “Public” School systems- Robin hood policies (money split evenly)- Charter schools- Globally - Relationship between education & inequality- Brain DrainThinking Sociologically- Which is more important? Genetics or their environment?- “Bell Curve” argumentThe ADHD / ADD Debate - The diagnosis is highly suspect- Spike in diagnoses - Split personality parallel- Lack of medical testes- Gendered Bias (Males)- Class Bias- Role of Non-expert experts- TreatmentPolicy Implication for EducationChallenges to Education - Who is entitled to education?- Originally outside of the government sector- Largely feel to religious organizations- Birth of the public school system- Still offered to people of European Ancestry- Used to civilized other groups- Segregated Era- Plessey vs. Ferguson- Brown vs. board of education- Return to segregation? - Now neighborhoods are segregated - Growth of “homosexual only schools” -Role of Religion in school - Philadelphia Prayer Riots - The Ten Commandments - Stone vs. Graham - Creationism, Evolution, and Intelligent Design- Epperson vs. Arkansas (teaching evolution)- Webster vs. New Lenox school distract- Struck down contention that teaching creationism was protected by the 1st amendment- Kitzmiller vs. Dover - Found that the intelligent design could not be sufficiently differentiated from creationism- The Great Text Book Controversy- What changes the contents of primary education textbooks? - Three largest purchasers of textbooks are Texas, Cali, Florida - Texas and Florida have much higher acceptance of creationism and intelligent design - Flying Spaghetti Monster- Created by Bobby Henderson of OSU- Put forth that this religion also deserved equal timeContemporary Challenges in Education- Home schooling- Grows out of a rejection of immunization rules- Huge over representation of fundamentalist Christians - Losts of variation in rules for these schools- No Child Left Behind- Designed to produce accountability in public schools by producing monetary punishments for poor performance- Questions remain about the validity and logic of the process- Social structure rarely, if ever produces the best outcome, but frequently produces better outcome. - Social structure makes decisions for us, which leads us to feel that different outcomes are unfair.Religion as a Social Institution What is Religion? - Characteristics? - Different from other institutions? Big Heads think - Durkheim – Unifies system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, beliefs, and practices which unite into on single moral called a church- Weber – Patterning of social relationships around a belief in supernatural powers, creating ethical considerations- Karl Marx - The opiate of he massesHow Do we classify religions?- Mono and Polytheistic- Why are monotheistic religions more common (more stable)- Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy- Right thought- Right action- Apocalyptic- Pre - (Christianity)- Near – about to happen (really really committed) - Post – end of war has already happened (rosafondenly) - Fundamentalist and Non- Fundamentalist believe they’re correct- Conservative and Mainline (Strictness)- Requirements in clothing, identify as out groupUseful Ideas- Religious Capital – The specialized knowledge imparted to individuals that allow for the practice of a specific religion- Holidays, Clothing worship, Language- As acquired capital goes up, acquiring recruits become harder- Religious tension – the extent to which a religious organization remains at conflict with secular forcesTheories Secularization - As society becomes increasingly more advanced, the solidarity produced by religion will be replaced by other institutions - Will find meaning in your profession- Holiday will celebrate “great men” Seen this?- China, RussiaThe Religions Economy - Monopolies are unstable- When barriers to entry are relaxed new religious organizations will
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