SOC 105 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: University-Preparatory School, Hidden Curriculum, Grade Inflation
14 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 13: Education and Religion
• Credential societies: a society where employers use diplomas/degrees as sorting devices to deter. eligibility (weed out incapables)
• Mandatory education laws: (1918) requires children to attend school. Dropouts at the tie ae studets ho did’t fiish gade s.
o Was thought that through education, they can Americanize immigrants
o Many people finish high school and want to go to college but too expensive, therefore they created comm. college
• Japan: it outscores US students because they take education very seriously; cram schools: 1/5 1st graders are in; teacher visits
home; a nation’s education reflects its culture; ppl hired together work as a team & get promo together; group-centered
approach; voluntary SAT but must take a national test; competition for best college is competitive;
o Cultural Capital: privileges accompanying a social location that help someone in life (i.e. high ed. Parents that
encourage and pressure for high grades and cultural experiences that translate into higher test scores)
• Russia: b4 Russian Rev. (communist) expand education beyond elites, capitalism is evil and communism = salvation, education
including college was free, no critical thinking; (capitalism) private, religious, foreign run schools were allowed, critical thinking,
teachers had to learn to teach differently, school budget dwindled, teachers unpaid for months
• Egypt: citizens work the land or take care of fam so no emphasis on formal schooling, no mandatory attendance laws, wealthy
have leisure for formal education, few qualified teachers, classrooms are crowded, 1/3 – ½ are illiterate, men > women can read
and write, lags behind in the global race for economic security because they have low quality education
• Functionalists analyze the functions and benefits that the schools provide to society. They teach knowledge and skills but they also
stabilize society by forging a national identity.
• Manifest functions: positive things that are intended in their action to accomplish
o Teach knowledge and skills, Cultural transmission of values (process of transmitting values from one group to
another): loalt to state, patiotis, etol the soiet’s foudes, social integration, political integration by teaching
mainstream ideas to immigrants, maintaining status quo, inclusion (mainstreaming), Social placement (a function of
education-fuelig ppl ito a soiet’s aious positios also ko as gatekeeping (the process by which education
open and closes doors of opportunity). Tracking sotig studets ito diff eduatioal taks o pogas o the
asis of thei peeied ailities i.e. geeal, ollege pep, hoos affets ppl’s oppotuities fo jos, ioe, ad
lifestyle; childcare, sex ed.
• Latent functions: positive things that that are not intended
o Childcare (was latent and now its manifest b/c with 2 parents working school provides childcare),
• Conflict theorist examples how the educational system reproduces the social class structure
• Hidden curriculum: the attitudes and the unwritten rules of behavior that schools teach in addition to the formal curriculum (i.e.
obedience) Each type of school is helping to reproduce the social class structure: teaching English and manners,
• IQ test: culturally bias, stacking the deck (unequal funding) through tax, family background: people from affluent family tends to
go to college more than people from low-income homes and racial-ethic division (whites tend to complete high school more than
AA and latinos
• Symbolic Interactionist believes that what teachers expect of their students has profound consequences for how students do
• The Rist Research: participant observation in AA grade school. Kindergarten a teacher labeled them group 1,2,3, 1 being the
smartest. This label has stuck with them through school. Self-fulfilling prophecy (false assertion that becomes true simple because
it was predicted)
• Girls and Asian Americans tend to receive higher overall grades b/c they give out a signal of better attitude towards learning
• Three major problems with the US education system: mediocrity, cheating, and violence
o Mediocrity: the state have to accommodate to stupidity; SAT (when officials raised their standards math^, verbalV
therefore, made SAT easier; grade inflation (higher grade for same work), social promotion (passing students on to
the next level even though they have not mastered basic materials), functional illiteracy (high school grads have
difficulty with basic reading and math; result of social promotion)
▪ Solution: raising standards for teachers, raising standards for students, teachers have low expectations of
their students b/c of the bureaucracy in which ritual replace performance, (raising standards can upset
students and parents
o Cheating: by teachers and school administrators, changing ans. on scantrons, changing grad%, (for bonuses & looks)
▪ Solution: zero tolerance: fire teachers and administrators, actually count grad%
o Violence: lockdowns, code blue, drills
• Dukhei: fidigs: the old’s eligio is so aied that the hae o speified elief o patie i oo, all eligions
develop a community centering, 3) all religion separate the sacred (supernatural aspects of life) from the profane (ordinary).
o Religion: 3 elements: beliefs, practices, moral community (a group of ppl who are united by religious practice)
• Functionalist: sense of purpose, framework of living, emotional comfort, social solidarity (marriage), guidelines for life, social
control (religion affects those who are not religious, adultery), social change (civil rights movements)
o Dysfunctions: persecution (salem witch trial) and war & terrorism (suicide terrorist)
• Symbolic Interactionist: uses symbol to represent what is sacred from the profane, rituals (ceremonies/repetitive practices) unites
ppl into a moral community, beliefs uncloses not only values but also cosmology (unified pic of the world), religious experience
(sudden awareness of supernatural or feeling of coming in contact with God) = born again for Christians (new person)
• Conflict theorist: (Marx) opium of the people (reduce possibility of rebellion, legitimating social inequalities (king is divine),
• Weber: eligio’s fous o the aftelife is a soue of pofoud soial hage. spirit of capitalism: accumulate capital, reinvest.
Capitalism appeared when Protestantism came (religions of china, india too traditional) calvin: predestined heaven or hell.
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