Chapter Twenty: Education
•Education: 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 direction of specially trained teachers
Education: A Global Survey
•Canadians spend usually 18 years in school
•In low income countries, vast majority of people receive little or no schooling
Schooling and Economic Development
•Extent of schooling in any society is tied to its economic development
•In low/ middle income countries, families and communities teacher young people
important knowledge and skills
•Formal schooling available mainly to wealthy people who don’t need to work
•Greed root word school means “leisure”
•Limited schooling that takes place in lower income countries reflects national
culture
•Most low income countries don’t have a lot of schooling
Schooling in India
•90% of children in India complete primary school
•Barely half of Indian children go to secondary school and very few go to universities
•34% of Indians are illiterate
•Because many Indians see less reason to invest in schooling of girls, only 49% reach
secondary school
•Most children working in Indian factories are girls so their families can benefit from
their earnings before they get married off into another family
Schooling in Japan
•Schooling not always been part of Japanese way of life
•Today Japan’s educational system widely praised for producing some of world’s
highest achievers
•Early grades concentrate on transmitting Japanese traditions
•Starting in early teens, students take series of difficult and highly competitive
examinations
•More men and women graduate from high school in Japan (93%) than in Canada or
U.S.
•Japanese students and their parents take entrance exams really seriously and about
half of them attend “cram schools” to prepare for the exams
•Japanese students are best at math and science compared to any other high income
country
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Schooling in Great Britain
•British law now requires every child to attend school until age of 16
•Teach not only academic subjects but also special patterns of speech, mannerisms,
and social graces of British upper class
•Most British students attend state-supported day schools
•Britain tried to reduce importance of social background in schooling by expanding
university system and by linking admission to competitive entrance examinations
Summary of all Three
•All show crucial importance of economic development
•In poor countries, many children (especially girls) work rather than attend
school
•Rich nations have mandatory education laws to prepare industrial workforce
and to satisfy demands for greater equality
Functions of Schooling
•Structural-functional analysis looks at ways in which formal education supports
operation and stability of society
•Five ways that this happens:
Socialization •Technologically simple societies look to families to teach skills and
values and transmit way of life from one generation to the next
•Trained teachers used to develop and pass on more specialized
knowledge that adults need in workforce
•In primary school, children learn basic language and math skills
•Secondary school builds on this foundation and university/college
allows further specialization
•Schools also transmit cultural values and norms
•Competitiveness is actually discourages in many Canadian
classrooms because of potential damaging effects on self-esteem of
those who fail
Cultural
Innovation •Faculty at colleges and universities create culture as well as pass it
on to students
•Research in sciences, social sciences and humanities, fine arts leads
to discovery and changes in our way of life
Social
Integration •Schooling molds diverse population into one society sharing norms
and values
•Our educational policies sensitive to problems of maintaining
equality of access and unity in face of diversity
•Schools try to meet challenge of social integration by establishing
common language to encourage broad communication and force
national identity
•Quebecois perceive threat to their distinct culture, resent need to
learn English for economic survival and insist on full provincial
control of education
•People in question resist formal schooling in language of the majority
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Document Summary
In low income countries, vast majority of people receive little or no schooling. Schooling and economic development: extent of schooling in any society is tied to its economic development. In low/ middle income countries, families and communities teacher young people important knowledge and skills: formal schooling available mainly to wealthy people who don"t need to work, greed root word school means leisure . Limited schooling that takes place in lower income countries reflects national culture: most low income countries don"t have a lot of schooling. 90% of children in india complete primary school: barely half of indian children go to secondary school and very few go to universities, because many indians see less reason to invest in schooling of girls, only 49% reach. 34% of indians are illiterate secondary school: most children working in indian factories are girls so their families can benefit from their earnings before they get married off into another family.