Sociology

CHAPTER 9 SUMMARY 

Education prepares citizens for the various roles demanded by other institutions, including religion. The functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives offer distinctive views when examining education as a social institution. The functionalist perspective suggests that education performs a rather conservative function in transmitting the dominant culture. Schooling exposes each generation of young people to the existing beliefs, norms, and values of their culture. Beyond the manifest function of transmitting knowledge, education serves the latent function of maintaining social control by socializing young people to the norms of punctuality, discipline, scheduling, and responsible work habits. By contrast, the conflict perspective views education as an instrument of elite domination in which a hidden curriculum is offered. Schools convince subordinate groups of their inferiority, reinforce existing social class inequality, and discourage alternative and more democratic visions of society. Conflict theorists suggest that credentialism reinforces social inequality.  The feminist view holds that the educational system of the United States has been characterized by discriminatory treatment of women.  Gains in opportunity and achievement in recent decades have resulted in more women in higher education.  Feminist theorists investigate the role of womens education in economic development as a global concern. The interactionist perspective purports that the labeling of children may limit their opportunities to break away from expected roles. The term teacher-expectancy effect refers to the impact a teachers expectations about a students performance may have on the students actual performance.

 Max Weber noted five basic characteristics of bureaucracy, all of which are evident in the vast majority of schools: (1) A division of labor: Specialized experts teach particular age levels of students and specific subjects; (2) A hierarchy of authority: Each employee of a school system is responsible to a higher authority; (3) Written rules and regulations: Teachers and administrators must conform to numerous rules and regulations in the performance of their duties; (4) Impersonality: The university has been portrayed as a giant faceless bureaucracy that cares little for the uniqueness of the individual; and (5) Employment based on technical qualifications: At least in theory, the hiring of teachers and college professors is based on professional competence and expertise. Another significant recent trend in education that counters bureaucratization in schools is education over the Internet. Research on this type of learning is just beginning, so evaluation of web education as an effective learning method remains to be settled.

The status of any job reflects several factors, including the level of education required, financial compensation, and the respect given the occupation by society. Teachers are feeling pressure in all three areas. While students may appear to constitute a cohesive, uniform group to some, the student subculture is actually complex and diverse. Among college students, four distinctive subcultures have been noted: collegiate, academic, vocational, and nonconformist.

 An increasing number of students in the United States are being educated at home. Supporters of homeschooling believe that children can do as well or better in homeschools as they would in public schools. People are motivated to choose homeschooling by many factors. Critics believe that isolation from the larger community limits socialization and poses problems with quality assurance.

Charter Schools are experimental schools that are developed and managed by individuals, groups of parents, or educational management organizations. Although these schools are typically considered to be public schools, they are administered outside the official public school system.

CHAPTER 10 SUMMARY

Social movements are the most all-encompassing type of collective behaviors. Social movements refer to organized collective activities to bring about or resist fundamental change in an existing group or society. Social movements imply the existence of conflict, but we can also analyze their activities from a functionalist perspective, which views social movements as training grounds for leaders of the political establishment.

 Sociologists rely on two explanations, relative deprivation and resource mobilization, to understand why people mobilize. The term relative deprivation is defined as the conscious feeling of a negative discrepancy between legitimate expectations and present actualities. It may be characterized as a scarcity rather than a lack of necessities. A relatively deprived person is dissatisfied because he or she feels downtrodden relative to some appropriate reference group. A group will not mobilize into a social movement unless there is a shared perception that its relative deprivation can be ended through collective action. Resource mobilization refers to the ways in which a social movement utilizes such resources as money, political influence, access to the media, and personnel. Leadership is a central factor in mobilization of the discontented into social movements. Karl Marx recognized the importance of recruitment when he called on workers to become aware of their oppressed status.

Gender is an important element to understanding social movements.  In a male-dominated society, women find it more and more difficult to assume leadership positions in social movement organizations although they are often involved in support positions. New social movements refer to organized collective activities that address values and social identities as well as improvements in the quality of life. 

 Due to expanded technology, social activists can now reach a large number of people around the world almost instantaneously.  New forms of social networking allow organizers of social movements to enlist others without face-to-face contact, often referred to as Computer-Mediated Communication.

 Functionalists view social movements as temporary diversions from the normal state of equilibrium.  The dominant theme in society is stability.  Social changes are adaptive mechanisms which allow society to continue to flow and function smoothly.  Functionalists assume that social institutions would not continue to thrive unless they contributed something worthwhile to society. 

 Conflict theorists, on the other hand, argue that social change often perpetuates a system of exploitation.  However, social change is also essential because it can correct for social injustices and inequalities. 

 There are several reasons why social change is sometimes resisted.  Economic factors may serve as a barrier to advancement, particularly for those in the dominant class, such as those in upper management, politicians, or other members of the power elite.  Local residents may feel a need to protect their investments (i.e., their homes) and thus, may resist change in their communities.  Some are fearful that we have become too reliant on technologies and/or that modern technology is harmful to the quality of social life.