Introduction to

Sociology

CHAPTER 16 Lecture Slides

11E
Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier,
Richard P. Appelbaum, Deborah Carr

Copyright ©2018 W.W. Norton, Inc.

Education

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 Chapter Opening Question

• What was the U.S. high school graduation rate

in 2015?
(a) 93 percent
(b) 83 percent
(c) 63 percent
(d) 53 percent

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 Learning Objectives: Part 1

• Basic Concepts
– Learn sociologists’ explanations for achievement gaps among different
groups of students.
• Sociological Theories of Education
– Understand the social functions of schooling.
– Learn three major sociological perspectives on the role of schooling in
society.

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 Learning Objectives: Part 2

• Research on Education Today

– Become familiar with the most important research on whether
education reduces or perpetuates inequality.
– Learn the social and cultural influences on educational achievement.

• Unanswered Questions
– Learn about some of the current educational issues that concern
sociologists, including the debate over the sources of IQ, the merits of
homeschooling, and the benefits of international education.

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 Basic Concepts 1

• Achievement Gap: Components, Patterns, and

Explanations
– Achievement gap
– Disparity on a number of educational measures
between the performance of groups of students,
especially groups defined by gender, race, ethnicity,
ability, and socioeconomic status.

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 Basic Concepts 2

• Cognitive and Noncognitive Resources

– Intelligence
– Level of intellectual ability, particularly as measured by
intelligence quotient (IQ) tests
– Intelligence quotient (IQ)
– A score attained on test of symbolic or reasoning
abilities
– Emotional intelligence:
– The ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions
of oneself or others

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Sociological Theories of Education 1

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 Sociological Theories of Education 2

• Assimilation

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 Sociological Theories of Education 3

• Credentialism

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 Sociological Theories of Education 4

• Hidden Curriculum
– Traits of behavior or attitudes that are learned at
school but not included in the formal curriculum

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 Sociological Theories of Education 5

• Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Capital

– Cultural capital
• The advantages that well-to-do parents usually provide
their children

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 Research on Education Today 1

• Macrosocial Influences on Student Outcomes:

Do Schools and Neighborhoods Matter?

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 Research on Education Today 2

• Macrosocial Influences on Student Outcomes:

Do Schools and Neighborhoods Matter?
– Coleman’s study of between-school effects in
American education
– Children left behind
– Tracking and within-school effects
• Tracking: dividing students into groups that receive
different instruction on the basis of assumed
similarities in ability or attainments
– School discipline

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 Research on Education Today 3

• Cultural and Social-Psychological Influences on

Student Outcomes
– Race and the “acting white” thesis
• “Acting white” thesis: the thesis that black students do
not aspire to or strive to get good grades because it is
perceived as “acting white”
• Abstract and concrete attitudes: abstract attitudes are
ideas that are consistent with mainstream societal views,
while concrete attitudes are ideas that are based on
actual experience
• Cultural navigators: people who draw from both their
home culture and mainstream culture to create an
attitude that allows them to be successful 15
 Research on Education Today 4

• Cultural and Social-Psychological Influences on

Student Outcomes
– Gender and achievement
• Gender gap: the differences between women and men,
especially as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or
economic attainments or attitudes
– Stereotype threat
• The idea that when African American students believe they are
being judged, not as individuals but as members of a negatively
stereotyped group, they will do worse on tests
• Stereotype promise: a phenomenon where being viewed
through the lens of a positive stereotype may lead one to
perform in such a way that confirms the positive stereotype,
thereby enhancing performance
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 Research on Education Today 5

• Public-Policy
Influences on
Student Outcomes
– Educational reform in
the United States
– Educational policy
today
• Standardized testing:
a situation in which all
students take the
same test under the
same conditions 17
 Research on Education Today 6

• Global Perspectives: Education and Literacy in

the Developing World

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Research on Education Today: Map

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Research on Education Today: Infographic

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 Research on Education Today 7

• The Impact of the Media and Educational

Technology on Everyday Life
– Technologies of education
– Education and the technology gap
• Information poverty: the state of people who have little
or no access to information technology, such as
computers
– Lifelong learning
• Cyberspace: electronic networks of interaction
between individuals at different computer terminals

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 Unanswered Questions 1

• Is Intelligence Shaped by Genes or

Environment?

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 Unanswered Questions 2

• Is Homeschooling a Substitute for Traditional

Schooling?

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 Unanswered Questions 3

• Who Benefits from “International Education”?

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 Concept Quiz 1

The concept of the achievement gap in

education refers to
(a) differences in high school graduation rates between
different nations.
(b) disparities in achievement on multiple measures of
academic success between students of different races,
genders, or social classes.
(c) the difference between the future aspirations and
goals of working-class or poor students, and the results
they are actually able to achieve.
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 Concept Quiz 2

What is one fundamental difference between the

assimilation and the credentialism theories of the
function of education?

(a) Assimilation theories focus on how education is a culturally

unifying force, while credentialism theories focus on the
function of education for stratifying the population.
(b) Credentialism theories only focus on higher education, while
assimilation theories are specific to elementary school.
(c) Assimilation theories are only applicable to first- or second-
generation immigrants, while credentialism theories hold for all
people in a society.
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 Concept Quiz 3

Many honors classes allow students to work relatively

autonomously, developing their own topics, and these
classes also often have student-led discussions. Non–
college prep classes, particularly in poor schools, are
more likely to have rigid assignments and an inflexible
structuring of class time. These differences reveal

(a) the special treatment received by the most academically

ambitious students.
(b) why tracking is such a volatile issue.
(c) the workings of the hidden curriculum.
(d) the achievement gap.
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 Concept Quiz 4

4. Cultural capital is

(a) money invested in high-value cultural products like

fine art.
(b) a variety of high-level credentials that allow their
holder to achieve nearly any job desired.
(c) the area in a large city devoted to the arts.
(d) the advantages that well-to-do parents usually
provide to their children.

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 Concept Quiz 5

What is the main finding of James Coleman’s

classic investigation of educational inequality?

(a) Schools that are predominantly African American have

far fewer material resources to draw upon than
predominantly white schools.
(b) Differences in material resources available to schools
matters less for educational outcome than the family and
neighborhood background of students.
(c) Standardized test scores of white students are
consistently far higher than those for any other racial group.
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 Concept Quiz 6

Over the summer, Mr. Denton read a book that he

was certain would be interesting to his students, and
lead to class discussion. When the time approached
to read the book, however, he was forced to skip it in
order to finish reviewing vocabulary for the end-of-
the-year statewide tests. This decision was likely
shaped by

(a) laziness on the part of Mr. Denton.

(b) the No Child Left Behind Act.
(c) Obama’s Race to the Top program.
(d) the functional illiteracy of Mr. Denton’s students. 30
 Discussion Question:
Thinking Sociologically 1

From your reading of this chapter and your own

education experiences, describe what might be
the principal advantages and disadvantages of
having children go to private versus public
schools in the United States at this time.

Assess whether privatization of our public

schools would help improve them.

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 Discussion Question:
Thinking Sociologically 2

Back in 1964, Marshall McLuhan argued that

radio and television helped to produce a global
village—that is, a world linked by instantaneous
media coverage of worldwide events and news.

Explain how the advent of the Internet and cell

phones is extending the concept of the global
village even further and faster.

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 This Concludes the Lecture
PowerPoint for
CHAPTER
16
Introduction to
Sociology 11 E
Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier,
Richard P. Appelbaum, Deborah Carr

Copyright ©2018 W.W. Norton, Inc.