Sociology of Education - Midterm #2

What is a gender gap & where do gaps exist?

Gender gap - any disparity between boys/men and girls/women

These gaps can exist within:

• schools (test scores, post secondary education, different subjects)

Why do gender gaps exist?

• biological differences (girls - booksmart, boys - tinkering)

• internalization of gender roles (girls wear pigtails)

• inherited (something we do)

What is essentialism?

belief that gender differences as inherent, natural, and biological

How does ‘doing gender’ create a gender gap in education?

It holds us accountable to how we are told to act

What is Hegemonic Masculinity?

form of “doing gender”

Who is Paul Willis?

The first sociologist to point to connection between gender, class, and educational attainment

When boys underperform in school:

it forms a meritocratic model - means that it they underperform, they will not advance in life

How come men still get paid more then women? Explain through the gender gaps.

Why do men still get paid more than women? (Gender Gaps)

• Pay gap: Women earn less on average (some due to discrimination)

• Occupational gap: Women in lower-paid jobs; men in higher-paid fields

• Leadership gap: Fewer women in high-paying leadership roles (“glass ceiling”)

• Motherhood gap: Women lose income after having kids (“motherhood penalty”)

• Work hours gap: Women do more unpaid work → fewer paid hours

• Bias gap: Stereotypes and negotiation differences affect pay

Overall: Multiple gender gaps = men earn more on average

3 ways to think about the gender gaps:

1. Must take into account social structures (intersections - school & family structure)

2. Can be better understood if we examine its culture (values, norms, attitudes)

3. Tells us about socialization (how the process works to influence peoples decisions)

What is Intersectionality?

• A concept by Kimberlé Crenshaw

• Explains how different identities (e.g., gender, race, class) overlap

• These overlaps create unique experiences of inequality or privilege

• Example: A Black woman may face discrimination differently than a white woman or Black man

What does it mean by ‘doing gender’?

• Concept by Candace West & Don Zimmerman

• Gender is not something you are, it’s something you do through everyday actions

• Shaped by social expectations and norms

• We “perform” gender through behaviour (e.g., clothing, speech, roles)

What is Neoliberal Responsiblization?

A private investment in which human beings and activities are reduced to their economic value and potential

What does it mean when it says “under neoliberalism, people are responsibilized”?

• In Neoliberalism, individuals are expected to be personally responsible for their success/failures

• Social issues (e.g., poverty, health) are seen as individual problems, not structural ones

• Less focus on government support → more pressure on individuals to self-manage

Key idea: People are blamed for their outcomes instead of systems being questioned

List some examples of responsibilization:

• providing food to individuals/communities through food banks

• addressing climate disaster by tracking individual carbon footprint

• ensuring that you remain employable (up skilling and lifelong learning)

• Maintaining mental/physical health

What are the consequences of neoliberal responsibilization?

• Weakened institutional & structural support

• Opportunity gaps widen (rich get richer, poor get poorer)

• Failure to meet demands of neoliberal society

• Reduced empathy & trust between individuals

How are parents responsibilized under neoliberal education?

• Parents seen as responsible for child’s success in school

• Expected to choose the “right” schools/programs (school choice)

• Must support learning at home (homework, tutoring, activities)

• If a child struggles → often blame placed on parents, not the system

• Schools act more like a market, parents act like consumers

Key idea: Education success = parent responsibility, not structural inequality

What is the Entrepreneurial Self?

individual sees themselves and are viewed as responsible for investing in themselves (and their kids) to be valuable in the market

Give examples of parental responsibilization:

• Allow child access to public schooling, private tutoring & extracurricular activities

• Intensive parenting

• Parenting itself should be treated as a professional exercise as a set of skills

How does intersectional thinking & cultural capital help us understand parental responsibilization?

• Cultural capital must be understood intersectionally

• What responsibilization looks like in practice is shape by cultural capital & intersectionality

How do race/class shape how engaged parents will be in amplifying their kids cultural capital?

• Based on Pierre Bourdieu (cultural capital = skills, knowledge, behaviours valued by schools)

• Class:

  • Middle/upper-class parents have more resources (time, money, education)

  • More likely to enroll kids in activities, help with school, advocate for them

  • Build cultural capital that matches school expectations

• Race:

  • Racialized parents may face barriers (discrimination, language, unfamiliar school systems)

  • Schools often value dominant (white, middle-class) culture

  • Their cultural capital may be undervalued or not recognized

• Result:

  • Some parents can more easily amplify cultural capital, others are limited by structural inequalities

What is Intergenerational Trauma?

Trauma is not resolved, is internalized and passed from one generation to the next

How do we expect to have parents ‘trust the school system’ when they have only have had negative experiences with it?

• Marginalized parents (race/class) may have past negative experiences (bias, exclusion, discrimination)

• Leads to mistrust of schools and educators

• Schools still expect high parental trust/engagement → unrealistic

• Ignores historical & systemic inequalities shaping experiences

• Trust must be built by schools, not assumed

What is the banking concept of teaching?

• rom Paulo Freire

• Teacher = deposits knowledge into passive students

• Students = receive, memorize, repeat (no critical thinking)

• One-way power: teacher has authority, students have little voice

Key idea: Learning is treated like a bank transaction, not active engagement

Who is Paulo Freire?

• he as an educator who came up with a teacher philosophy by watching teachers themselves

• he understood the fundamental contradiction

What are the 2 sides of education identified in the study?

• Hierarchal

• Certain approaches

Whats the different between Rote Learning & Passive Learning?

Rote - teaching that encourages students to memorize through repetition

Passive - teaching where students receive information from the teacher without actively participating or engaging in the learning process (students are like ‘sponges’)

What is Critical Pedagogy?

an educational theory and teaching practice that acknowledges and acts upon the contradiction that we began with:

1. Critiques traditional schooling structures

2. Builds awareness of the invisible oppressions in society

The aim is to foster a collaborative learning environment

What is Critical Consciousness?

teaching process of developing a critical awareness of ones social reality through dialogue and problem-posing, leading to action

• ability to move beyond a magical understand of reality

• encourage a critical understanding that sees society as a ‘limiting situation’ that can be transformed

Education and teachers themselves have the ability to develop a Critical Consciousness in students

TRUE

What are the key factors in understanding online activity in relation to news?

• How people get informed

• How the news is delivered

Why is their such an increase in Young Canadians getting informed with information on social media? How much of it is misinformed?

More young Canadians are getting informed through social media because it is fast, accessible, and part of their daily lives, but a significant amount of this information is misleading, with many youth regularly exposed to misinformation and struggling to tell what is true.

85% of what generation said they would turn to when looking for news?

Gen Z

What is the 24hr news cycle?

the time given to force media organizers to fill time with content

What is Misinformation & Disinformation? What are their consequences?

Misinformation - false information that is not intended to cause harm, but is spread under the assumption that it is true and helpful

Disinformation - false information that is intended to manipulate, cause damage, and guide people, organizations and public opinion in the wrong direction

What is Motivated Reasoning?

The idea that people are inclined to accept information that supports their existing beliefs and are skeptical toward information that challenges it

What is Ideological Alignment?

When information or news matches an individuals personal political beliefs, values, or worldview, people are likely to label it credible

What is the consequences of misinformation?

motivated reasoning & ideological alignment

What are the consequences of disinformation?

• erosion of trust

• public health & safety

• undermining institutions

• polarization worsens

• general distrust

What is Media Literacy Education?

A teaching strategy that involves the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create information that is rooted in the identification of credibility & factuality

Define the SIFT Method:

S - stop

I - investigate

F - find better/multiple sources of coverage

T - trace claims, quotes, and media back to original context

For Morris, gender socialization approaches are intersectional

FALSE

In a grade 10 class a group of boys sits at the back. They refuse to open their books and loudly make jokes about those who participate with enthusiasm in a poetry analysis. According to sociological studies, these boys are showing:

A form of masculinity that equates to academic effort in poetry with femininity or weakness

A meritocratic argument would suggest that boys who don’t do well in school will not do well later in life

TRUE

We can conclude from Morris research that hegemonic masculinity is always punished in school

FALSE

According to Morris, the biggest gender gap in education is between Black men and women

TRUE

Define the statement about boys underachievement in schooling would Morris agree with most?

Some masculine acts that are frowned upon and punished at school are rewarded in other social contexts

In Lareau’s study, it is revealed that lower-class parents may view school as a separate sphere from the home and readily defer to teachers as the experts

TRUE

Parental responsiblization is so powerful under neoliberalism that it does not vary much according to one’s social position

FALSE

When parents consider themselves entrepreneurs of their kid’s futures, they are less likely to see their everyday stresses as rooted in social structural equality

TRUE

What would describe why some parents may be more inclined to become involved in their children’s schooling?

• past experiences of racial discrimination in the school system

• critiques or perceived problems with the school’s curriculum and capabilities

• experiences of educational attainment in the past

• monetary resources and time to dedicate to a child’s schooling in the home

University revenues come primarily from which of the following sources?

Government funding, which is decreasing

What is an accurate description of ‘dialogue’ in critical pedagogy?

teachers and students learning together

What is the primary role of the student in the banking model of teaching?

to receive, memorize, and repeat information

What does the teacher ‘deposit’ into students in the banking model of education?

facts & numbers

How is knowledge viewed in the banking model of education?

something that is given to students by those who consider themselves knowledgeable