Chapter 7- Practices in Sociology of Education

These flashcards cover the key vocabulary from Chapter 7, including the five levels of school ecology, theoretical perspectives on education, and essential societal norms.

Social institution

Established sub-systems that satisfy the basic needs of society, define dominant social values, establish patterns of social behaviour, support society's survival and modify roles for individuals.

Socialisation

The process whereby children and adults learn from others, which can be self-imposed or externally imposed.

Primary socialisation

Socialisation that takes place within the immediate family unit.

Secondary socialisation

Socialisation that takes place outside the immediate family, often in a formal setting like a school where children receive social training that continues throughout their lives.

Social integration

The process whereby togetherness is encouraged, differences are respected, diversity is maintained and societies engage in order to further human development.

Social placement

The process of using education to improve one's social standing, which involves assessing, classifying, and preparing learners for their future positions in society.

Social and cultural innovation

New strategies, concepts and ideas that extend and strengthen civil society, often produced by scientists, artists, and thinkers educated in schools.

Capitalism

A system where private owners control the country's trade and industry, often producing for private profit rather than the public good.

Socialism

A system where the means of production are owned and controlled by the government or the community as a whole through collective ownership.

Microsystem

A pattern of activities, social roles and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person in a given face-to-face setting with particular physical, social and symbolic features.

Mesosystem

The linkages and processes taking place between two or more settings containing the developing person, essentially a system of microsystems.

Exosystem

The linkages and processes taking place between two or more settings, at least one of which does not contain the developing person, but in which events occur that indirectly influence them.

Macrosystem

The overarching pattern of micro-, meso- and exosystems characteristic of a given culture or sub-culture, including belief systems, customs, and lifestyles.

Chronosystem

The final systems parameter that encompasses change or consistency over time in both the person and the environment across the life course and historical time.

Functionalism

A theoretical orientation that draws from biology, arguing that social institutions should be understood by how they contribute to the survival of the social system as a whole.

Manifest function

The clear and obvious purpose of an institution, such as the school's role in teaching traditional academic subjects.

Latent function

The less visible function of an institution, such as a school producing people who share the basic economic, political, and cultural practices of society.

Independence (Dreeben's norm)

The norm where learners take responsibility for their own actions and acknowledge that others have the right to hold them accountable.

Achievement (Dreeben's norm)

The learning that people are judged by their performance and not by their effort or good intentions.

Universalism (Dreeben's norm)

The uniform treatment of individuals as members of one or more specific categories, requiring people to put aside individuality and be treated as a member of a group.

Specificity (Dreeben's norm)

A norm related to universalism that allows for exceptions to be made for individuals only if they are based on legitimate grounds.

Assimilation

A cultural concept referring to the process whereby one group, usually a subordinate group, takes on the attitudes and status of a dominant group until it becomes indistinguishable.

Political socialisation

The widening of a person's political loyalty beyond the local group to the nation as a whole.

Modernisation

An economic and social concept referring to the development of the meritocratic, bureaucratic, and individualistic form of life associated with modern society.

Conflict theory (Marxism)

A perspective that views schooling as a social practice utilized by those in power to maintain dominance, preserve social inequality, and create a submissive workforce.

Class consciousness

An awareness of membership in a group as defined by economic position, where individuals recognize they share common interests and a common social situation.

False consciousness

Any belief or view that prevents a person from being able to understand the true nature of their situation or see where their best interest lies.

Hegemony

The influence and authority a dominant class exerts over subordinate classes through ideologies, beliefs, perceptions, and social structures.

Neo-Marxism

A twentieth-century approach that amends or extends Marxism by incorporating elements from other traditions to explain modern political systems and social omissions.

Hidden curriculum

A broad category including all unrecognised and sometimes unintended knowledge, values, and beliefs that are part of the learning process in schools.

Symbolic interactionism

A theory based on the premise that meanings assigned to objects arise out of the social interactions and interpretive processes one has with others.

Constructivist learning

A principle where humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences, held to be personally constructed but socially mediated.

Teacher expectancy effect

The phenomenon where a teacher's expectation of a learner's performance acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy, crucially influencing the learner's actual achievement.