Chapter 16: Education Flashcards

Vocabulary study set based on lecture notes covering the sociology of education, including theoretical perspectives and types of capital.

Education

A social institution through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms.

Formal Education

The learning of academic facts and concepts through a formal curriculum, typically occurring in a classroom setting.

Informal Education

Education that involves learning about cultural values, norms, and expected behaviors through participation in a society.

Horace Mann

The leader of the Common School Movement in the 1830s who advocated for tax-supported public education as the "Great Equalizer."

Credentialism

The emphasis on certificates or degrees to show that a person has a certain skill, has attained a certain level of education, or has met certain job qualifications.

Teacher Expectancy Effect

A phenomenon where a teacher’s expectations of a student’s performance affect the student’s actual performance.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

A false assertion that becomes true simply because it was predicted.

Rist Research Study

A study that found tracking begins with teacher perceptions based on social class, determining a child's school journey by the eighth day of kindergarten.

Rosenthal-Jacobson Experiment

An experiment where researchers randomly labeled $20\%$ of students as "spurters," leading to higher teacher expectations and significantly more progress for those students.

The Pygmalion Effect

A psychological phenomenon wherein high expectations induce improvements in performance.

Manifest Function (Functionalist Perspective)

The intended beneficial consequences of education, such as the transmission of knowledge and socialization.

Latent Functions (Functionalist Perspective)

Unintended beneficial consequences of education, including maintaining social control, courtship, social networks, and childcare.

Hidden Curriculum

Standards of behavior that are deemed proper by society and are taught subtly in schools, such as control, discipline, and individualism values.

Testing Bias

A Conflict Perspective critique that standardized tests measure culturally-acquired knowledge and social class norms rather than just intelligence.

Tracking

Programs that split students into groups based on ability; critics call it "modern-day segregation" as poor minority children are often overrepresented in lower tracks.

Unequal Funding

The result of public schools being funded through property taxes, leading to disparities in the quality of instruction, resources, and physical facilities.

Human Capital

Investment in the self through skills and abilities that always exists within an individual.

Cultural Capital

The knowledge of valued cultural activities, practices, and norms, including tastes, manners, and credentials, which can be exchanged for advantages.

Social Capital

The sum of all resources one accrues by virtue of being connected to a network of people; summarized by the phrase "It’s not what you know, but WHO you know."

Aspirational Capital

Part of Dr. Yosso’s Cultural Wealth Model; the capacity to maintain optimism and motivation in the face of real and perceived barriers.

Linguistic Capital

Skills developed through experiences in more than one language.

Familial Capital

The cultural knowledge of families and the support they provide.

Navigational Capital

Skills used for moving through and coping with social institutions.

Resistant Capital

Attitudes developed through oppositional behavior to challenge inequality.