new and improved soc flashcards

The schooled society

Describes the society we currently have where schooling is formal and takes centre stage. It is also standardized and relatively the same all over the world, age segregated, stratified, and mandatory. Schooling has become increasingly diversified, important to our identity, tied to the labour market, and to our futures.

Social mobility

School has become the main pathway to social mobility, also known as the great equalizer. The best way to have more success than your parents is to educate yourself

Ex. i’m poor, go to school become a doctor get rich 

Link between education and life chances

Absolute social mobility

Making more than your parents did at your age ex. I make 30 an hour, my dad at my age only made 20 so i have absolute mobility

Relative social mobility

Making more money relative to what my parents made, meaning being in a higher income percentage than they were. Higher in a fluid society, not many people experience this

Ex. i’m top 10% of income, my dad was top 50 i have experienced relative mobility

Socialization in school

Socialization in schools is meant to teach values of society and impart know-how onto students, such as human capital (skills, abilities, knowledge). School reflects how members see themselves and their role in society, and how they learn expectations of the world such as norms and identity.

Ex. demonstrating kindness so students are kind

Selection in school

Select by sorting and differentiating students based on ability and skill. Kids are graded and given badges of ability for being good at certain things, and selected for certain roles in the economy. Schools shape who ends up in what jobs

Ex. smart kid encouraged to pursue AP classes and become a lawyer

Organization and legitimation

Schools legitimate knowledge by acting like an organized bureaucracy. There are procedures, a hierarchy, rules to keep schools standardized and operating efficiently. Schools legitimize knowledge by making it credible

Ex. once you graduate, the knowledge you have is legitimized through accreditation

Cognitive skills

Skills that are cognitive abilities such as reading, writing, literacy, problem solving. These skills are a form of human capital

ex. Problem solving, reading, writing

Non cognitive skills/soft skills

Skills that are not cognitive or academic but are important for existing in society such as perseverance and grit.

ex.perseverance, hard word, personality traits, grit, social trust

General skills

Transferable and will come in handy at many jobs, not specific to one. ex. Collaboration, familiarity with computers,

Specific skills

Specific to one particular job, form of human capital. Valuable but not necessarily transferable

ex.

Fine hands for operating a a surgeon, mechanic ability

Social transformations leading to formalized schooling

Social transformations that led to formalized schooling include the industrial revolution, needing an educated society to help economy, less nuclear families, importance of instilling moral values into youth, financialized economy, aging population, immigration, diversity.

Polarization of labour

Growth of high pay high skill jobs and low pay low skill jobs, decline of middle skill opportunities

Macro theory

Links schooling to broader forces such as modernization, capitalism, culture

Ex. industrialization leads to mass schooling, applies across societies

Middle range theory

More tied to a specific place and time ex. Post secondary expansion post WW2

Micro theory

Face to face interaction among people, smaller scale Ex. teacher interacts with students

Emile Durkheim

Durkheim was a functionalist that focused on social change and the rise of individualism. Thought about shift away from traditional society to modern values, collective norms and beliefs and how schools socialized the next generation with morals. Thought school was for recreating social order and stability and develop talent

Karl Marx

Marx was very focused on class struggle and thought about how education reproduces capitalist systems and creates inequality, it reflects ruling class ideologies and benefits the economically advantaged Ex. schools want you to be passive and obedient

Max Webber

Concerned with how schools organize and legitimate knowledge, thought rationalization was the key aspect of modern society. Explored how knowledge becomes standardized, specialized and measureable

individualism

 Greater emphasis on personal goals, autonomy, self-expression over obligation to others. Weak shared moral framework – declining social cohesion

rationalization

Process of society basing its systems around logic and science

Structural functionalism

Modern socialization, what is the function or role of modern education? Explores how schools socialize kids into modern values, universalism and meritocracy 

meritocracy

System that operates on the belief that everyone must earn power and success based on abilities and effort and not family connections or social class

Ex. i get into uni because i have good grades

Hidden curriculum

The mechanism of socialization, schools socialize implicitly, Obedience, rule following, punctuality

stratification

Educational stratification refers to the systematic ranking and division of students into different hierarchical layers of educational access, quality, and opportunity. It shapes how schools sort individuals—influencing their future jobs, income, and social mobility

Ex. kids in AP classes more likely to succeed

Selecting for Merit

electing who will end up in what jobs based on merit, positions need to be filled in order to keep social stability. Functionally important positions get high incentives like money and prestige

Ex. doctor makes bank because we need them

Schools scout and train the ones with potential and skills to be a doctor

neo-marxism

Contemporary ideas around marx and class struggle, schools reproduce equality and push capitalist values, Correspondence principle

Correspondence principle

School reflects capitalist workplace Ex do what you're told, shut up and listen, hierarchical order

Cultural capital

Familiarity with high status culture that allows someone to blend in with the powerful elite by speaking, behaving and having tastes similar to them. Signals that you are one of them. Poor people can learn but not as good as the ones born into it Ex. opera

Social capital

Who you know, your network of connections and how you get resources from them. Higher SES students have better connections Ex. i know a guy so i get hired

Human capital theory

Education is viewed as an investment in your personal worth and skills. Workplaces want high output per input, if you are worth it they will hire you

views workers not as simple labor costs, but as economic assets whose skills, knowledge, health, and education can be developed to increase productivity

Lack of skills matching new technology reduces HC

Opportunity costs

People accept opportunity costs because it’ll pay off later, investment in future

Ex. sitting in class because it's a better use of our time

credentialism

Schools act as credentialing institutions, more emphasis on credentials than your real skills since workplaces cant test your skills. School more like an entry ticket for workforce

Credential inflation

Post WW2, credentials don't mean as much as they used to because so many people have them. More graduates than available jobs

Leads to education requirements for jobs rising

Vertical mismatched

Schools produce more graduates than jobs available so graduates work lower jobs

Weak education-job link

School content doesn't apply or relate directly to jobs, employers don't test skills Occupational groups (medicine, law) limit competition to increase status and income vs. human capital Ex. want less lawyers

New institutionalism

Schools and world culture, schools viewed more as a national project concerning human rights and focuses on common values Ex. UN having requirements for schools

signalling theory

Since employers have limited info about applicants, skills and productivity are not directly observable. Credentials signal ability, Oh she graduated so clearly she can handle this

Labour queue theory

Employers rank applicants in the labour queue, credentials used to sort and screen applicants. More education = higher in queue

Early Modern Schooling

School started out as being church based, and only for the few. Education wasn't centralized or mandatory. Classrooms used to be organized based on knowledge level not age

By mid 19th century it becomes centralized, standardized, state regulated, compulsory attendance and teachers must be certified

Four hypotheses of why modern schooling emerged

Economics: need skilled and competent workforce

Technical complexity: need for basic literacies and technical skills 

Socialization: ensures children adopt a common value system

Nation Building: build national unity, language, civic norms

Enrollment and attendance

Schools used to just be one room with a teacher and focus on core subjects, most kids didn't even go because of farm work. Now that school is centralized and standardized, regular attendance is the norm, it's deviant if you don't attend. Longer schooling for more people

Reasons for Increased public spending on school

-industry, science, and skill demands means jobs require more cognitive skills

- credential inflation

School as a public good, everyone must be able to attend

Opportunity consciousness

an individual's or group's level of subjective awareness regarding the structural pathways, resources, and systemic limitations available to them to achieve success

Expanding curricula

Higher education used to only be for law or medicine, now there are so many pathways. Universities are the main pathway to most careers ex. baking major

Expanding functions

School becomes more than just about academic education, teaches kids about social issues, sex ed, gym. Schools have nurses and drivers ed, therapists, meal programs

Expanding alternatives

schools give more choices for form like french immersion, online school, private school, homeschooling

Exporting the school model

School model being used in other settings like prisons, parenting classes, leisure classes

streaming/tracking

Streaming is sorting students into different educational pathways based on perceived abilities. Each path you take narrows future options

How schools function as stratification

Kids are sometimes streamed based on social class

Higher ses kids academic path. Students benefit differently from some curriculum

Streaming also shapes learning opportunities

Ex. writing assignment, more difference between students and streams more important than between schools

Other countries do streaming younger

Stratification in post secondary

Mainly institutional prestige and field of study. Ex. harvard and engineering vs uwindsor and art history

Canada less institutional prestige than US, more focus on field

sponsored mobility

early selection by elites, ascribed credentials, traditional european systems

contest mobility

delayed, open competition, individual merit and achievement, America

Canadian post secondary

Very little difference in worth between uni, we have more public and less private. Your major matters more

American post secondary

Different leagues and types of uni, common to travel across country for uni, field matters less

accommodation

Schools like shopping malls try to accommodate everyone, everyone needs to pass and student failures are blamed on teachers. Even bad students encouraged to do post secondary

Schools accommodate with multiple intelligences considered, gifted programs, ESL, AP

Educational expansion paradox

The paradox that even though education expands it does not necessarily lead to lesser inequalities

Maximally maintained inequality

Also known as vertical stratification, advantaged groups seek higher levels of education, Ex. secondary school saturated, distinguish themselves by doing post secondary

Effectively maintained inequality

Horizontal stratification

Advantaged groups become more selective within the same level

ex. Both going to western but one is doing ivey

Direct inheritance

Things you directly inherit Ex. land, title, status

Indirect inheritance

Things one cannot inherit directly ex. an MBA degree

SES gradient

Shows how SES differences are visible before school even starts. This trend persists even when controlling for ethnicity, region, family structure. Also reproduced across time and nations

4 important characteristics of SES

Occur at all levels of schooling

They persist even if other demographics are considered → gradients show causal link between SES & educational attainment

Gradient is robust across different measures of education & SES (pattern shows regardless of measure you use)

SES gradient has persisted over time & space

Coleman report

Shows that student achievement is influenced by parents education income and status

Causes of inequality

Schools reduce inequality but not fully, rich still do better

In summer rich stay smart but poor aren't exposed to education so they get dumber

Family bg matters more in wealthier countries because in poorer countries school effects are smaller. In rich countries rich families learn how to play the game and work the system for their benefit

Primary mechanisms

Primary mechanisms directly affect a child’s ability to learn ex. Skills, readiness, Inherited intelligence, flynn effect, family based learning opportunities, better books and cultural access, tutoring, neighbourhood

secondary mechanisms

Secondary mechanisms Affect outcomes of education via choices, expectations, and sorting. This is independent of raw learning capacity

Ex. me and julia are both smart and have exactly the same skills. Why do i go to uni and she doesnt 

How does family background shape expectations and choices?

Rational choice/risk benefit framework

Education isn't just based on ability but also choice. Not everyone can afford to go to school some ppl have to drop out in 4th grade to run drugs and support their nana

Students and families assess risk vs benefit and make the best choice

Relative risk aversion

All families want to avoid downward mobility, but class position shapes what risks are worth taking

Ex. rich kid will take advanced courses, high risk high reward

Poor kid takes safer less demanding routes and avoids failure

Time discounting

Higher SES families can wait longer for a return on investment because they have money to fall back on

Lower SES families face immediate financial pressure and need quicker payoffs

Ex. i can go to school instead of finding a full time job right away because i have my mom and dad’s money to rely on, so i’m not starving and struggling to pay tuition

collective effervescence

Collective effervescence is a sociological concept coined by Émile Durkheim in 1912 that describes the intense energy, unity, and shared emotional awakening people feel when gathering for a common purpose