Lecture 3 - Education

Education

  • Develop one’s capacity for critical thinking, self-understanding, and self-reliance

Formal education

  • Received in accredited schools during formal teaching sessions

Conflict theory

  1. Latent function
  • Hidden curriculum teaches students their suitable or “proper” place in society according to their socioeconomic status and gender
  • Argues that school is a place where students are trained to endure the subordination of alienating work

Feminist approach

  • Schools socialize boys and girls differently (reinforces sexism)

Functionalism

  • Focuses on manifest functions of education
  • Human capital theory proposes that wage differences in a society reflect differences in the value
  • Lack of qualifications contributes to disproportionate unemployment for Indigenous people in Canada

Symbolic interactionism

  • Proposes that schools and universities build cultural capital
  • Teaches how students should behave, or dress in order to be successful