Chapter 12: Education and Religion

education - social institution society provides members with important knowledge

• basic facts, job skills, cultural norms and values

• state and local politics heavily influence education system

• schools teach nationalistic pride, prepare for workplace

• class difference in education creates amenable labor force

• schools with more coercive, rules-focused authority structures tend to serve working-class, minority students

  • open authority structures that rarely monitor students encourage internal motivation, tend to serve affluent white-collar, white students

homeschooling - children taught by parents, guardians, team of adults who oversee educational development

literacy - ability to read and write

• baseline of education

tracking - dividing students into groups that receive different instruction on basis of perceived similarities in ability or attainment

• why schooling has little effect on existing social inequalities

social reproduction - ways schools pepetuate social and economic inequalities across generations

hidden curriculum - what students learn in school has nothing directly to do with formal content of lessons

• mechanism social reproduction occurs

  • may further inequality

  • ex. prestigious schools teach to challenge and question, public schools teach to obey

• spend long hours in school to prepare for world of work

cultural capital - non-financial social assets promote social mobility beyond economic means

• ex. education, intellect, style of speech, dress, physical appearance

social capital - institutions, relationships, norms shape quality and quantity of society’s social interactions

intelligence - level of intellectual ability

• difficult to measure or define

intelligence quotient (IQ) - score attained on tests of symbolic or reasoning abilities

• conceptual and computational problems

functional literacy - reading and writing skills beyond basic level sufficient to manage everyday activities and employment tasks

• prose literacy - ability to look at short text to get small piece of uncomplicated information

• document literacy - ability to locate and use information in forms, schedules, charts, graphs

• quantitative literacy - ability to do simple addition

standardized testing - students in state take same test under same conditions to measure students’ academic performance

sick role - social role of sickness, treated in a way that may give some advantages

• stigma if one does not perfectly abide by that role

  • ex. “faking” being sick

• ex. disabilities, people given sick days, infantalizaiton

pluralist theory - consider how various orgs and interest groups influence policy discussions through intense lobbying

• ex. American Medical Association, insurance agencies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, patient advocate groups

elite/managerial theory - physicians form of elites and patients are masses

• physician medical training causes objectify patients and reify hegemonic power structures

• not trusting patients opinions about health, seeing pateints issues through sexist, racist, homophobic lens

class/marxist theory - medical industrial complex fights to maintain power by influencing gov regulation

• US meddicine increasingly commercialized and dominated by extremely powerful insurance companies

• steady increase in profits for medical companies

• under capitalism, primary focus of health care ensure workers healthy enough to perform labor and consume material goods

postmodern theory - power embodied within every aspect of daily practices of medical providers, hold vast power over patients due to professionalization

• similar to elite theory

institutionalist theory - consider relationship between state, medical profession, various bureaucratic orgs

• state gives medical profession elite status

• physicials negotiate status between hospitals, insurance agencies, drug companies, federal agencies, large health care conglomeraates often work for

• corporate culture changes how doctors work by overemphasizing efficiency and profit-seeking

religion - set of beliefs adhered to by members of community

• incorporating symbols regarded with sense of awe or wonder together with ritual practices

• do not universally involve belief in supernatural entitites

• form of culture that involves ritualized beliefs

  • behaviors and practices that symbolize practice of religion

    • ex. taking communion, sign of the cross, Lord’s Prayer, praying facing the east

• provides sense of purpose and meaning

theism - belief in one or more supernatural deities

alienation - humans attribute culturally created values and norms to devine forces or gods because don’t understand own history

• ex. Ten Commandments

• (Ludwig Feuerbach)

sacred - inspires awe or reverence among those who believe in given set of religious ideas

• ex. totem

profane - belongs to mundane, everyday world

secular thinking - worldly thinking, particularly seen in rise of science, technology, rational thought

secularization - process religious belief and involvement decline, weakening of social and political power of religious organizations

religious economy - religions like organizations in competition with another for followers

church - large established religious bodies

• formal bureaucratic structure and hierarchy of religious officials

• represent traditional face of religion, integrated within existing institutional order

• most adherents born into and grow up within church

• ex. Roman Catholic Church

sect - religious subgroup breaks away from larger organization

• follows own unique set of rules and principles

• smaller, less highly organized groups of committed believers usually in protest against established church

• revival - aim to discover “true way”, change surrounding society or withdraw from it into communities

• few or no officials, members regarded as equal

• usually not born into it

denomination - sect cooled down become institutionalized body rather than activist protest group

• sects survive over any period of time inevitably become dominations

• recognized as legitimate by churches and exist alongside them, cooperate harmoniously with them

cults - loosely knit and transient of religious organizations

• individuals who reject what they see as values of outside society

• religious innovation rather than revival

• individual experience, bringing like-minded people together

• form around influence of inspirational leader

religious nationalism - linking of strongly held religious convictions with beliefs about peoples social and political destiny

• reject notion that religion, gov, politics should be separate and call fro revival of traditional religious beliefs directly embodied in nation and leadership

• represent strong reaction against impact of tech and economic modernization on local religious beliefs

• accept aspects of modern life, but emphasize strict interpretation of religious values and completely reject notion of secularization

• may turn violent as they seek to impose vision of world on others

• ex. Islamic Republic of Iran

liberation theology - activist form of Catholicism combines Catholic beliefs with passion for social justice for poor in Central and south America and in Africa