1. Outline for Today’s Lecture: Sociology of Education
Introduction: What is the purpose of education?
Theories of Sociology of Education
Functionalist
Conflict
Bowles & Gintis
Randall Collins
Pierre Bourdieu
Interpretive/Symbolic Interactionist
Inequality and Schooling

2. Thought Question What is the purpose of education?
Why do we send kids to school? What do we expect and want them to learn?
Why would someone decide NOT to send their kid to school?

3. Bowles and Gintis: Correspondence Principle
“…by structuring social interactions and individual rewards to replicate the environment of the workplace”, schools are able to accomplish the goal of preparing “people for adult work rules by socializing people to function well and without complaint in the hierarchical structure of the modern corporation” (Bowles and Gintis 2002, see also 1976).

4. Bowles and Gintis: How Schools Reproduce Inequality
Channel students into different levels in the capitalist work hierarchy in a way that corresponds with their family background
Socialize students to have the skills and attitudes appropriate to those different levels
Legitimate or justify these processes of allocation and socialization as in the interest of all

5. Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp
“One teacher remarked that she hated September, because during the first month, ‘everything has to be done rigidly, and repeatedly, until they know exactly what they’re supposed to do.’ However ‘by January’, she said, ‘they know exactly what to do [during the day] and I don’t have to be after them all the time.’”

6. Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp
Gracey concludes: “Once out of the school system, young adults will more than likely find themselves working in large-scale bureaucratic organizations, perhaps on the assembly line in the factory, perhaps in the paper routines of the white collar occupations, where they will be required to submit to rigid routines imposed by “the company” which may make little sense to them…

7. Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp
“…Those who can operate well in this situation will be successful bureaucratic functionaries. Kindergarten, therefore, can be seen as preparing children not only for the participation in the bureaucratic organization of large school systems, but also for the large-scale occupational bureaucracies of modern societies.”

8. What is Cultural Capital?
Cultural capital is commonly defined as high-status cultural signals, such as attitudes, behaviours, preferences and credentials that are useful for distinguishing higher status from lower status individuals (Bourdieu 1977, DiMaggio 1982, Lamont and Lareau 1099, Eitle and Eitle 2002).

9. Effect of “cultural capital”
Kids in the U.S. that took classes in music, art, performance (dance), art history & appreciation, and music history & appreciation were:
3.2 times more likely to finish high school;
1.8 times more likely to begin university; and
1.4 times more likely to finish university compared to kids that did not take these classes (Aschaffenburg and Maas 1997).

10. Illiteracy in Global Perspective

11. Educational Attainment in Canada: Population 15 and over

12. Population 15 years and Older with University Degree, 1996

13. Postsecondary participation rates for Canadians aged and no longer in high school by household income,1998

14. Postsecondary participation rates for Canadians aged and no longer in high school by parents’ education 1998

15. Postsecondary participation rates for Canadians aged and no longer in high school, by household income and parents’ education, 1998

16. Predicted Probability of University Participation by Distance to University, Canada1999

17. Predicted Probability of University Participation by Income Tier and Distance to School, Canada1999

18. Canadian Parents’ Postsecondary Aspirations for Children and Saving Behaviour by Household Income, 1999

19. Increase in university undergraduates, aged 25 to 64, by top ten fields of study, 1991-2001
Field of study Percent
Business and commerce
Engineering
Elem, second, pre-primary teaching
Financial management
Computer science/applied math
Psychology
Economics
Nursing
Medical related subjects
Sociology

20. Unemployment Rate by Education Level, 2001