Chapter 11: Education and Religion: Answering ‘What?’ and ‘Why?’
Chapter Overview
Chapter 11 examines the social institutions of education and religion. The chapter opens with a theoretical discussion of education, drawing from symbolic interaction, rational choice, structural functional, and conflict theorists’ perspectives on education. Next, the authors discuss various roles in the formal education system and problems associated with the roles. This section focuses on student and peer culture, but the authors also discuss the role of teachers and administrators. The authors then distinguish between the formal education systems, focusing on schools as a bureaucracy, and the informal structures of school, which highlights the hidden curriculum and the educational climate of schools. Next the authors detail how the educational institution interacts with other social institutions, paying specific attention to the relationships between schools and families, schools and communities, and schools and the federal government. The chapter turns to an examination of education as a road to opportunity. The authors describe the findings of The Coleman Report, The Jencks Study, and the relationship between early childhood education and educational success. In their discussion of these findings, the authors illustrate the role of testing, tracking, and school funding in perpetuating inequalities. The chapter concludes by introducing global and national policies regarding educational reform. Specific to the US, the authors highlight the importance of the Nation at Risk study and No Child Left Behind in shaping educational policies to come.
Chapter 12: Politics and Economics: Penetrating Power and Privilege
Chapter Overview
Chapter 13 includes an extensive analysis of the interconnections of micro, meso, and macro levels of the political system. The subtitle, “Penetrating Power,” focuses both on how power penetrates our lives and on how a sociological lens can help us penetrate the meanings and consequences of power and what power means in the lives of people. The chapter focuses on politics, but it also connects to the economic systems of privilege and power. Finally, the question of why nations go to war is examined.
In at least two paragraphs answer each question
1- In the text, Japan was described as a “graying” population. What does that term mean? What can the United States do to avoid the same fate as Japan? Give at least two examples to illustrate your answer.
2- Define and describe what sociologists mean by social change. Provide at least two examples to illustrate your answer.
