Abstract
Education is a distinct form of’ secondary socialization’. Educational Institutions are specifically created and legally sanctioned to transmit knowledge, skills and values; they also play an important part in determining people’s position in society. Although most contemporary societies place great stress on equality of opportunity, a great deal of sociological work has suggested that education not only reflects, but also helps to reproduce, inequalities of class, gender and ‘race’ discussed in earlier chapters. This chapter aims to illustrate how sociologists have examined how schools work and their relationship to wider society, It should help you understand:
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The significance of functionalist interactionist and Marxist theories to the development of the sociology of education
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The relationship between education, social class and social mobility in post-war Britain
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Ethnographic studies of stratification within schools and the influence of class, gender and ‘race’ on classroom interaction
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Sociological analyses of the effects of increasing marketization, competition and accountability in contemporary education
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Further Reading
Ball, S.J. Policy Making and Education, London, Routledge, 1990. A major study in the tradition of ‘policy sociology’ which raises key issues in terms of the impact of the ERA (1988).
Halsey, A.H., Lauder, H., Brown, P. and Stuart Wells, A. Education: Culture, Economy, Society, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997. This text provides an up-to-date and global compilation of various themes and perspectives within the sociology of education.
Macan Ghaill, M. The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexualities and Schooling, Buckingham, Open University Press, 1994. An engaging account of the complexities of male identities and the role schools play in the transformation of boys to men.
Foster, P., Gomm, P. and Hammersley, M. Constructing Educational Inequality, London, Falmer Press, 1996. A challenging and critical review of much of the research carried out in the sociology of education in the past half century.
Usher, R. and Edwards, R. Postmodernism and Education, London, Routledge, 1994. An accessible text which attempts to describe, explain and analyse education in relation to postmodern thought.
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© 1999 Robert C. Burgess and Andrew Parker
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Burgess, R.G., Parker, A. (1999). Education. In: Taylor, S. (eds) Sociology. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27552-6_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27552-6_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-67620-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-27552-6
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