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The Future of the Schooled Society: The Transforming Culture of Education in Postindustrial Society

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Frontiers in Sociology of Education

Part of the book series: Frontiers in Sociology and Social Research ((FSSR,volume 1))

Abstract

The education revolution is profoundly transforming postindustrial culture, creating new types of knowledge and experts; new definitions of personal success and failure, intelligence, and human talent; a new workplace and conception of jobs; and new styles of parenting, political mobilization, and reach of mass religion. At the same time, educational achievement, degree attainment, and credentials have come to dominate social stratification and social mobility, superseding and delegitimizing all noneducational forms of status attainment. Four decades of sociological research points to a future society where education performance will be the singular dominant factor in social status attainment, and education will be one of the most transforming of social institutions for individuals and other social institutions. In fact, to a large extent this has already happened and an advanced version of the schooled society is evident in a number of nations. The prediction offered here is that the stage now is set for an intensification of both phenomena into the future. Thus, a full understanding of the consequences of the education revolution for postindustrial society is a major frontier facing the sociological investigation of education.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Most people who are still illiterate are living in very poor nations and seven out of ten are women (UNESCO 2002).

  2. 2.

    Cognitive will be used here instead of Meyer’s original 1977 formulation of socialization, as the former more accurately represents what schooling does, plus the latter is an older term now rarely used and conveys other unneeded meanings.

  3. 3.

    The distinction here between primary and secondary institutions applies to the difference in their role in creating society, not to the older sociological idea of face-to-face versus formally organized.

  4. 4.

    Torche also found some evidence suggesting that among the Americans who are earning postgraduate degrees, social origin again explains some portion of adult status. While yet to be replicated, the finding does raise speculation about the interaction between allocation processes and expansion of new educational degrees (see the following third future research suggestion).

  5. 5.

    Details about each of these examples can be found on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site under “Careers” November 13, 2008, with summaries and references from Wall Street Journal original articles.

  6. 6.

    The one small difference found was on job satisfaction for very highly educated people working in menial jobs.

  7. 7.

    In fact, this is so much so that modern militaries themselves prefer educational credentials as prior training to be an effective solider (Boesel et al. 1998).

  8. 8.

    See Dougherty 1988 for an account of similar shortcoming of functional and conflict perspectives.

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  1. Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16802-3203, USA

    David P. Baker

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  1. , Dept. Sociology, University Notre Dame, Flanner Hall 1017, Notre Dame, 46556, Indiana, USA

    Maureen T. Hallinan

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Baker, D.P. (2011). The Future of the Schooled Society: The Transforming Culture of Education in Postindustrial Society. In: Hallinan, M. (eds) Frontiers in Sociology of Education. Frontiers in Sociology and Social Research, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1576-9_2

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