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Relevance of sociology of education
Short essay on the hidden curriculum
Why a hidden curriculum should be encouraged in schools
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Recommended: Relevance of sociology of education
When talking about education system sociologists are referring to forms of education where people experience secondary socialisation which is the relearning of the norms and values learned during primary socialisation in the family. It is also viewed as an agent of social control where children are taught to conform to societies expectations and they are taught this through the hidden curriculum which is lessons which are not part of the national curriculum which the government says are needed to be learnt but are lessons such as be punctual to your classes and how to be obedient.
The term meritocracy refers to a society that is governed and led by the best and brightest, and in which opportunities in education, employment, social mobility, political office
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An Oxford mobility study suggests that if more people became middle class in recent years, it may have happened due to the creation of more room in the upper classes rather than an actual improvement of their class. In other words, it is not that the majority of middle class climbed into upper classes or slid into lower ones, instead, what happened was that middle class preserved their position and working-class families or individuals filled certain middle-class spaces that were open due to the restructure of the market. For meritocracy to be, it need an unequal society, in which the best and brightest - normally from the higher classes - are able to climb up the "greasy pole of success" (Sennett 2002) while the rest can be left behind.
Saunders (1998) suggests that not only do brighter people tend to perform better in exams but they also tend to continue performing better once they enter the labour market. This assumption led Saunders to conclude that people can work his/her way out of their low social and economic class position if they are able and motivated
Paul Krugman, in his article “The Death of Horatio Alger” suggests that social mobility among classes in the United States is becoming more difficult by the day. Krugman explains that the idea of the American Dream and moving from class to class was once semi easily attainable; but is now seemingly impossible. Although America is thought of as a classless society, the country has a whole is moving into a caste society run by the rich.
Social and economic class is something we as Americans like to push into the back of our minds. Sometimes recognizing our class either socially or economically can almost be crippling. When individuals recognize class, limitations and judgment confront us. Instead, we should know it is important to recognize our class, but not let it define and limit us. In the essay, “Class in America”, Gregory Mantsios, founder and director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education at the School of Professional Studies, brings to light the fact that Americans don’t talk about class and class mobility. He describes the classes in extremes, mainly focusing on the very sharp divide between the extremely wealthy and extremely poor. In contrast, George
In this paper, Gregory Mantsios compares and contrasts class in America. He uses facts to support his point that things are getting better for the upper class, while things are increasingly getting worse for the middle and lower classes. Throughout the paper, he demonstrates comparing and contrasting by using “myth” versus “reality”.
I consider my family and I to be in the middle class category and from being in the middle class, and the facts that are provided, the middle class is slowly declining as the time goes on. I believe that a lot of people go beyond the middle class to the upper middle class or people go below the middle class to the poor category. I’ve found a graph from Forbes that compares the rates of all classes from 1979 to 2014. From observing the graph my initial hypothesis was right. The middle class has declined by 6.8% between the years 1979-2014.
Growing up in The United States, people are given this idea of an American Dream. Almost every child is raised to believe they can become and do anything they want to do, if one works hard enough. However, a majority of people believe that there is a separation of class in American society. Gregory Mantsios author of “Class in America-2009” believes that Americans do not exchange thoughts about class division, although most of people are placed in their own set cluster of wealth. Also political officials are trying to get followers by trying to try to appeal to the bulk of the population, or the middle class, in order to get more supporters. An interesting myth that Mantsios makes in his essay is how Americans don’t have equal opportunities.
Members of racial minority groups like the majority aspire to possess material success in life but are void of the means to achieve those (McNulty & Bellair, 2003). The same can be said of the lower class, whose low socio-economic status limit their opportunities for tertiary education which could potentially be imperative in securing lucrative jobs (Curry & Spergel, 1988). Therefore, to satisfy their appetite for success, these people adapt to strain by treading the path of innovators- using illegitimate means to actualise their positively valued goals. Moreover, with global... ... middle of paper ... ...
According to Henslin social, mobility is the movement of individuals, families and groups from one social position to another (Henslin, 2015, p 237-239). It can be viewed in terms of distribution of resources and power among the different social stratification and its effect on the people involved. Stratification is a ranking system for groups of people that continue unequal rewards and life chances in society. Through stratification, society categorizes people and distributes valued resources based upon these categories (Henslin, 2015,p190). The social status of a person is determined by his or her work how much money they have earned and how they move their way up the social class. Social mobility occurs whenever people move across social class boundaries, from one level to another. Mobility can be up or down on the social class ladder but the American Dream is only upward mobility on the social class ladder. The people in the United States are broken down into classes the rich people on top the poor people in the bottom and the middle class in the
I do not agree with this concept. Many people do not end up being on the same area of the social class ladder as their family is or once was. I believe that social mobility is the main reason as to why the American Dream is no longer available as it once was. There are three different types of social mobility: intergenerational mobility, structural mobility, and exchange mobility. Intergenerational mobility is defined as "the change that family members making in social class from one generation to the next" (Henslin, 237). An example of this would be if a child ended up being part of a different social class than that of their parent 's. Structural mobility is "the movement up of down the social class ladder that is due more to changes in the structure of society than to the actions of individuals" (Henslin, 237). Simply put, structural mobility means that even if an individual is hard working and very intelligent, they still may not end up moving up on the social class ladder. Structural mobility is a huge reason as to why the American Dream is not achievable for all Americans
The U.S. Educational system has historically divided into two objective groups. The first objective focuses on increasing opportunity. The second objective focuses on stabilizing an unequal society. The objective of increasing opportunity has mainly emphasized on practition more than discussions of schooling. Thomas Jefferson implemented a plan in 1779, it promised the laboring class more opportunity to attend higher education. The point of the plan was to rake out the brilliant from the poor class, and add them to the prospering upper class. The goal of the plan was to divide the youth
America’s upper class has been getting richer since the past three decades, and we have still not found a way to stop this. We have been unable to find a way to distribute America’s wealth equally, so we can have a decent lower class and a good middle class. Inequality has caused many people to struggle in various ways, but their is alway another side to the story.
“There is a wide belief that Americans are less class conscious than Europeans” (Vanneman). Because the United States consumes more than any other country, the global economy relies on our consumption. “The middle class is an ambiguous social classification, broadly reflecting the ability to lead a comfortable life” (Kharas). During the industrial revolution, there were aristocrat traditions in royalty, class, and rank in Europe. In America, the industrial revolution was coming of a wealthy nation. The United States is has a two party system, Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats wanted more people in the middle class, mainly blacks and immigrants. The Republicans wanted to protect the people who were already in the middle class, whites, and successful working people. The middle class in America is sometimes threatened by its own success. “The definition of the middle class is the people of generic roots like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Robert Johnson, and Sam Walton can become billionaires” (Hockenberry). Not everyone who is in the middle class can become a billionaire and using their stories as an example is the death of the American
This essay will explore the relationship between education and society from a sociological perspective, the topics I have chosen to explore is Marxism, functionalism, education and class, feminism and the last topic is a very general topic which enhances our understanding of sociology and the world we live in. I chose the topics above as they offer an interesting viewpoint of education and sociology; also the topics above interlink this makes it easier to understand the contributions from a sociological perspective. Furthermore, to enhance my understanding of the topics I have found readings from other modules which offer a different perspective of education and society this will enable me to answer the question much more concisely as other viewpoints can challenge the topics I have stated above.
Throughout United States history, power of the upper class has been maintained by assigning “different” people a lower, less desirable, place in society, predisposing them to social inequalities. Social stratification creates a system of social classes in which people born into a specific class have different “life chances” (Macionis 28). These classes are somewhat maintained by the fact that people tend to “take care of their own,” meaning that members of the upper class generally favor other members of the upper class and offer opportunities for advancement in society to those they feel most similar to (Doran). People from lower socioeconomic classes generally experience less life opportunity, have increased poverty and therefore have increased health issues, increased crime, decreased education, and decreased job opportunities (Macionis 38-39) These people are also often politically alienated, and therefore also lack the appropriate government influences to change their current status (Macionis 39).
Finally, it is a general opinion among many that academic performance is a manner of will and determination of an individual rather than their socioeconomic status. For instance, in schools of higher learning, there are a lot of students from richer backgrounds who do not perform well as compared to those perceived to be from poor backgrounds (Sacerdote, 2002). Research has shown that while socioeconomic status may influence the availability or access to learning materials, it is the student’s personal determination to excel that determines the kind of lifestyle they
Research reveals that the higher the social class, the higher the levels of educational achievement are likely to be. The children of parents in higher social classes are more likely to stay on in post compulsory education, more likely to achieve examination passes when at school, and more likely to gain university entrance. These features painted a true picture of British education in the twentieth century and can be argued to follow this trend today. However, whether there has been any reduction in the inequalities is more debatable, but some research suggests that these inequalities are as great as ever, despite the overall improvements within the education system. Many researchers argue that IQ tests are biased in favour of the middle class, since members of this group largely construct them.