Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 1K views

    Sociology Project 3

    Uploaded by

    api-455752755
    Education plays an important role in society according to different sociological perspectives. Functionalists see education as socializing students and teaching them social norms, helping society function smoothly. Conflict theorists view education as reinforcing inequality, with disadvantaged groups receiving poorer education leading to lower jobs. Symbolic interactionists believe that a teacher's expectations of a student, through labeling them, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, impacting the student's performance.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Sociology Project 3

    Uploaded by

    api-455752755
    1K views2 pages
    Education plays an important role in society according to different sociological perspectives. Functionalists see education as socializing students and teaching them social norms, helping society function smoothly. Conflict theorists view education as reinforcing inequality, with disadvantaged groups receiving poorer education leading to lower jobs. Symbolic interactionists believe that a teacher's expectations of a student, through labeling them, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, impacting the student's performance.

    Original Title

    sociology project 3

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Education plays an important role in society according to different sociological perspectives. Functionalists see education as socializing students and teaching them social norms, helping society function smoothly. Conflict theorists view education as reinforcing inequality, with disadvantaged groups receiving poorer education leading to lower jobs. Symbolic interactionists believe that a teacher's expectations of a student, through labeling them, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, impacting the student's performance.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    1K views2 pages

    Sociology Project 3

    Uploaded by

    api-455752755
    Education plays an important role in society according to different sociological perspectives. Functionalists see education as socializing students and teaching them social norms, helping society function smoothly. Conflict theorists view education as reinforcing inequality, with disadvantaged groups receiving poorer education leading to lower jobs. Symbolic interactionists believe that a teacher's expectations of a student, through labeling them, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, impacting the student's performance.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    Maya Doyle

    Dr. Mark Silkey

    Sociology 1113

    18 November 2018

    A Sociological Look at Education

    Education is an important institution of society. It helps ensure that people are qualified

    for their jobs. It also teaches people about previous accomplishments of humanity. A high-

    quality school can improve a person’s chances at getting a good job later in their life.

    First, a functionalist view on education looks at how education contributes to the stability

    of society. This sociological perspective believes that education helps to socialize the next

    generation of a society. Classrooms teach students about the history of their nation and

    occasionally their ethnic heritages. As students must be on time to their classes, they learn to be

    punctual to events. Also, students must develop a good discipline and manners to avoid getting

    punished by officials in school. Using this perspective, education impacts daily life as people

    must have an education to be a functional member of society. The punctuality of a school day is

    an easy way for people to learn to keep track of time and arrive on time to public functions, such

    as a job. People who have little or no education are not exposed to the norms of society. These

    people may be unable to get a good job or create a family. Thus, functionalists believe that in

    order to keep society stable, education must be present.

    Second, a conflict theorist’s view on education believes that education helps keep

    inequality in society. People who are poor, part of a minority group, or female tend to have

    access to poorer quality educational facilities than people who are rich, part of a majority group,

    or male. In addition, conflict theorists believe that education simply produces more workers for
    industries in society. To a conflict theorist, people in disadvantaged groups in society will almost

    always get menial education, which will lead to menial jobs. Advantageous groups in society

    will almost always receive high quality education, which will pave the way for desirable careers.

    Daily, people will work as hard as they can on their education. Most people will remain

    oblivious to the fact that their placement in society has already determined the quality of

    education they will receive and what job they will have in the future. Therefore, conflict theorists

    view education as contributing to the inequality found in society.

    Lastly, a symbolic interaction view on education believes that the expectations teachers

    place on students impact the performance of students. A teacher who places high expectations on

    a student will lead that student to performing well on achievement tests. In contrast, a student

    will perform poorly if their teacher has low expectations of them. This phenomenon is called the

    self-fulfilling prophecy. When a teacher applies the label of “smart” or “below average” to a

    student, the student will adjust their behavior to match that label. A student may begin to work

    hard on class work and answer the teacher’s questions in class if they are labeled as “smart”.

    Meanwhile, another student labeled as “below average” may begin to ignore their homework. In

    short, a symbolic interactionist believes that how people react to their education will depend

    upon how their teacher has labeled them.

    In summary, the educational institution in society is very important to society.

    Functionalists believe it helps to keep society stable. Conflict theorists, on the other hand,

    believe that education keeps inequality in society. Finally, symbolic interactionists believe that

    students will only do as good or as poor as their teachers believe they can.

    You might also like