This comprehensive reader in the sociology of education examines important topics and exposes students to examples of sociological research on schools. Drawing from classic and contemporary scholarship, the editors have chosen readings that examine current issues and reflect diverse theoretical approaches to studying the effects of schooling on individuals and society.
Tye identifies what she terms "deep structure" in the educational society, elements of life that are continually and consistently present in a school environment. She argues that transitory, surface efforts to change education will fail because of the deep structure inherent in school culture.
McNeil traces the poor quality of high school instruction t the tensions between the social control purposes of schooling and the schools' educational goals.
This book examines the cause of the student achievement gap, suggesting that the prevailing emphasis on socioeconomic factors, sociocultural influences, and teacher quality is misplaced. The cause of the achievement gap is not differences in parenting styles, or the economic advantages of middle-class parents, or differences in the quality of teachers. Instead, schools present learning tasks and award grades in ways that inadvertently undermine the self-efficacy, engagement, and effort of low-performing students, causing demoralization and exacerbating differences in achievement that are seen to exist as early as kindergarten. This process systematically maintains and widens initial gaps in achievement that might otherwise be expected to disappear over the K-12 years. Misdiagnosis of the nature of the achievement gap has led to misguided solutions. The author draws upon a range of research studies to support this view and to offer recommendations for improvement. “/div>div
Examines the everyday experiences of high school seniors as they choose their colleges and demonstrates that college choice is a more complex social and organizational reality than has been previously understood.
Selected by the American School Board Journal as a “Must Read” book when it was first published and named one of 60 “Books of the Century” by the University of South Carolina Museum of Education for its influence on American education, this provocative, carefully documented work shows how tracking—the system of grouping students for instruction on the basis of ability—reflects the class and racial inequalities of American society and helps to perpetuate them. For this new edition, Jeannie Oakes has added a new Preface and a new final chapter in which she discusses the “tracking wars” of the last twenty years, wars in which Keeping Track has played a central role. From reviews of the first edition:“Should be read by anyone who wishes to improve schools.”—M. Donald Thomas, American School Board Journal“[This] engaging [book] . . . has had an influence on educational thought and policy that few works of social science ever achieve.”—Tom Loveless in The Tracking Wars“Should be read by teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents.”—Georgia Lewis, Childhood Education“Valuable. . . . No one interested in the topic can afford not to attend to it.”—Kenneth A. Strike, Teachers College Record
Self renewing schools where students and staff are involved in ongoing inquiry has long since been an ideal in education. The book draws upon research on successful and unsuccessful school improvement programmes to generate a practical strategy for school improvement that can be used by schools and local education authorities with a high probability of success.
With modern globalization and technological improvements, people from different cultural backgrounds have more opportunity to interact. These differences can be seen across various communities, from familial to organizational, so peacekeeping strategies become essential when navigating global communities. Since these various cultures collect in schools, teaching students to become peacemakers by encouraging skills that include intercultural communication, intercultural sensitivity, and intercultural competence are essential for structuring a peaceful and harmonious society. Empowering Multiculturalism and Peacebuilding in Schools is an essential research publication that provides comprehensive research on peacebuilding and multiculturalism in terms of educational organizations as well as the skills that need to be taught to students in order to promote peaceful interaction and inclusivity. Featuring a wide range of topics such as cyberbullying, restorative instruction, and intercultural education, this book is ideal for teachers, academicians, administrators, principals, professional development experts, curriculum designers, researchers, managers, and students.
Most of us assume that public schools in America are unequal—that the quality of the education varies with the location of the school and that as a result, children learn more in the schools that serve mostly rich, white kids than in the schools serving mostly poor, black kids. But it turns out that this common assumption is misplaced. As Douglas B. Downey shows in How Schools Really Matter, achievement gaps have very little to do with what goes on in our schools. Not only do schools not exacerbate inequality in skills, they actually help to level the playing field. The real sources of achievement gaps are elsewhere. A close look at the testing data in seasonal patterns bears this out. It turns out that achievement gaps in reading skills between high- and low-income children are nearly entirely formed prior to kindergarten, and schools do more to reduce them than increase them. And when gaps do increase, they tend to do so during summers, not during school periods. So why do both liberal and conservative politicians strongly advocate for school reform, arguing that the poor quality of schools serving disadvantaged children is an important contributor to inequality? It’s because discussing the broader social and economic reforms necessary for really reducing inequality has become too challenging and polarizing—it’s just easier to talk about fixing schools. Of course, there are differences that schools can make, and Downey outlines the kinds of reforms that make sense given what we know about inequality outside of schools, including more school exposure, increased standardization, and better and fairer school and teacher measurements. ? How Schools Really Matter offers a firm rebuke to those who find nothing but fault in our schools, which are doing a much better than job than we give them credit for. It should also be a call to arms for educators and policymakers: the bottom line is that if we are serious about reducing inequality, we are going to have to fight some battles that are bigger than school reform—battles against the social inequality that is reflected within, rather than generated by—our public school system.
Robert Dreeben is one of the most widely read and influential sociologists of education of the past half-century and the author of several important books, one of which (the 1968 classic On What Is Learned in School) has been republished by Percheron Press. In this volume inspired by Dreeben's work and career, chapters written by Dreeben's colleagues, students, and even one of his mentors present the latest academic research on schools and schooling and examine recent and ongoing school reform policies. The contributors address schooling and socialization, school organization and effects, teaching as an occupation, and other areas of sociology of education where Dreeben's research has had a profound impact. A concluding chapter by Dreeben discusses the field of sociology of education as a whole.
