Chapter 8 - The Social and Cultural Contexts of Schooling: Their Influence and Consequence

The big topic of this chapter that I retained are the social agents in society. They are the school, the family, technology, the workplace, the print media, the arts, sports, the electronic media, the peer group, the neighbourhood, the community, and the church. The functionalist perspective, the conflict theory perspective, and the interactionist perspective are the three perspectives on the purposes and expectations of schooling. The functionalist perspective sees education as essential for an orderly and efficient society and key concepts of this perspective are socialization and other functions. Their curriculum is official and hidden. The conflict theory perspective sees the educational system as perpetuating social inequality and key concepts of this perspective are the prestige hierarchy of the schools and the cultural capital. The interactionist perspective sees education as an interaction in the social setting of the school and key concepts of this perspective are labeling and self-fulfilling prophecies. There are a lot of statistics from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and their diagrams are very interesting to analyze. The U.S. population is composed of mostly white, non-Hispanic people. After that, in order, are the Black non-Hispanic people, the Hispanics, the Asian/Pacific Islanders, and the Native Americans. The fastest growing minority in the U.S. are the Hispanic Americans. Most people believe that an equal education opportunity for everyone is impossible in the United States.

~DaNo~