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Why do you think education is an important social institution in society?

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Why do you think education is an important social institution in society?

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Do you agree that school perpetuates social inequality? Why or why not?

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Do you agree that school perpetuates social inequality? Why or why not?

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Social situations and relationships determine how we present ourselves and act toward other people. We talk to our friends differently compared to how we talk to our teachers or grandparents, for example. We also present ourselves differently when we watch TV comfortably at home compared to when we go out, e.g. to the opera.

We usually take these specific ways of self-presentation and social action for granted and may not think about it. However, a whole sociological theory concerns itself with these everyday interactions. This perspective is called symbolic interactionism.

We will discuss symbolic interactionism theory.

Then, we will consider examples of symbolic interactionism.

We will consider George Herbert Mead's symbolic interactionism.

We will look at other symbolic interactionism sociologists.

Finally, we will summarize the importance of symbolic interactionism.

Symbolic Interactionism: Theory and Meaning

Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory and perspective based on micro-level observations. It was developed by Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead, and its focus is the interactions and relationships between individuals of society.

The theory of symbolic interactionism emerged after functionalism and conflict theory and is different from these, as it switches the focus from large-scale social events and trends to personal interpretations and meanings.

Symbolic interactionists believe that people communicate with each other through language and symbols, and one can make sense of society through examining this. For symbolic interactionists, people are actively shaping society rather than being shaped by it (Herman and Reynolds, 1994).

All interactionists believe in the importance of everyday interactions and meaningful objects in humans' lives. These can be material things, relationships, other people, actions and symbols.

Symbolic Interactionism: Examples of Symbols

Why are symbols so important? Let's look at some examples of symbols from the lens of symbolic interactionism.

Symbols are interpreted in the same way by all members of society, as they have a shared social meaning. In this way, they form the social values, norms and rules of society. Symbols used by social groups can also communicate certain beliefs specific to that group to the rest of society. Symbols, thus, can both create a sense of unity and a sense of diversity in society.

An example of a widely used symbol is a form of nonverbal communication, such as a salute. A salute symbolizes respect in the US and in many other countries. There might be societies in the world, however, which understand this gesture differently (Masuda et al. 2008).

Did you know that the NBA has a regulation on what basketball players can wear off the court, on official occasions representing their team and the league (Crowe and Herman 2005)? This is another example of the use of symbols: dress codes.

This is not just present in sports; many American schools regulate how the students can and cannot dress for class, some even require uniforms. Similarly, professional settings often regulate how someone may dress.

Sociologists argue that symbols often determine our personal relationships with others and thus separate us from animals. Family relationships and norms surrounding them come from symbolism. Through them, we 'know' how we should behave in the presence of a teacher vs. in the presence of our sibling, and helps us understand what we are allowed to say to our boss vs. to our uncle.

Let us now look at the work of key symbolic interactionist theorists. We will briefly look at their most important arguments. If you wish to know more about their lives and careers, you can find detailed information in our explanations under 'key theorists'.

George Herbert Mead's Symbolic Interactionism

George Herbert Mead is often referred to as the father of symbolic interactionism, even though his student, Herbert Blumer, came up with the term for the new sociological perspective.

Mead was a professor at the University of Chicago, where he did research on small-scale events and people's everyday interactions. His findings became increasingly popular as many sociologists worldwide turned away from large-scale studies that focused on grand social trends and patterns.

Mead and the Development of the Self

Mead (1934) directed the focus of his micro-sociology on the development of the self. He identified three stages of the process: the preparatory stage, the play stage and the game stage.

The preparatory stage is the period in children's lives when they simply imitate the family members around them. Through imitation, they learn about the symbols of society, such as gestures and words of basic human communication. An example of this is learning that waving means "hello" or "goodbye".

In the play stage, children already understand the basic symbols of society, and they start using them and pretending to be other people. They pretend to be doctors, patients, mothers, fairy tale characters etc. as they play. Role-playing is crucial in the play stage, according to Mead.

At the game stage, children can differentiate between social situations and relationships. They are aware of their own social position and the social position of others around them. When they interact with others, they act according to this knowledge. Mead argued that children's behavior at this stage is affected by their awareness of what he called 'the generalized other'.

Symbolic Interactionism: Key Sociologists

After Mead came many more influential sociologists who developed (and to a certain extent, even transformed) symbolic interactionism. We are going to discuss three key symbolic interactionist sociologists: Herbert Blumer, Charles H. Cooley and Erving Goffman.

Herbert Blumer (1900 - 1987)

Herbert Blumer was Mead's student, credited with coining the term 'symbolic interactionism'. He was also the one to clarify what the theory was built on. He stated that symbolic interactionism is concerned with how humans interpret the meaning of different objects and acts they come across in society (1969).

Charles H. Cooley (1864 - 1929)

Charles H. Cooley is also thought to be a founder of symbolic interactionism. He developed his theory of how people's sense of self develops through social interactions, and argued that people develop a sense of self by interpreting the reactions of others to them. Cooley named this the 'looking-glass self' theory (1902). There are three stages of the development of the looking-glass self:

1. People imagine how their behavior appears to others. For example, they can think others perceive them as smart or boring.

2. People observe the reactions of others and make conclusions on how others evaluate them. For example, they may think others like them for being smart, or dislike them for being boring.

3. People develop a self-concept and start to have feelings about themselves based on how they interpret other's reactions. For example, people might develop a positive sense of self if they realize others like them because they appear as smart.

Through the three stages, people view themselves in the eyes of others. Cooley pointed out that this process starts in childhood, but goes on for the rest of people's lives. They continue to observe how others react to them in everyday situations and shape their sense of self.

Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

Erving Goffman also focused on symbols and the development and presentation of the self. He used dramaturgical analysis for his study of people and their interactions.

Goffman (1958) looked at people as theatrical performers, performing in their everyday lives as actors on a stage. This analogy helps us not only understand how people improvise roles in social situations, but how they present a certain image of themselves that changes according to how they interact and with whom.

For example, if we are at a party with our friends we might present a friendly, relaxed image while if we are at the bank trying to get a loan we're likely to present a serious, responsible side of ourselves.

Symbolic Interactionist Methodology

Symbolic interactionists do micro-sociology. Qualitative research methods are preferred for this type of research, as it provides more layered and personal insights into issues. Symbolic interactionists often use participant observation and in-depth, informal interviews to understand the meaning of actions and symbols in their research subjects' lives and relationships.

Constructivism and Symbolic Interactionism

Constructivism is a theory developed from symbolic interactionism. It argues that reality is simply what people make it to be through their interpretation of interactions.

Constructivists believe that people have created social constructs based on their relationship to others, and the social constructs that have lasted over time are now the symbols of society known by all members.

For example, deviance is defined in different ways in different societies. Members of each society all know what they regard as deviant and what the punishment is for it. However, their definition is a social construction based on the historical understanding of deviance in that particular community, and not an absolute definition.

Importance of Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism is an extremely important perspective in sociology. It was the first sociological approach that concerned itself with the everyday and the mundane of human behavior and interaction rather than the grand patterns of society.

Symbolic interactionists point out that the narrow focus of their research makes it more valuable than other types of sociological work. They also claim that by working so closely on human relationships and communication, one adopts a subjective point of view and can produce theories from the perspective of the research subjects.

Interestingly, it is these two aspects of symbolic interactionism that draws the most criticism. Many criticize it for being too subjective, thus harming the validity of one's research. Others find issues with the extremely narrow focus of symbolic interactionist research due to issues of generalizability. They claim it is impossible to apply such small-scale studies to the whole of society.

Despite the criticism, symbolic interactionism is one of the three biggest sociological theories (alongside functionalism and conflict theory) and its significance in conducting studies and developing ground-breaking theories cannot be underplayed.

Check out 'Evaluation of Interactionism' for more analysis!

Symbolic Interactionism - Key takeaways

Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective based on micro-level observations. Symbolsare interpreted in the same way by all members of society, as they have a shared social meaning.

George Herbert Mead is often referred to as the father of symbolic interactionism, even though it was his student, Herbert Blumer, who came up with the term for the new sociological perspective.

Symbolic interactionists do micro-sociology. Qualitative research methods are preferred for this type of research, as it provides more layered and personal insights into issues.

Constructivism was developed from symbolic interactionism. It is a theory that argues that reality is simply what people make it to be through their interpretation of interactions.

The biggest criticism towards symbolic interactionism is that it is very subjective.

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Social situations and relationships determine how we present ourselves and act toward other people. We talk to our friends differently compared to how we talk to our teachers or grandparents, for example. We also present ourselves differently when we watch TV comfortably at home compared to when we go out, e.g.

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Symbolic interactionism is a social theoretical framework associated with George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) and Max Weber (1864-1920).

It is a perspective that sees society as the product of shared symbols, such as language. The social world is therefore constructed by the meanings that individuals attach to events and social interactions, and these symbols are transmitted across the generations through language.

A central concept of symbolic interactionists is the Self, which allows us to calculate the effects of our actions.

Symbolic interactionism theory has been criticized because it ignores the emotional side of the Self as a basis for social interaction.

Definition and Key Principles

Symbolic interactionism
theory assumes that people respond to elements of their environments according to the subjective meanings they attach to those elements, such as meanings being created and modified through social interaction involving symbolic communication with other people.

Symbolic Interactionism is a theoretical framework in sociology that describes how societies are created and maintained through the repeated actions of individuals (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

In simple terms, people in society understand their social worlds through communication - the exchange of meaning through language and symbols.

Instead of addressing how institutions objectively define and affect individuals, symbolic interactionism pays attention to these individuals' subjective viewpoints and how they make sense of the world from their own perspective (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

The objective structure of a society is less important in the symbolic interactionist view than how subjective, repeated, and meaningful interactions between individuals create society. Thus, society is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation.

According to Blumer (1969), social interaction thus has four main principles:

1. Individuals act in reference to the subjective meaning objects have for them. For example, an individual that sees the "object" of family as being relatively unimportant will make decisions that deemphasize the role of family in their lives;

2. Interactions happen in a social and cultural context where objects, people, and situations must be defined and characterized according to individuals' subjective meanings;

3. For individuals, meanings originate from interactions with other individuals and with society;

4. These meanings that an individual has are created and recreated through a process of interpretation that happens whenever that individual interacts with others.

History

The first person to write about the principles underlying Symbolic Interactionism was George Herbert Mead (1934). Mead, an American philosopher, argued that people develop their self-image through interactions with other people.

In particular, Mead concentrated on the language and other forms of talk that happens between individuals. The " self " - a part of someone's personality involving self-awareness and self-image - originates in social experience.

Charles Horton Cooley (1902)
used the term looking-glass
self
to convey the idea that a person's knowledge of their self-concept is largely determined by the reaction of others around them. Other people thus act as a " looking-glass " (mirror) so that we can judge ourselves by looking "in" it.

An individual can respond to others' opinions about himself, and internalize the opinions and feelings that others have about him.

Beginning in the 1960s, sociologists tested and adopted Mead's ideas.

There are three main schools of Symbolic Interactionism: the Chicago School, the Iowa School, and the Indiana School. These schools stem from the work of Herbert Blumer, Manford Kuhn, and Sheldon Stryker, respectively.

Blumer's Chicago School of Symbolic Interactionism

Blumer invented the term "Symbolic Interactionism" and created a theory and methodology to test Mead's ideas. Most sociologists follow the work of Blumer (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

Blumer emphasizes how the self can emerge from the interactive process of joining action (Denzin, 2008; Carter and Fuller, 2015). Humans constantly engage in "mindful action" that construct and negotiate the meaning of situations.

According to Blumer (1964), all studies of human behavior must begin by studying how people associate and interact with each other, rather than treating the individual and society as entirely separate beings (Meltzer and Petras, 1970; Carter and Fuller, 2015).

Society itself is not a structure, but a continual process of debating and reinventing the meaning of actions. An action that has a meaning in one context, or in the interaction between any two individuals, can have a completely different meaning between two different individuals, or in another context.

Society is about as structured as individuals' interactions among themselves (Collins, 1994).
Because meaning is constructed through the interactions between individuals, meaning cannot be fixed, and can even vary for the same individual.

People who perform actions attach meanings to objects, and their behavior is a unique way of reacting to their interpretation of a situation (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

There is no way to describe how people will generally respond to a situation because every interaction an individual has with an object, situation, or somebody else is different. This is why, according to Blumer, behavior is changing, unpredictable, and unique.

To summarize Blume's view on Symbolic Interactionism (Blumer, 1969), people act toward objects in a way that reacts to the meanings they have personally given to the objects. This meaning that people are reacting to comments from the social interactions that person has with others; and meanings are confronted and modified through a continuous interpretive process that the person uses whenever they deal with things that they encounter (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

Blumer strongly believed that the idea that science was the only right vehicle for discovering truth was deeply flawed. Because all behavior happens on the basis of an individuals' own meanings about the world, Blumer believed that observing general behavioral patterns was not conducive to scientific insight (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

Rather, Blumer aimed to attempt to see how any given person sees the world.

Methodologically, this means that Blummer believed that it is the researcher's obligation to take the stance of the person they are studying and use the actor's own categorization of the world to capture how that actor creates meanings from social interactions (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

Iowa School of Symbolic Interactionism

Blumer's de-emphasis of logical and empirical ways of measuring human behavior provoked responses from theorists who wanted to create a rigorous system of techniques for examining human behavior.

Notably, Manford Kuhn (the Iowa School) and Sheldon Stryker (the Indiana School) used empirical methods to study the self and social structure (Kuhn, 1964; Stryker, 1980; Carter and Fuller, 2015).

To Kuhn, behavior was "purposive, socially constructed, coordinated social acts informed by preceding events in the context of projected acts that occur." Social interaction can be studied in a way that emphasizes the interrelatedness of an individual's intention, sense of time, and the ways that they correct their own systems of meanings.

Small groups - groups with, for example, two or three people - to Kuhn, are the focus of most social behavior and interaction. Social behavior can be studied both in the greater world and within the confines of a laboratory, and this combination of approaches can lead to being able to identify abstract laws for social behavior which can apply to people at university.

And lastly, sociologists must create a systematic and rigorous vocabulary to deconstruct and create a system of cause and effect to how people form meaning through social interactions than social psychologists had before (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

One example of how Kuhn's methodology deeply contrasts with that of Blumer's is the Twenty Statements Test.

In the Twenty Statements Test, Kuhn asked participants to respond to the question, "Who am I?" by writing 20 statements about themselves on 20 numbered lines.

Researchers could then code these responses systematically to find how individuals think about their identity and social status in both "conventional" (e.g. as a mother, spouse, or teacher) and idiosyncratic ways, while still allowing for enough freedom for researchers to discern how individuals interpret meanings in their world (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

Indiana School of Symbolic Interactionism

In contrast to Kuhn, Stryker of the Indiana School of Symbolic Interactionism emphasizes that the meanings that individuals form from their interactions with others lead to patterns that create and uphold social structures (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

In particular, Stryker focuses on Mead's concept of roles and role-taking. A social role is a certain set of practices and behaviors taken on by an individual, and these practices and behaviors are regulated through the social situations where the individual takes on the role (Casino and Thien, 2009).

The roles that individuals have are attached to individuals' positions in society, and they can be predictors of their future behavior.

To Stryker, the social interactions between individuals - socialization - is a process through which individuals learn the expectations for the practices and behaviors of the roles that they have taken on. Individuals identify themselves by the roles they take in social structure, and the beliefs and opinions that others' identify them with become internalized.

These internalized expectations of how someone with a particular set of roles is supposed to behave becomes an identity (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

In contrast to the Chicago and the Iowan schools of Symbolic Interactionism, the Indiana school attempts to bridge how people form a sense of meaning and identity on an individual level with the roles that they fill in the greater society.

Examples & Implications

References

Ankerl, G. (1981). Experimental Sociology of Architecture: A Guide to Theory. Research and Literature, New Babylon: Studies in the Social Sciences, 36.

Blumer, H. (1986). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method: Univ of California Press.

Brooks, R. S. (1969). The self and political role: A symbolic interactionist approach to political ideology. The Sociological Quarterly, 10(1), 22-31.

Carter, M. J., & Fuller, C. (2015). Symbolic interactionism. Sociopedia. isa, 1(1), 1-17.

Collins, R. (1994). The microinteractionist tradition. Four sociological traditions, 242-290.

Cooley, C. H. (1902). Looking-glass self. The production of reality: Essays and readings on social interaction, 6, 126-128.

Del Casino, V. J., & Thien, D. (2009). Symbolic interactionism. In International encyclopedia of human geography (pp. 132-137): Elsevier Inc.
Denzin, N. K. (2008). Symbolic interactionism and cultural studies: The politics of interpretation: John Wiley & Sons.

Garfinkel, H. (1967). Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs.

Kuhn, M. H. (1964). Major trends in symbolic interaction theory in the past twenty-five years. The Sociological Quarterly, 5(1), 61-84.

Lawrence, D. L., & Low, S. M. (1990). The built environment and spatial form. Annual review of anthropology, 19(1), 453-505.

Mead GH. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society . Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press

Meltzer, B. N., & Petras, J. W. (1970). The Chicago and Iowa schools of symbolic interactionism. Human nature and collective behavior, 3-17.
Smith, R. W., & Bugni, V. (2006). Symbolic Interaction Theory and Architecture. Symbolic Interaction, 29(2), 123-155.

Stryker, S. (1980). Symbolic interactionism: A social structural version: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company.

Stryker, S., & Serpe, R. T. (1982). Commitment, identity salience, and role behavior: Theory and research example. In Personality, roles, and social behavior (pp. 199-218): Springer.

Turner, R. H. (1962). Role taking: Process versus conformity. Life as theater: A dramaturgical sourcebook, 85-98.

West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender & society, 1(2), 125-151.

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Symbolic Interactionism Theory & Examples

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Symbolic Interactionism is a theoretical framework in sociology that describes how societies are created and maintained through the repeated actions of

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Learning Outcomes

Describe the functionalist view on education, including the manifest and latent functions of education

Functionalists view education as one of the more important social institutions in a society. They contend that education contributes two kinds of functions: manifest (or primary) functions, which are the intended and visible functions of education; and latent (or secondary) functions, which are the hidden and unintended functions.

Manifest Functions

There are several major manifest functions associated with education. The first is socialization. Beginning in preschool and kindergarten, students are taught to practice various societal roles that extend beyond the school setting. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), who is regarded as one of the founders of the academic discipline of sociology, characterized schools as "socialization agencies that teach children how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic roles" (Durkheim 1898). Indeed, it seems that schools have taken on this responsibility in full.

This socialization also involves learning the rules and norms of the society as a whole. In the early days of compulsory education, students learned the dominant culture. Today, since the culture of the United States is increasingly diverse, students may learn a variety of cultural norms, not only that of the dominant culture. Conflict theorists, as we will discuss in the next section, would argue that we continue to instill dominant values in schools.

School systems in the United States also transmit the core values of the nation through manifest functions like social control. One of the roles of schools is to teach students conformity to law and respect for authority. Obviously, such respect, given to teachers and administrators, will help a student navigate the school environment. By organizing schools as bureaucracies, much like what is found in the labor market and in other social institutions, schools teach children what is commonly referred to as "the hidden curriculum." We will expand on this in the following section on conflict theory. This function also prepares students to enter the workplace and the world at large, where they will continue to be subject to people who have authority over them. Fulfillment of this function rests primarily with classroom teachers and instructors who are with students all day.

Education also provides one of the major methods used by people for upward social mobility through allowing individuals of all social backgrounds to gain credentials that will broaden their prospects in the future. This function is referred to as social placement . Colleges and graduate schools are viewed as vehicles for moving students closer to the careers that will give them the financial freedom and security they seek. As a result, college students are often more motivated to study areas that they believe will be advantageous on the socio-economic ladder. A student might value business courses over a class in Victorian poetry because she sees business coursework as a stronger vehicle for financial success and for higher placement within the social hierarchy.

Latent Functions

Education also fulfills latent functions. As you well know, much goes on in a school that has little to do with formal, programmatic education. For example, you might notice an attractive fellow student when they give a particularly interesting answer in class-catching up with them and making a date speaks to the latent function of courtship fulfilled by exposure to a peer group in the educational setting.

The educational setting introduces students to social networks that might last for years and can help people find jobs after their schooling is complete. Of course, with the increase in social media platform use such as Facebook and LinkedIn, these networks established in school environments are easier than ever to maintain. Another latent function is the ability to work with others in small groups, a skill that is transferable to a workplace and that might not be learned in a homeschool setting.

The educational system, especially as experienced on university campuses, has traditionally provided a place for students to learn about various social issues. There is ample opportunity for social and political advocacy, as well as the ability to develop tolerance to the many views represented on campus. In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement swept across college campuses all over the United States, leading to demonstrations in which diverse groups of students were unified with the purpose of changing the political climate of the country. Social and political advocacy can take many forms, from joining established programs on international development to joining a particular party-affiliated group to supporting non-profit clubs at your school.

Manifest and Latent Functions

Manifest Functions: Openly stated functions with intended goals

Latent Functions: Hidden, unstated functions with sometimes unintended consequences

Socialization

Courtship

Transmission of culture

Social networks

Social control

Group work

Social placement

Creation of generation gap

Cultural innovation

Political and social integration

Functionalists recognize other ways that schools educate and enculturate students. One of the most characteristic American values students in United States schools learn is that of individualism-the valuing of the individual over the value of groups or society as a whole. In countries such as Japan and China, where the good of the group is valued over the rights of the individual, students do not learn as they do in the United States that the highest rewards go to the "best" individual in academics or athletics. One of the roles of schools in the United States is fostering self-esteem; conversely, schools in Japan focus on fostering social esteem-the honoring of the group over the individual. As such, schools in the U.S. and around the world are teaching their students about larger national ideals and fostering institutions that are conducive to the cultural imprinting of those ideas.

In the United States, schools also fill the role of preparing students for competition in life. Obviously, athletics foster a competitive ethos, but even in the classroom students compete against one another academically. Schools also aid in teaching patriotism. Students recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning and take history classes where they learn about national heroes and the nation's past. The practice of saying the Pledge of Allegiance has become controversial in recent years, with individuals arguing that requiring or even expecting children to pledge allegiance is unconstitutional and as such may face legal challenges to its validity.[/footnote]

Another role of schools, according to functionalist theory, is that of sorting, or classifying students based on academic merit or potential. The most capable students are identified early in schools through testing and classroom achievements. Such students are placed in accelerated programs in anticipation of successful college attendance, a practice that is referred to as tracking, and which has also generated substantial opposition, both in the United States and abroad. This will be further discussed as it pertains to conflict theory, but a majority of sociologists are against tracking in schools because research has found that the positive effects of tracking do not justify the negative ones. Functionalists further contend that school, particularly in recent years, is taking over some of the functions that were traditionally undertaken by family. Society relies on schools to teach their charges about human sexuality as well as basic skills such as budgeting and filling out job applications-topics that at one time were addressed within the family.

glossary

social placement:

the use of education to improve one's social standing

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Describe the functionalist view on education, including the manifest and latent functions of education Functionalists view education as one of the more important social institutions in a society. They contend that education contributes two kinds of functions: manifest (or primary) functions, which are the intended and visible functions of education; and latent (or secondary) functions, which are the hidden and unintended functions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Functionalists view education as one of the more important social institutions in a society. They contend that education contributes two kinds of functions: manifest (or primary) functions, which are the intended and visible functions of education; and latent (or secondary) functions, which are the hidden and unintended functions.

Manifest Functions
There are several major manifest functions associated with education. The first is socialization. Beginning in preschool and kindergarten, students are taught to practice various societal roles. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), who established the academic discipline of sociology, characterized schools as "socialization agencies that teach children how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic roles" (Durkheim 1898). Indeed, it seems that schools have taken on this responsibility in full.

This socialization also involves learning the rules and norms of the society as a whole. In the early days of compulsory education, students learned the dominant culture. Today, since the culture of the United States is increasingly diverse, students may learn a variety of cultural norms, not only that of the dominant culture.

School systems in the United States also transmit the core values of the nation through manifest functions like social control. One of the roles of schools is to teach students conformity to law and respect for authority. Obviously, such respect, given to teachers and administrators, will help a student navigate the school environment. This function also prepares students to enter the workplace and the world at large, where they will continue to be subject to people who have authority over them. Fulfillment of this function rests primarily with classroom teachers and instructors who are with students all day.

Education also provides one of the major methods used by people for upward social mobility. This function is referred to as social placement . College and graduate schools are viewed as vehicles for moving students closer to the careers that will give them the financial freedom and security they seek. As a result, college students are often more motivated to study areas that they believe will be advantageous on the social ladder. A student might value business courses over a class in Victorian poetry because she sees business class as a stronger vehicle for financial success.

Latent Functions

Education also fulfills latent functions. As you well know, much goes on in a school that has little to do with formal education. For example, you might notice an attractive fellow student when he gives a particularly interesting answer in class-catching up with him and making a date speaks to the latent function of courtship fulfilled by exposure to a peer group in the educational setting.

The educational setting introduces students to social networks that might last for years and can help people find jobs after their schooling is complete. Of course, with social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn, these networks are easier than ever to maintain. Another latent function is the ability to work with others in small groups, a skill that is transferable to a workplace and that might not be learned in a homeschool setting.

The educational system, especially as experienced on university campuses, has traditionally provided a place for students to learn about various social issues. There is ample opportunity for social and political advocacy, as well as the ability to develop tolerance to the many views represented on campus. In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement swept across college campuses all over the United States, leading to demonstrations in which diverse groups of students were unified with the purpose of changing the political climate of the country.

Manifest and Latent Functions

Manifest Functions: Openly stated functions with intended goals

Latent Functions: Hidden, unstated functions with sometimes unintended consequences

Socialization

Courtship

Transmission of culture

Social networks

Social control

Group work

Social placement

Creation of generation gap

Cultural innovation

Political and social integration

Functionalists recognize other ways that schools educate and enculturate students. One of the most important U.S. values students in the United States learn is that of individualism-the valuing of the individual over the value of groups or society as a whole. In countries such as Japan and China, where the good of the group is valued over the rights of the individual, students do not learn as they do in the United States that the highest rewards go to the "best" individual in academics as well as athletics. One of the roles of schools in the United States is fostering self-esteem; conversely, schools in Japan focus on fostering social esteem-the honoring of the group over the individual.
In the United States, schools also fill the role of preparing students for competition in life. Obviously, athletics foster a competitive nature, but even in the classroom students compete against one another academically. Schools also fill the role of teaching patriotism. Students recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning and take history classes where they learn about national heroes and the nation's past.

Another role of schools, according to functionalist theory, is that of sorting, or classifying students based on academic merit or potential. The most capable students are identified early in schools through testing and classroom achievements. Such students are placed in accelerated programs in anticipation of successful college attendance.

Functionalists also contend that school, particularly in recent years, is taking over some of the functions that were traditionally undertaken by family. Society relies on schools to teach about human sexuality as well as basic skills such as budgeting and job applications-topics that at one time were addressed by the family.

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Functionalists view education as one of the more important social institutions in a society. They contend that education contributes two kinds of functions: manifest (or primary) functions, which are the intended and visible functions of education; and latent (or secondary) functions, which are the hidden and unintended functions.

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Learning Outcomes

Examine the perspective of conflict theory on education

Examine the feminist theory on education

Conflict theorists do not believe that public schools reduce social inequality through providing equal opportunity. Rather, they believe that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Where functionalists see education as serving a beneficial role, conflict theorists view it more negatively. To them, educational systems preserve the status quo and push people of lower status into obedience, which keeps them socioeconomically disadvantaged.

The fulfillment of one's education is closely linked to social class. Students of low socioeconomic status are generally not afforded the same opportunities as students of higher status, no matter how great their academic ability or desire to learn. Picture a student from a working-class home who wants to do well in school. On a Monday, he's assigned a paper that's due Friday. Monday evening, he has to babysit his younger sister while his divorced mother works. Tuesday and Wednesday, he works stocking shelves after school until 10:00 p.m. By Thursday, the only day he might have available to work on that assignment, he's so exhausted he can't bring himself to start the paper. His mother, though she'd like to help him, is so tired herself that she isn't able to give him the encouragement or support he needs. And since English is her second language, she has difficulty with some of his educational materials. They also lack a computer and printer at home, which most of his classmates have, so they rely on the public library or school system for access to technology. As this story shows, many students from working-class families have to contend with helping out at home, contributing financially to the family, poor study environments, and a lack of family support. This is a difficult match with education systems that adhere to a traditional curriculum that is more easily understood and completed by students of higher social classes.

Such a situation leads to social class reproduction, extensively studied by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He researched how cultural capital , or cultural knowledge that serves as (metaphorical) currency that helps us navigate a culture, alters the experiences and opportunities available to French students from different social classes. Members of the upper and middle classes have more cultural capital than do families of lower-class status. As a result, the educational system maintains a cycle in which the dominant culture's values are rewarded and thus generationally reproduced. Instruction and tests cater to the dominant culture and leave others struggling to identify with values and competencies outside their social class. For example, there has been a great deal of discussion over what standardized tests such as the SAT truly measure. Many argue that the tests group students by cultural ability rather than by natural intelligence. For example, a question on the comprehensive reading section of the SAT inquires about a painting at an art museum. For a student who has not experienced art museums regularly, this question poses greater difficulty than it does for a student who grew up going to cultural events such as art exhibitions. Such mechanisms in public education reinforce and perpetuate inequalities.

Watch It

This video explains how cultural capital impacts a hypothetical student.

Try It

Click through this presentation to learn more about cultural capital and consider the ways that it influences your own experiences with the world.

The article referenced in the interactive above raises many important issues, and some questions we might pursue further are:

1. Are there any forms of cultural capital that can be acquired without economic capital? That is, can one cultivate habits of speech and appearance that suggest higher social status but which do not cost money? (or at least very much money?) What symbolic values are at work here?

2. If prestigious brand-name products, such as the Louis Vuitton handbag, confer some sort of high status on those who possess and display them, then how does the "branding" of the self function in our 21st-Century economy? When individuals brand themselves through social media and other public platforms, whether as employees or "influencers" and such, what status or characteristics are they trying to claim? What do they hope to gain?

3. The sociologist Charles Horton Cooley introduced the concept of the "looking glass self," which says we develop our sense of self according to how we believe others perceive us. Can this idea help us understand how social status and economic class are related? To what extent are status and class a matter of self-conscious performance for the benefit of an imagined audience?

The Hidden Curriculum

The cycle of rewarding those who possess cultural capital is found in formal educational curricula as well as in the hidden curriculum , which refers to the type of nonacademic knowledge that students learn through informal learning and cultural transmission. This hidden curriculum reinforces the positions of those with higher cultural capital and serves to bestow status unequally.

Watch IT

The Hidden Curriculum ideology is very prevalent in sociology, as sociologists seek to better understand how education is shaping society as a larger unit. This video explains what this means.

This next video explains how sociologists examine the hidden curriculum from the various sociological perspectives.

Tracking

Conflict theorists point to tracking , a formalized sorting system that places students on "tracks" (advanced versus low-achievers) that perpetuate inequalities. While educators may believe that students do better in tracked classes because they are with students of similar ability and may have access to more individual attention from teachers, conflict theorists feel that tracking leads to self-fulfilling prophecies in which students live up (or down) to teacher and societal expectations (Education Week 2004). The ways by which students are assigned to tracks differs both between and within schools. Today, it is less common for schools to rigidly track students in all subjects, and it is less common to track them into different vocational paths. Administrators and teachers in a given school may carefully avoid using the term "tracking" to describe the organization of their school's curriculum. Yet, schools maintain a variety of policies that sort students into different programs of study including: test scores and grade requirements, pre- and co-requisite requirements, and teacher recommendations.

Low-track classes tend to be primarily composed of low-income students, usually minorities, while upper-track classes are usually dominated by students from socioeconomically successful groups. In 1987, Jeannie Oakes theorized that the disproportionate placement of poor and minority students into low tracks does not reflect their actual learning abilities. Rather, she argued that the ethnocentric claims of social Darwinists and the Anglo-Saxon-driven Americanization movement at the turn of the century combined to produce a strong push for "industrial" schooling, ultimately relegating the poorer minority students to vocational programs and a differentiated curriculum which she considered a lingering pattern in 20th century schools.

Some studies suggest that tracking can influence students' peer groups and attitudes regarding other students. Adam Gamoran's study (1992) shows that students are more likely to form friendships with other students in the same tracks than with students outside of their tracks. Since low-class and minority students are overrepresented in low tracks, and Whites and Asians generally dominate higher tracks, interaction among these groups can be discouraged by tracking. However, there is no research showing an academic benefit to low track students from such interaction.

Link to Learning

Tracking is not uncommon in the United States and can take many forms at any level of compulsory schooling. Did you experience tracking at your school? This student Ted talk explains some of the adverse consequences of separating students into high-performing, average, and below-average tracks: Student Tracking Needs to End.

To conflict theorists, schools play the role of training working-class students to accept and retain their position as lower-tier members of society. They argue that this role is fulfilled through the disparity of resources available to students in richer and poorer neighborhoods as well as through testing (Lauen and Tyson 2008). Did you know that a school's resources are dependent on property taxes in the school district's boundaries? This is a controversial policy, as it contributes to existing inequalities in the home and in the the neighborhood.

IQ tests have been attacked for being biased-for testing cultural knowledge rather than actual intelligence. For example, a test item may ask students what instruments belong in an orchestra. To correctly answer this question requires certain cultural knowledge-knowledge most often held by more affluent people who typically have more exposure to orchestral music. Though experts in the field of testing claim that bias has been eliminated from tests, conflict theorists maintain that this is impossible. These tests, to conflict theorists, are another way in which education does not so much provide opportunities as maintain established configurations of power.

Link to Learning

This NPR article, Why America's Schools Have A Money Problem, explains more about inequalities in public schools created by differences in revenue generated through property taxes.

Feminist Theory

Feminist theory aims to understand the mechanisms and roots of gender inequality, particularly in education, as well as their societal repercussions. Like many other institutions of society, educational systems are characterized by unequal treatment and opportunity for women, despite the monumental progress that has been made in recent decades. The literacy rate among women worldwide is 83 percent, compared to the almost 90 percent observed for men, and women around the world are still less likely than men to set foot in a school.

Women in the United States have been relatively late, historically speaking, to be granted entry to the public university system. In fact, it wasn't until the establishment of Title IX of the Education Amendments in 1972 that discriminating on the basis of sex in U.S. education programs became illegal. In the United States, there is also a post-education gender disparity between what male and female college graduates earn, despite women now graduating college at higher rates than men (Citation C). A study released in May 2011 showed that, among men and women who graduated from college between 2006 and 2010, men out-earned women by an average of more than $5,000 each year. First-year job earnings for men averaged $33,150; for women the average was $28,000 (Godofsky, Zukin, and van Horn 2011). Similar trends are seen among salaries of professionals in virtually all industries.

Here are a few facts about the gendered wage gap from the AAUW (2018):

1. Women earn 80% of what men make.

2. Racial minority women earn even less when compared to white men - with the lowest being Hispanic/Latina women making 53% of what men make.

3. Utah has the largest pay gap, California has the smallest.

4. The gender gap is found across nearly all professions.

When women face limited opportunities for education, their capacity to achieve equal rights, including financial independence, is limited. Feminist theory seeks to promote women's rights to equal education (and its resultant benefits) across the world.

Grade Inflation

Grade Inflation: When Is an A Really a C?

In 2019, news emerged of a criminal conspiracy regarding wealthy and, in some cases, celebrity parents who illegally secured college admission for their children. Over 50 people were implicated in the scandal, including employees from prestigious universities; several people were sentenced to prison. Their activity included manipulating test scores, falsifying students' academic or athletic credentials, and acquiring testing accommodations through dishonest claims of having a disability.

One of the questions that emerged at the time was how the students at the subject of these efforts could succeed at these challenging and elite colleges. Meaning, if they couldn't get in without cheating, they probably wouldn't do well. Wouldn't their lack of preparation quickly become clear?

Many people would say no. First, many of the students involved (the children of the conspirators) had no knowledge or no involvement of the fraud; those students may have been admitted anyway. But there may be another safeguard for underprepared students at certain universities: grade inflation.

Grade inflation generally refers to a practice of awarding students higher grades than they have earned. It reflects the observation that the relationship between letter grades and the achievements they reflect has been changing over time. Put simply, what used to be considered C-level, or average, now often earns a student a B, or even an A.

Some, including administrators at elite universities, argue that grade inflation does not exist, or that there are other factors at play, or even that it has benefits such as increased funding and elimination of inequality (Boleslavsky 2014). But the evidence reveals a stark change. Based on data compiled from a wide array of four-year colleges and universities, a widely cited study revealed that the number of A grades has been increasing by several percentage points per decade, and that A's were the most common grade awarded (Jaschik 2016). In an anecdotal case, a Harvard dean acknowledged that the median grade there was an A-, and the most common was also an A. Williams College found that the number of A+ grades had grown from 212 instances in 2009-10 to 426 instances in 2017-18 (Berlinsky-Schine 2020). Princeton University took steps to reduce inflation by limiting the number of A's that could be issued, though it then reversed course (Greason 2020).

Why is this happening? Some cite the alleged shift toward a culture that rewards effort instead of product, i.e., the amount of work a student puts in raises the grade, even if the resulting product is poor quality. Another oft-cited contributor is the pressure for instructors to earn positive course evaluations from their students. Finally, many colleges may accept a level of grade inflation because it works. Analysis and formal experiments involving graduate school admissions and hiring practices showed that students with higher grades are more likely to be selected for a job or a grad school. And those higher-grade applicants are still preferred even if decision-maker knows that the applicant's college may be inflating grades (Swift 2013). In other words, people with high GPA at a school with a higher average GPA are preferred over people who have a high GPA at a school with a lower average GPA.

Ironically, grade inflation is not simply a college issue. Many of the same college faculty and administrators who encounter or engage in some level of grade inflation may lament that it is also occurring at high schools (Murphy 2017).

Glossary

cultural capital:

cultural knowledge that serves (metaphorically) as currency to help one navigate a culture

hidden curriculum:

the type of nonacademic knowledge that people learn through informal learning and cultural transmission

sorting:

classifying students based on academic merit or potential

tracking:

a formalized sorting system that places students on "tracks" (advanced, low achievers) that perpetuate inequalities

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Examine the perspective of conflict theory on education Examine the feminist theory on education Conflict theorists do not believe that public schools reduce social inequality through providing equal opportunity. Rather, they believe that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity.

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Why human interactions, symbols, and attaching subjective meanings contribute in the making of society as well as forming social bond?

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Why human interactions, symbols, and attaching subjective meanings contribute in the making of society as well as forming social bond?

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