Synopses & Reviews
Comprehensive, contemporary, and cross-cultural in perspective, this book provides a sociological approach to education-- from several theoretical approaches and their practical application, to current educational issues, to the structure and processes that make education systems work. Using an open systems model as a framework, it shows the formal organization of schools with structure, goals and processes; the informal organization with hidden curriculum, organization climate, etc.; the external environment that influences what goes on in the school, including financing, parent(s), community interest groups, etc.; processes such as stratification and change; higher education. Diagrams show interrelationships between topics. For educators and anyone interested in the sociology of education and schools.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-430) and index.
Table of Contents
1. Sociology of Education: A Unique Perspective on Schools.
2. Conflicting Functions and Processes in Education: What Makes the System Work.
3. Education and the Process of Stratification.
4. Race, Class, and Gender: Attempts to Achieve Equality of Educational Opportunity.
5. The School as an Organization.
6. Formal School Statuses and Roles: “The Way It Spozed to Be.”
7. Students: The Core of the School.
8. The Informal System and the “Hidden Curriculum”: What Really Happens in School?
9. The Educational System and the Environment: A Symbiotic Relationship.
10. The System of Higher Education.
11. Education Systems around the World: A Comparative View.
12. Education Systems around the World: Case Studies.
13. Educational Movements and Reform.
14. Change and Planning in Educational Systems.
Epilogue.
Schools in the Early Twenty-First Century.
References.
Index.