Sociology
of Education (Soc 347)
Review
for Exam #1
I. Format: The exam will be short essay and/or
short answer format (as mentioned, no other format makes sense with this kind
of material). You will not need anything but a pen and your brain (hopefully containing
knowledge of the subjects we’ve covered so far).
II. Readings: Durkheim, “Discipline”; Blau and
Duncan, “Status Attainment” (links on e-syllabus)
Hirsch, Chapters 1 and 2
Devote some thought to the
connections between Hirsch’s analysis and other substantive issues we’ve
addressed. For example, how does Hirsch’s conception of what education should
accomplish mesh with Jefferson’s? Durkheim’s? Parsons?
III. Key Themes: Class Lectures (These overlap – of
course – with the assigned readings.)
A. Culture, Social Structure, and
History
1. Definitions
2. Know elements of
social structure and culture (and definitions)
a.
Institutions and the problems they solve
3.
The relationship between culture and social structure and how that
relationship is connected to the emergence of public education
B. Culture and Social Structure in
the Era of Thomas Jefferson
1. Key features of the Institutional
and Cultural context of the Jeffersonian Era
2. How those features were reflected
in
3. Why
C. Functionalism’s view of education
(General Assumptions of Functionalism)
1. Emile Durkheim
a. His view
of the modern world
b. His view of the role of education
in the modern world (to what key sociological process is education connected in
Durkheim’s view?)
c. How a
& b are connected?
2. Talcott Parsons
a. The key
sociological functions of education
b. The types
of evidence he used to support (or not) his views
3. Blau & Duncan
a.
An empirical test of functionalism’s views of the education system (know the
variables, the path model, their general findings (I don’t expect you to
know exact correlation coefficients, but, overall, the strength and direction
of the associations between and among variables)
b.
Which theoretical perspective does their research support? Why?
