Sociology of Education (3^rd Ed.) A Critical Reader

This comprehensive and bestselling reader examines the most pressing topics in sociology and education while exposing students to examples of sociological research in schools. Drawing from classic and contemporary scholarship, noted sociologist Alan R. Sadovnik with Ryan W. Coughlan have chosen readings that examine current issues and reflect diverse theoretical approaches to studying the effects of schooling and society. The third edition provides students with nine new readings from some of the best theorists and researchers in education including Sean F. Reardon, Ann Owens, Prudence L. Carter, and Pedro A. Noguera. Through full, rather than excerpted primary source readings, students have the opportunity to read sociological research as it is written and engage in critical analyses of readings in their entirety. This edition features a greater focus on issues of equality and accessibility in schooling for minority students and those with learning disabilities, while an all-new Part IV offers a selection of articles on the shifting social and political factors which have influenced the development of education policy and reform within the last six years. Including comprehensive section introductions, questions for reflection and discussion, and suggested readings, Sociology of Education will stimulate student thinking about the important roles that schools play in contemporary society and their ability to solve fundamental social, economic, and political problems.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Suggested Readings

Part I. Theory and Method in the Sociology of Education

1. Theory and Research in the Sociology of Education

Alan R. Sadovnik

2. On Education and Society

Émile Durkheim

3. Functional and Conflict Theories of Educational Stratification

Randall Collins

4. Broken Promises: School Reform in Retrospect

Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis

5. On Understanding the Processes of Schooling: The Contributions of Labeling Theory

Ray C. Rist

6. The Forms of Capital

Pierre Bourdieu

7. Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital

James S. Coleman

8. Class and Pedagogies: Visible and Invisible

Basil Bernstein

9. The Effects of Education as an Institution

John W. Meyer

Part I Suggested Readings

Part II. School Organizations and Processes: Elementary, Secondary, and Post-Secondary Education

10. The Organizational Context of Teaching and Learning: Changing Theoretical Perspectives

Adam Gamoran, Walter G. Secada, and Cora B. Marrett

11. Is There Really a Teacher Shortage?

Richard Ingersoll

12. Tracking: From Theory to Practice

Maureen T. Hallinan

More than Misplaced Technology: A Normative Political Response to Hallinan on Tracking

Jeannie Oakes

13. College-for-All: Do Students Understand What College Demands?

James E. Rosenbaum

14. New Evidence on College Remediation

Paul A. Attewell, David E. Lavin, Thurston Domina, and Tania Levey

15. Whose Markets, Whose Knowledge?

Michael W. Apple

Part II Suggested Readings

Part III. Education, Identity, and Inequality

16. Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families

Annette Lareau

17. "Black" Cultural Capital, Status Positioning, and Schooling Conflicts for Low-Income African American Youth

Prudence L. Carter

18. Behind the Model-Minority Stereotype: Voices of High- and Low-Achieving Asian American Students

Stacey J. Lee

19. Seeking Equity in the Education of California’s English Learners

Russell W. Rumberger and Patricia Gándara

20. The Trouble with Black Boys: The Role and Influence of Environmental and Cultural Factors on the Academic Performance of African American Males

Pedro A. Noguera

21. Sociological Understandings of Contemporary Gender Transformations in Schooling in the UK

Madeleine Arnot

22. Eliminating Ableism in Education

Thomas Hehir

Part III Suggested Readings

Part IV. Educational Reform and Policy

23. 60 Years After Brown: Trends and Consequences of School Segregration

Sean F. Reardon and Ann Owens

24. The Radical Restructuring of the State and the Dissolution of the American Economy

Michael Fabricant and Michelle Fine

25. Promise and Peril: Charter School, Urban School Reform, and the Obama Administration

Charles Payne and Tim Knowles

26. Effects of Inequality and Poverty vs. Teachers and Schooling on America’s Youth

David C. Berliner

Part IV Suggested Readings

Permissions

Index

Alan R. Sadovnikis Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of Education, Sociology, and Public Affairs at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.

Ryan W. Coughlan is a Presidential Fellow and doctoral candidate in Urban Systems at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.