The Sociology of Education

242 Pages·1972·10.263 MB·English

by  Olive Banks

The Sociology of Education

The Sociology
of Education
OLIVE BANKS
Reader in Sociology
University ofL eicester
B. T. BATSFORD LTD London
Author's note on the second edition
The rapid growth in the subject, as well as changes in educational
practice, have necessitated a number of revisions and extensions to this
new edition. These have mainly involved the incorporation of studies
presenting fresh data, but in addition several completely new topics,
such as student unrest, have been included; the coverage of other
topics, such as race and education, has been extended, and recent
innovations in the subject itself, notably the increasing interest in the
study of the curriculum, have also been examined.
First published 1968
Reprinted 1969 (twice) and 1970
Second edition, reset, 1971
Reprinted 1972 and 1973
©Olive Banks 1968, 1971
Made and printed in Great Britain by
C. Tinling & Co. Ltd, Prescot
for the publishers B. T. Batsford Ltd
4 Fitzhardinge Street, London W. 1
7134 0952 S clothbound edition
7134 0962 2 pape~bound edition
Contents
Introduction
I
I The development oft he subject I
2 The structural-functional frameworl: 4
3 The theory of organization
7
4 Aims and limitations
10
2 Education and the economy
I The edueation explosion 13
2 The content ofe dueatiou 22
3 Education and social mobility
I Edueation and oecupatiotJ 33
2 Strategies ofs election 39
3 Equality ofe dueational opportunity: myth or reality 48
4 Family background, values and achievement
I The family, social class, and edueational achievement 61
2 The material environment 64
3 The achievement syndrome 70
5 The family, the socialization process,
and achievement
I Chi/J-rearing studies and the achievement syndrome 84
2 Linguistic development and social/earning 92
3 Social class and family life 98
CONTENTS
6 Who controls our schools?
I The injluenee oft he State Io8
2 The school and the local commutzity I 14
3 Tlze role oft he administrator 123
7 The teaching profession
I Development oft he profession I28
2 The social-class background oft eachers I37
3 The status of the teacher I4I
so
4 The teacher organizations I
5 Conclusion IS7
8 The school as a formal organization
I The concept ofb ureaucracy I 59
2 The teacher in the authority structure oft he school 161
3 Administrative styles and teacher performance I65
4 The organization ofl earning 17I
9 The school as a social system
I The teacher in the classroom I83
2 The peer group and the student sub-culture I92
3 Peer groups, reference groups and social mobility 202
4 The teacher in the staff-room 207
10 Education and social change
I The problem stated 210
2 Education and economic development 212
3 Education and democracy 217
4 Education, value transmission and value change 220
5 Education and the under-privileged 224
6 Conclusion 228
Select bibliography 230
Index 232
Introduction
1
The development oft he subject
I
The sociology of education, like the sociology oft he family or of politics,
is no more, but at the same time no less, than the application of socio
logical perspectives to one of the major institutions of society, and for
this reason needs no special justification as the subject matter of a text
for sociology students. At the same time the history of the subject,
especially in the United States, has been unusual enough to warrant
some account of its development as a discipline. Although depending
for its advance upon the development of sociological concepts and
research findings, the subject for many years remained outside the
main stream of sociology, being conceived in the main as a part of the
study of education. The interest of educationalists like John Dewey
ensured the subject an early start, and it soon became a popular subject
in colleges and universities in the u.s.A. Between 1910 and 1926 the
number of colleges offering a course in educational sociology increased
from 40 to 194, and 25 textbooks were published between 1916 and
1936.1 Yet by the 1940s the number of colleges offering it had declined
and the subject generally had fallen into disrepute. Only very recently
has the work of rescue really begun.
Both Orville Brim2 and Ronald G. Corwin3 have analysed the weak
nesses of the early attempts to develop the subject, and their arguments
will only be summarized here, since in essence all the faults arise from
the same source, its separation from the main stream of sociology.
Many of the courses in the subject were developed in colleges or schools
1 Corwin, R. G. A So&iology ofE duclltion, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts,
1965, P· s6.
1 Brim, 0. SO&iiJiogy in the Field of Educatwn, New York: Russell Sage Founda
tion, 1958.
• Corwin, R. G. op. tit., ch. 3·
I
INTRODUCTION
of education and few of those who taught them were sociologists by
training. Some of the teachers undoubtedly had little knowledge of or
interest in developments in sociology itself, and were interested in the
subject primarily, if not indeed wholly, as an applied discipline. This
tendency was further encouraged by the predominance, amongst the
students, of teachers in training. In consequence there was a strong
emphasis on a programmatic and polemic approach. Research tech
niques remained at a primitive level, and there was a focus on a limited
area of problems of interest to the practising teacher. Even in 1963
James Conant, making a plea that educational sociology should be
taught by sociologists, was able to write: 'As to whether the present
group of professors who consider themselves educational sociologists,
should perpetuate themselves, I have the gravest doubts. I would wish
that all who claim to be working in sociology would get together in the
graduate training and appointment of professors who claim to use
sociological methods in discussing school and youth problems. '1
These criticisms are not to be taken to imply that the preoccupation
with practical problems was wrong in itself. Indeed educationalists
have a right to ask the practical help of sociology in the solving of
certain basic educational problems. But no discipline can hope to
provide such assistance if the development of basic concepts and
methods is neglected. Moreover, all applied studies are interdisciplinary
and it seems that too much hope was put in sociology to solve all the
problems of society and the schools.
The increasing disillusion with the old approach has in recent years
been challenged by new developments in the subject which are bringing
it back into departments of sociology, and this is symbolized by a
change in nomenclature. It is now becoming customary to refer to the
sociology of education rather than the old and now suspect terminology
of educational sociology. On the whole, too, this new emphasis has
come about because sociologists themselves have started to take an
interest in education as a field of study. Significantly, also, a number of
distinguished sociologists have recently made outstanding contributions
in general theoretical sociology which have taken the form of studies in
educational institutions. It is true that this development is very new,
and in spite of a number of brilliant individual contributions the
sociology of education, viewed as a body of organized knowledge, is
still more of a hope than a realization. Nevertheless, as Corwin has
1 Conant, J. B. The Education of American Teachers, New York: McGraw-Hill,
1963, p. IJI.
2
INTRODUCTION
recently pointed out, 'Perhaps the early limitations of the sociology of
education do not lie so much in the inadequacy of its conclusions as in
the sterility of the questions that it asked. '1
This brief account of the early history and subsequent development
of the subject does not, however, apply at all to Britain. In Britain,
generally, educational sociology failed to capture the interest of educa
tionalists and even after the Second World War it was rare to find it
taught in either Teacher Training Colleges or University Education
Departments. Only in the 196os has it become recognized, on any
scale, as a valuable part of a teacher's education. In consequence the
sociological study of education, in so far as it has existed at all, has
taken place in departments of sociology rather than in departments of
education, and although, at the present time, there is something of a
boom in sociology, including the sociology of education, in the teacher
training field there is no evidence at present either that the subject will
be taken over by the educationalists or that it will become divorced
from the main body of sociology.
On the other hand, although quite a number of British sociologists,
largely under the influence of David Glass, have worked in this field,
there is no doubt that the approach used has been a limited one.
Research has tended to concentrate on the demographic: aspects of
education and in particular on its relationship to social class and social
mobility. While this is clearly an important part of the subject it is not
adequate on its own, and in particular it ignores the study of educational
institutions themselves. Nevertheless there are signs that more recently
greater attention is being paid to studies in the sociology of the school.
At the present time the weaknesses arise from causes which are common
to all British sociology, notably shortage of financial and manpower
resources, rather than from any neglect of the subject by sociologists
themselves. Moreover, a consideration of the approach to the subject
suggests that there is considerable convergence of interest on both sides
of the Atlantic. This also appears to be true for Western Europe
generally.1 It would seem, therefore, that the future of the subject as
a branch of sociology rather than of education is now assured.
• Corwin, R. G. •P· cit., p. 6s.
1 See, for example, Floud, J. and Halsey, A. H. 'The Sociology of Education. A
Trend Report and Bibliography', Current So&iology, vol. vm (3), 1958.
3