CHAPTER
13
EDUCATION AND RELIGION
CHAPTER OUTLINE
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION
Functionalist Perspective
Conflict Perspective
Feminist Perspective
Interactionist Perspective
SCHOOLS AS FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS
Bureaucratization of Schools
Teachers: Employees and Instructors
Student Subcultures
Homeschooling
DURKHEIM AND THE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO RELIGION
WORLD RELIGIONS
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON RELIGION
The Integrative Function of Religion
Religion and Social Support
Religion and Social Change
Religion and Social Control:
A Conflict Perspective
Feminist Perspective
COMPONENTS OF RELIGION
Belief
Ritual
Experience
RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
Ecclesiae
Denominations
Sects
New Religious Movements or Cults
Comparing Forms of Religious Organization
SOCIAL POLICY AND EDUCATION: CHARTER SCHOOLS
Boxes
Sociology on Campus: The Debate over Title IX
Taking Sociology to Work: Diane Belcher Gray, Assistant Director of Volunteer Services, New River Community College
Research Today: Wicca: Religion or Quasi-Religion?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
WHAT’S NEW IN CHAPTER 13
Analyze education using the functionalist, conflict, feminist, and interactionist sociological perspectives.
Describe the manifest and latent functions of schools, according to the functionalist view.
Summarize the inhibiting effects of education, according to the conflict perspective.
Describe the bureaucratization of schools and its impact on the teaching profession.
Describe the sociological approach to religion.
Summarize the diverse nature of world religions.
Analyze the role of religion using the major sociological perspectives.
Describe the components of religious behavior.
Contrast the four basic forms of religious organization.
Chapter-opening excerpt from The Death and Life in the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch
Think About It questions about costs of college education, theoretical perspectives on education, disparities in teacher salaries, functions of religious practices
Elaboration of material on hidden curriculum, with example linked to queer theory
Discussion of new research on effects of tracking
Figure, “Religious Affiliation 2010–2050”
Research Today box, “Wicca: Religion or Quasi-Religion?”
Discussion of impact of the Internet on religion
Key term treatment of charter school and quasi-religion
Updated figures, “” Higher Education Graduation Rates, Selected Countries,” “Tuition and Room and Board Costs, 1963–2013,” “Mapping Life Nationwide: Average Salary for Teachers,” “College Campuses by Race and Ethnicity: Then, Now, and in the Future,” and “Mapping Life Nationwide: Charter Schools”
Social Policy section, “Charter Schools”
CHAPTER SUMMARY
As the primary social institution that formally socializes members of our society, education prepares citizens for the various roles demanded by other institutions, including religion. When examining education as a social institution, the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives offer distinctive views. Beyond the manifest function of transmitting knowledge, the functionalist perspective suggests that education performs the latent conservative function of transmitting the dominant culture by exposing each generation to the existing beliefs, norms, and values of that culture. Education serves the additional latent functions of promoting social and political integration, maintaining social control, and serving as an agent of change. By contrast, the conflict perspective views education as an instrument of elite domination in which a hidden curriculum subtly teaches the standards of behavior that are deemed proper by society. Schools convince subordinate groups of their inferiority, reinforce existing social class inequality, and discourage alternative and more democratic visions of society. Conflict theorists suggest that credentialism—an increase in the lowest level of education needed to enter a field—reinforces social inequality. As well, both conflict and functionalist theorists agree that education performs the important function of bestowing status. For conflict theorists, it is the differential way in which education bestows status that is the critical point, with mechanisms such as tracking serving to reinforce class differences. According to the correspondence principle, schools promote the values expected of individuals in each social class, thereby perpetuating social class divisions. The feminist perspective holds that the educational system of the United States has been characterized by discriminatory treatment of women. Gains in opportunity and achievement in recent decades have resulted in more women in higher education, and their comparatively strong performance has formed a new area for study. Feminist theorists are also keenly interested in the role of women’s education in economic development as a global concern. The interactionist perspective purports that the labeling of children may limit their opportunities to break away from expected roles. The term teacher-expectancy effect refers to the impact a teacher’s expectations about a student’s performance may have on the student’s actual performance.
Max Weber noted five basic characteristics of bureaucracy, all of which are evident in the vast majority of schools: (1) a division of labor, where specialized experts teach particular age levels of students and specific subjects; (2) a hierarchy of authority, where each employee of a school system is responsible to a higher authority; (3) written rules and regulations, where teachers and administrators must conform to numerous rules and regulations in the performance of their duties; (4) impersonality, where bureaucratic norms may actually encourage teachers to treat all students in the same way; and (5) employment based on technical qualifications, where at least in theory, the hiring of teachers and college professors is based on professional competence and expertise. A significant countertrend to bureaucratization in the United States is education over the Internet. Research on this type of learning is just beginning, so evaluation of web education as an effective learning method remains to be settled.
The status of any job reflects several factors, including the level of education required, financial compensation, and the respect given the occupation by society. Teachers are feeling pressure in all
three areas. At the same time, while students may appear to constitute a cohesive, uniform group to some, the student subculture is actually complex and diverse. Among college students, four distinctive subcultures have been noted: collegiate, academic, vocational, and nonconformist. The cultural struggles of Black students and predominantly white universities has also been studied.
An increasing number of students in the United States are being educated at home. Supporters of homeschooling believe that children can do as well or better in homeschools as they would in public schools. People are motivated to choose homeschooling by many factors. Critics believe that isolation from the larger community limits socialization and poses problems with quality assurance. The difficulty of ensuring quality control and the presence of religion in the home are also controversial topics related to home schooling.
Émile Durkheim was perhaps the first sociologist to recognize the critical importance of religion in human societies. In Durkheim’s view, religion is a collective act and includes many forms of behavior in which people interact with others. Durkheim defined religion as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.” The sacred encompasses elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect, and even fear. By contrast, the profane includes ordinary and commonplace elements. Durkheim argued that religious faiths distinguish between certain events that transcend the ordinary and the everyday world.
Tremendous diversity exists in religious beliefs and practices. Overall, about 84 percent of the world’s population adheres to some form of religion. In sociological terms, religion is centrally important in most human societies. Christianity is the largest single faith in the world; Islam is second. Along with Judaism, they form the three major monotheistic religions. Hinduism is a major religion composed of multiple deities and belief in reincarnation; Buddhism was developed as a reaction to Hinduism and focuses on achieving enlightenment through meditation.
Functionalists and conflict theorists evaluate religion’s impact as a social institution. Functionalists view religion as providing an integrative function for society, with religion providing a form of “societal glue” that offers meaning and purpose for people’s lives. The integrative power of religion can be found in celebrations of life events such as weddings or funerals, or in times of crisis or confusion. Religion provides a framework for social support during stressful life events; its integrative power can also be seen in the role that religious institutions play for immigrants in the United States. Overall, religion plays a major role in social support and in helping people face calamities. Max Weber demonstrated the collective nature of religion in his pioneering work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber’s Protestant ethic suggested an association between religious allegiance and capitalist development. Liberation theology, the use of a church in a political effort to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and other forms of injustice from a secular society, shows that clergy can sometimes be at the forefront of social change.
The conflict view of religion suggests that religion impedes social change by encouraging oppressed people to focus on otherworldly concerns rather than on their immediate poverty or exploitation. Karl Marx described religion as an “opiate” that drugged the masses into submission. Marxists suggest that religious followers are lured into a “false consciousness” and that this lessens the possibility of collective political action. Feminists study the important role of women in religious socialization. Furthermore, feminist scholars bring attention to the patriarchal nature of most major world religions and the historical omission of women and women’s perspectives.
Certain patterns of religious behavior help define what is sacred and profane within a society. Religious beliefs are statements to which members of a particular religion adhere. For example, the account of Adam and Eve is a religious belief that many people strongly adhere to and may insist be taught in schools. Fundamentalism is an emphasis on doctrinal conformity and the literal interpretation of sacred texts. Religious rituals are practices required or expected of members of a faith. They remind adherents of their religious duties and responsibilities. Religious experience refers to the feeling or perception of being in direct contact with the ultimate reality, such as a divine being, or being overcome with religious emotion.
Sociologists find it useful to distinguish among four basic forms of religious organization. An ecclesia is a religious organization that claims to include most or all of the members of a society and is recognized as the national or official religion, such as Islam is in Saudi Arabia. A denomination is a large, organized, widely accepted religious tradition that is not officially linked to the state or government. A sect can be defined as a relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious organization to renew what it considers the original vision of faith. An established sect is a religious group that is the outgrowth of a sect, yet remains isolated from society. The Seventh-Day Adventists and the Amish are contemporary examples. A new religious movement (NRM) or cult is generally a small, loosely organized religious group (e.g., Heaven’s Gate) that represents either a new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith. NRMs, like sects, may transform over time into other types of religious organizations. In fact, most major religions began as cults. The competitive market of religious organizations in the United States has also given rise to electronic churches and religious organizations’ use of the Internet.
LECTURE OUTLINE
Introduction
• Excerpt from The Death and Life of the Great American School System
by Diane Ravitch
I. Sociological Perspectives on Education
• In the past few decades, increasing proportions of people have obtained high school diplomas, college degrees, and advanced professional degrees in the U.S.
• Throughout the world, education has become a vast and complex social institution.
A. Functionalist Perspective
• The most basic manifest function of education is the transmission of knowledge. Another is conferral of status.
• Latent functions include transmitting culture, promoting social and political integration, maintaining social control, and serving as agents of change.
1. Transmitting Culture
• Education performs a conservative function through the transmission of the dominant culture.
• Schooling exposes young people to existing beliefs, norms, and values, including respect for social control and reverence of institutions.
• Some governments use education to shape culture more forcefully than others. Example: South Korea
2. Promoting Social and Political Integration
• Diverse racial, ethnic, and religious groups are transformed into a group sharing a common identity. Example: socializing the children of immigrants into the norms, values, and beliefs of the dominant culture
• The integrative function of education is particularly obvious when it involves promotion of a common language.
3. Maintaining Social Control
• Students learn punctuality, discipline, scheduling, and responsible work habits.
• Schools direct and restrict student aspirations in a manner reflective of societal values and prejudices. Example: Males are directed into sciences and females into elementary teaching.
4. Serving as an Agent of Change
• Sex education classes and affirmative action in admissions illustrate the efforts of education to stimulate social change.
• Formal education is associated with openness to new ideas and critical analysis, stressing the importance of qualifying statements and the need at least to question established truths and practices.
B. Conflict Perspective
• The conflict perspective views education as an instrument of elite domination.
• Education socializes students into values dictated by the powerful and stifles creativity and individualism.
• Inhibiting effects are apparent in the hidden curriculum, credentialism, and the bestowal of status.
1. The Hidden Curriculum
• The term hidden curriculum refers to standards of behavior that are deemed proper by society and are taught subtly in schools.
• The need for control and discipline takes precedence over learning.
• Children must not speak until the teacher calls on them; and they must concentrate on their own work and not work together.
• In a classroom overly focused on obedience, value is placed on pleasing the teacher and remaining quiet.
• Marginalization in sex and relationships education has been a consistent part of the hidden curriculum, although recent efforts have brought some change in this area.
2. Credentialism
• The term credentialism is used to describe the increase in the lowest level of education needed to enter a field.
• Employers may use credentialism as a discriminating factor by raising degree requirements for a position.
• Conflict theorists suggest credentialism reinforces social inequality.
3. Bestowal of Status
• Both functionalists and conflict theorists agree that schooling encourages social stratification, but conflict theorists focus on the idea that schools sort pupils according to their social class backgrounds.
• Tracking refers to the practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of test scores. Tracking can become a caste system, in which students placed into low-ability groups have little to no opportunity for promotion later on.
• The correspondence principle refers to promoting values expected of individuals in each class. Example: Working-class children placed in vocational tracks
C. Feminist Perspective
• Oberlin College was the first institution of higher learning in the United States to admit women, in 1833.
• Many female students were encouraged to serve men and become wives and mothers.
• Educational discrimination is evident in university professorship and administrative positions, which are predominately held by men.
• Women have made great strides in one particular area: the proportion of women who continue their schooling.
• Women’s comparatively strong performance in school (or men’s lower performance) is also of interest to feminist theorists.
• Research has demonstrated women’s education is critical to economic development and good governance, along with lowered birthrates and improved agricultural productivity, in developing nations.
D. Interactionist Perspective
• Labeling of children has an impact on school performance.
• The teacher-expectancy effect refers to a teacher’s expectations of a student’s performance affecting the student’s actual performance.
• Studies have shown that teachers will wait longer for answers from high achievers and are more likely to give them a second chance.
II. Schools as Formal Organizations
• Large-scale school systems are formal organizations, in the same way as factories, hospitals, and business firms. They are influenced by the market of potential students.
A. Bureaucratization of Schools
• The five basic characteristics of bureaucracy noted by Weber are evident in the vast majority of schools:
(1) Division of labor: Specialized experts teach particular age levels of students and specific subjects.
(2) Hierarchy of authority: Each employee of a school system is responsible to a higher authority.
(3) Written rules and regulations: Teachers and administrators must conform to numerous rules and regulations in the performance of their duties.
(4) Impersonality: Large class sizes make it difficult for teachers to give individual attention to students.
(5) Employment based on technical qualifications: At least in theory, the hiring of teachers and college professors is based on professional competence and expertise.
• Functionalists take a generally positive view of the bureaucratization of education. Conflict theorists argue that the trend toward more centralized education has harmful consequences for disadvantaged persons.
• School choice programs and Internet-based courses counter the bureaucratization of schools.
B. Teachers: Employers and Instructors
• Conflicts exist among serving as an instructor, disciplinarian, and an employee.
• Between a quarter and a third of new teachers quit within their first three years, and as many as half leave poor urban schools in their first five years.
• The appeal of teaching for college students is dramatically lower than it was fifty
years ago.
• Salary considerations may impact those contemplating teaching.
C. Student Subcultures
• Schools provide for the social and recreational needs of children.
• Schools aid in the development of interpersonal relationships. Example: College students may meet future husbands and wives.
• High school cliques may develop based on race, social class, physical attractiveness, placement in courses, athletic ability, and leadership roles.
• Intense peer group pressure to conform can be particularly difficult for LGBT students.
• Sociologists have identified four ideal types of subcultures for college students:
(1) Collegiate: focuses on having fun and socializing
(2) Academic: identifies with the intellectual concerns of the faculty and values knowledge for its own sake
(3) Vocational: views college as a means of obtaining degrees essential for advancement
(4) Nonconformist: seeks out ideas that may or may not relate to studies
• Feagin: Black students at predominantly White universities face “pervasive whiteness.” Black students at such institutions experience both blatant and subtle racial discrimination, which has a cumulative effect that can seriously damage students’ confidence.
D. Homeschooling
• About 1.7 million American children are now educated at home.
• Parents may choose to homeschool their children because of religious views, academic concerns, concerns about peer pressure, or fears about violence in schools. For immigrants, homeschooling may be seen as a way to ease a child’s transition to a new society.
• Whether or not homeschooled children have adequate opportunities for socialization is a controversial issue.
• Quality control is an issue in homeschooling, as is the presence of religion.
• Parents who homeschool their children are more likely to have higher incomes and educational attainments.
III. Durkheim and the Sociological Approach to Religion
• Durkheim recognized the importance of religion in human societies, focusing on the social impact.
• Religion is a collective act, defined as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.”
• The sacred encompasses elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect, and fear. Example: Rituals such as prayer or fasting
• The profane includes the ordinary and commonplace, which can sometimes become sacred. Example: A candelabra becomes sacred for Jews (menorah), as do incense sticks for Taoists.
IV. World Religions
• About 84 percent of the world’s population adheres to some religion. About 15 percent of the population is nonreligious. The level of adherence changes over time and also varies by country and age group.
• Christianity is the largest single faith; Islam is the second largest.
• Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are monotheistic. Islam is communalistic and often features a combination of religion and state.
• Hinduism differs in that it adheres to multiple deities, though most worshippers are devoted primarily to a single deity. It is also distinguished by a belief in rebirth through reincarnation.
• Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddhartha, or Buddha. The goal of enlightenment is reached through meditation.
• There are major variations within each of these faiths.
V. Sociological Perspectives on Religion
• Manifest functions of religion are open and stated explanations of events.
• Latent functions are unintended, covert, or hidden.
A. The Integrative Function of Religion
• Durkheim viewed religion as an integrative power or “societal glue” that holds society together. Example: religious rituals surrounding celebrations (i.e., weddings) or loss (i.e., funerals)
• The integrative impact is evident for immigrants and variant lifestyles in the U.S.
• Muslims have been the most talked about immigrant religious group in recent years; but Muslims are divided into a variety of sects and express their faiths in different ways.
• Islam in the U.S. can be integrative by faith, ethnicity, or both.
• Religious loyalties can be dysfunctional. Example: Nazi Germany and Jews
• Modern-day nations such as Lebanon (Muslims versus Christians) and Northern Ireland (Roman Catholics versus Protestants) have been torn by clashes that are in large part based on religion.
B. Religion and Social Support
• The idea of divine intervention allows people to face calamities as “God’s will,” thus having an ultimate benefit or purpose.
C. Religion and Social Change
1. The Weberian Thesis
• Max Weber examined the connection between religious allegiance and capitalist development. His findings were presented in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
• The Protestant ethic is an emphasis on a disciplined work ethic, this-worldly concerns (i.e., material things), and a rational orientation to life. A by-product of the Protestant ethic is to accumulate savings for future investment.
• Weber stressed that the collective nature of religion has social consequences for society as a whole.
• Conflict theorists stress that Weber’s theory should not be used as an analysis of mature capitalism.
2. Liberation Theology
• Liberation theology is the use of a church in a political effort to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and other forms of injustice in a secular society. Example: Roman Catholic activists in Latin America
• Liberation theology suggests a moral responsibility to stand against oppression.
• Critics charge that liberation theology ignores personal and spiritual needs. Some Catholics in Latin America are converting to mainstream Protestant faiths or to Mormonism.
D. Religion and Social Control: A Conflict Perspective
• Marx suggested that religion impeded social change by encouraging oppressed people to focus on other-worldly concerns rather than on their immediate poverty or exploitation.
• Religion is an “opiate” harmful to oppressed people. Example: White slaveowners forbade slaves in the U.S. to practice native religions, instead pushing Christianity, which encouraged obedience.
• Marx believed that religion’s promotion of social stability perpetuates social inequality. Example: Women are typically found in subservient positions both within religious institutions and at home.
• Marxists suggest that by inducing a “false consciousness” among followers, religion lessens collective political action.
E. Feminist Perspective
• Religion serves to subordinate women.
• Women play a fundamental role in the religious socialization of children.
• Most faiths have a long tradition of exclusively male leadership. Women make up28 percent of the students enrolled in theological schools in the U.S., but account for only 21 percent of the clergy. They tend to have shorter careers and to serve outside of congregational leadership.
VI. Components of Religion
• All religions have certain elements in common that are expressed distinctively in each faith and across cultures.
A. Belief
• Religious beliefs are statements to which members of a particular religion adhere.
• Fundamentalism is an emphasis on doctrinal conformity and the literal interpretation of sacred texts. Fundamentalists vary widely in behavior.
• In general, spirituality is not as strong in industrialized nations as in developing ones, though the United States is an exception to this trend.
B. Ritual
• Religious rituals are practices required or expected of members of a faith. Example: Muslims’ hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca
• Rituals honor the divine power of the religion, affirm beliefs, and remind adherents of their religious duties.
• Religion develops distinctive norms to structure behavior, and uses sanctions to reward or penalize behavior. Example: Bar mitzvah gifts; expulsion for violating religious norms
C. Experience
• Religious experience refers to the feeling or perception of being in direct contact with the ultimate reality, such as the divine being, or of being overcome with religious emotion. Example: Being “born again”
VII. Religious Organization
• The collective nature of religion has led to many forms of religious association.
A. Ecclesiae
• An ecclesia is a religious organization that claims to include most or all of the members of a society and is recognized as the national or official religion.
Examples: Islam in Saudi Arabia; Buddhism in Thailand
• Generally, ecclesiae are conservative and do not challenge the leaders of secular government.
B. Denominations
• A denomination is a large, organized religion not officially linked to the state or government.
• Like an ecclesia, it tends to have an explicit set of beliefs, a defined system of authority, and a generally respected position in society. But a denomination lacks the official recognition and power held by an ecclesia.
• Roman Catholicism is the largest single denomination in the U.S.
• Collectively, Protestants account for about 47 percent (as of 2014) of the U.S. adult population.
C. Sects
• A sect is a relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious organization to renew what it considers the original version of the faith.
• Sects are fundamentally at odds with society and do not seek to become established national religions.
• They require intensive commitment and demonstrations of belief by members.
• Sects are often short-lived.
• An established sect is a religious group that is an outgrowth of a sect. Examples: Hutterites, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Amish
D. New Religious Movements or Cults
• A new religious movement (NRM) or cult is generally a small, secretive religious group that represents either a new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith.
• NRMs are similar to sects in that they tend to be small and are often viewed as less respectable than more established faiths. Example: Heaven’s Gate
• Like sects, NRMs may be transformed over time into other types of religious organizations. Example: The Christian Science Church began as an NRM, but today exhibits the characteristics of a denomination.
E. Comparing Forms of Religious Organization
• Ecclesiae, denominations, and sects are best viewed as types along a continuum rather than as mutually exclusive categories. NRMs generally lie outside the continuum because they generally define themselves in terms of a new view of life rather than in terms of existing religious faiths.
• Sociologists look at religion from an organizational perspective, which tends to stress the stability of religious adherence.
• Electronic churches are a newer form of religious organization facilitated by cable television and satellite transmissions. Example: Televangelists
• The electronic church has expanded through the Internet, which offers sites online to augment or serve as substitutes for going to church in person. Example: GodTube
• The growth in Internet usage may have contributed to the increasing number of religiously unaffiliated adults; but religious groups worldwide are also adapting to new media in interacting with others and enhancing their sense of community.
VIII. (Box) Social Policy and Education: Charter Schools
A. Looking at the Issue
• Charter schools are experimental schools developed and managed by individuals, groups of parents, or educational management organizations. They are administered outside the official public school system and are permitted to establish their own rules, curricula, and admissions and professional standards.
• By 2014, about 2.6 million children were enrolled in charter schools in 42 different states.
B. Applying Sociology
• Functionalists argue charter schools serve a diverse student body.
• Conflict theorists argue that because most charter schools are not unionized, they do not represent teachers’ interests well.
• There has not yet been much research on the long-term impact of charter versus noncharter schools; and the diversity in purpose, funding, organization, and curriculum makes generalizing very difficult.
• Some studies suggest charter schools outperform noncharter schools; others show they do worse.
C. Initiating Policy
• In the United States, school policy is created largely at the community level.
• Charter schools have taken their strongest hold in urban areas.
• Options other than charter schools are often available, such as homeschooling and school vouchers.
• The jury is still out on the effectiveness of charter schools, especially given the diversity of learning environments they provide.
KEY TERMS
Charter school An experimental school that is developed and managed by individuals, groups of parents, or educational management organizations.
Correspondence principle The tendency of schools to promote the values expected of individuals in each social class and to perpetuate social class divisions from one generation to the next.
Creationism A literal interpretation of the Bible regarding the creation of humanity and the universe, used to argue that evolution should not be presented as established scientific fact.
Credentialism An increase in the lowest level of education needed to enter a field.
Denomination A large, organized religion that is not officially linked to the state or government.
Ecclesia A religious organization that claims to include most or all members of a society and is recognized as the national or official religion.
Education A formal process of learning in which some people consciously teach, while others adopt the social role of learner.
Established sect A religious group that is the outgrowth of a sect, yet remains isolated from society.
Fundamentalism An emphasis on doctrinal conformity and the literal interpretation of sacred texts.
Hidden curriculum Standards of behavior that are deemed proper by society and are taught subtly in schools.
Liberation theology Use of a church, primarily Roman Catholic, in a political effort to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and other forms of injustice from a secular society.
New religious movement (NRM) or cult A small, secretive religious group that represents either a new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith.
Profane The ordinary and commonplace elements of life, as distinguished from the sacred.
Protestant ethic Max Weber’s term for the disciplined work ethic, this-worldly concerns, and rational orientation to life emphasized by John Calvin and his followers.
Quasi-religion A scholarly category that includes organizations that may see themselves as religious but may be seen by others as “sort of religious.”
Religion A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.
Religious belief A statement to which members of a particular religion adhere.
Religious experience The feeling or perception of being in direct contact with the ultimate reality, such as a divine being, or of being overcome with religious emotion.
Religious ritual A practice required or expected of members of a faith.
Sacred Elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect, and even fear.
Sect A relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious organization to renew what it considers the original vision of the faith.
Secularization The process through which religion’s influence on other social institutions diminishes.
Teacher-expectancy effect The impact that a teacher’s expectations about a student’s performance may have on the student’s actual achievements.
Tracking The practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of their test scores and other criteria..
ESSAY QUESTIONS
Identify and describe the manifest and latent functions of education.
In what ways do schools serve to transmit culture?
How do schools promote social and political integration?
How do schools maintain social control and facilitate social change?
How do conflict theorists view the hidden curriculum?
How do conflict theorists view credentialism?
How are schools able to preserve social class and how does tracking relate to social class?
How does the correspondence principle relate to social class?
Discuss how the status of women in education is changing and how it has remained the same.
Describe the findings of research on the teacher-expectancy effect.
Using Max Weber’s five basic characteristics of bureaucracy, explain how schools are bureaucratic.
What is Title IX, and why was it implemented?
What are some of the difficulties that contemporary teachers face?
How do functionalists and conflict theorists view the bureaucratization of schools?
Describe findings on subcultures among college students.
What are some of the insights sociologists can bring to the debate over allowing religious expression in schools?
Clarify the distinction that Émile Durkheim made between the sacred and the profane.
What is meant by the integrative function of religion?
What is meant by the social support function of religion?
How did Karl Marx and Max Weber view the relationship between religion and the economic side of life?
What has been the primary nature of critiques of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism?
What is liberation theology and how does it relate to conflict theory?
What is meant by the social control function of religion?
Contrast the views of religion taken by Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx.
In what ways do both Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx emphasize the importance of the secular, societal results of religion?
Identify and briefly describe the three major components of religious behavior presented in the textbook.
What are some of the different forms that religious rituals can take?
Explain the different types of religious organizations.
How do denominations, ecclesiae, and sects differ?
Distinguish between cults—or new religious movements—and sects.
Describe Hinduism and Buddhism and indicate how they differ from one another.
Explain the current issues related to charter schools in the United States.
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS
Describe how using the Internet could strengthen or weaken the integrative function of education within a society. What elements of socialization may be missing?
Discuss whether the conservative or social change aspects of the latent functions of education are more powerful overall.
Describe the various extremes students may take in trying to please a college professor in terms of experiencing the teacher-expectancy effect.
Discuss why the norms of religion will likely make a war on terrorism difficult for anyone to win. Do you think agnostic government leaders could clarify the disputed issues better than fundamentalist religious leaders? Why or why not?
Describe how using the Internet could strengthen or weaken the integrative power of religion within a society. What elements of religious socialization may be missing?
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Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.
No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
IM – 13 | 1
Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.
No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
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