Chapter Two - Sociological Theories of Education
This post will outline the major concepts and definitions needed to understand the content in the chapter and apply to existing social circumstances in the world around us.
Structural Functionalism: A theoretical perspective that explains social phenomena with reference to their mutual influence on one another, especially though social needs the fulfill and the contributions they make to social order.
Critical Sociology: Engages in a critique of social structures and practices by probing beyond descriptions of the status quo. It is committed to social change as well as social analysis.
Interpretative Analysis: Is concerned with the analysis of social processes rather than social structure
Correspondence Principle: The view that presents educational reforms and outcomes as consequences of economic requirements, labour market needs, and inequalities within a capitalist economy.
Cultural Capital: The resources that people possess for economic and social success, which include not only wealth and economic assets but also knowledge and understandings about social expectations, dominant values, and other pertinent information that institutions use in their ongoing operations.
Cultural Reproduction: Recognition that, while education contributes to ongoing social inequalities, it does so through cultural and social practices as well as economic requirements.
Human Capital Theory: A theoretical approach, with frequent policy applications, that emphasizes education, skill development, and other learning processes as investments that enhance capacities and opportunities among individuals, thereby contributing to general economic growth.
New Institutional Theory: A theoretical orientation drawn from research in several disciplines including sociology, economics, and organizational studies that focuses on the distinctive characteristics of institutions and institutionalized arrangements and explores their impact on broader social and economic processes.
Pedagogy: Process associates with the organization and practice of teaching. The term refers more generally to various kinds of interactions (and how there are understood and organized) in teaching-learning situations.
Racialization: Categorizing and treating people based on observe physical group characteristics and the stereotypes of group differences that are products of historical and social processes.
Resistance Theory: Analysis that highlights children, youth, and other students as active participants who can oppose and shape their education and social futures rather than as passive institutional clients.
Self-fulfilling prophecies: The notion that the assumptions and expectations that teachers and other service workers hold about students can influence students' lives.
Symbolic Interactionism: A theoretical perspective that emphasizes the importance of language, meaning, and use of symbols in our development of self-awareness and, through our relations with others, as the basis of societies.
