دور التعليم في المجتمع

Education Statistics

• The U.S. high school graduation rate in 2015 was 83%.

Achievement Gap

• Differences in educational measures exist based on gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and socioeconomic status.

Educational Resources

• Cognitive Resources: Intelligence (measured by IQ tests), assessing symbolic and reasoning abilities are cognitive resources.
• Non-Cognitive Resources: Emotional Intelligence, the ability to identify, assess, and manage one's own and others' emotions.

Goals of Education

• Assimilation: Schools play a role in integrating students into a society's culture.
• Credentialism: Education serves as a pathway for credentials and careers with associated debt.
• Social, Cultural, and Reproduction: Education shapes social structures by transmitting cultural values and reproducing social patterns.

Role of Education in Society

• Education, as a social institution, shapes children's values and provides investment for society.
• Discourses on education include assimilation, credentialing, and social reproduction.

Contemporary Educational Issues and Policies

• Standardized testing, busing, the No Child Left Behind Act, and Common Core are educational policies.
• The debate around charter schools and their performance compared to public schools persists.
• Education and technology, like the digital divide, and inequalities in access to information technology.

Influence of Social Factors on Education

• Social factors and imbalances affect educational outcomes.
• Macrosocial influences impact student outcomes through school and neighborhood dynamics.

Educational Research Findings

• Gender differences exist in student achievement.
• Stereotype threat negatively impacts performance, particularly for students underrepresented groups.
• Positive stereotypes can enhance performance; this is known as stereotype promise.
• Education policy has been implemented to promote equal opportunity (e.g., President Eisenhower's actions regarding the Little Rock Nine).

Educational Technology

• The digital divide is a significant issue; access to technology impacts education.
• Technology in education can include information technology, educational technology, and lifelong learning.
• Educational technology's impact on everyday life.

Types of Democracies

• Monarchies and liberal democracies.
• Constitutional monarchies (kings or queens play largely a ceremonial role)
• Authoritarianism (governing bodies use force to maintain control).
• Direct democracy and participatory are forms of democracy that allow citizens to engage in decision making.

The State and its Characteristics

• State sovereignty refers to its undisputed political rule in a given territory.
• Failed states are where the central government has lost control and authority.
• Types of states with particular characteristics include nation-states.

Citizenship Rights

• Civil rights (legal rights), political rights (voting rights), social rights (welfare and societal benefits).

Symbols and Power Structures

• The White House is a symbol of the U.S. presidency.
• Theories of who rules focus on democratic elitism (limiting democratic participation) and power elites (small networks of powerful individuals).
• Power elites and military might.

Economic Focus on Education, Technology, and the Future

• Economic changes in the US (e.g., the changing nature of the workforce, transitioning from agriculture to services).
• Technology's impact on society, including military technology and its relation to conflict causes.
• The concept of the digital divide.

Political Participation and Social Movements

• Interest groups and their lobbying efforts in the political arena.
• Types of political participation(e.g., age, gender, racial differences)
• Social movements (e.g., the impact of the environment on society, global warming, climate change, and population trends).

Population Growth and Environmental Challenges

• Global population growth is a major issue with socio-demographic implications.
• The relationship between human actions and environmental sustainability (including environmental threats).
• Human population growth and resource use.

Urbanization and Environmental Issues

• Changes in rural, suburban, and urban environments in the U.S. and globally.
• Urbanization challenges. Environmental issues and effects of urbanization.
• Cities as areas of social life, characterized by specific patterns like impersonality or proximity.

Environmental Racism

• Minoritized groups experience disproportionately high burdens from environmental hazards.

Environmental Issues and Sociology

• How environmental sociology views the relationship between human behavior and the environment.