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Sociology 3317 Problems of Higher Mass Education 519-859-2710 azavitzg@uwo.ca Week 1 The Sociological Perspective/Analysis of Mass Education 1)What is Sociology? Sociology is the systematic study patterns of social interactions & relationships in human society (Most important word here is patterned… patterned behaviour. It is a trend worth looking at) *Social order* Social disorder* Social change The heart of the discipline is a distinctive point of view called “the sociological perspective”. 2) Sociological Perspective a) Seeing the general in the particular b) Seeing the strange in the familiar c) Seeing individuality in social context EXPLANATION: Sociologist’s study… 1) Strange in familiar Sociologists look at everything as it is new. Teach people to make familiar things new. Taken for granted assumptions. Question the norm. 2) Individual within a social context How an individual becomes themselves in social contexts and the environment they are in. Sociologists are interested in social contexts in which an individual was formed. 3) General in the particular Particular behaviours and question whether there is a pattern within this behaviour. ON NEXT TEST: JT calls Canada these 5 characteristics… equal, free, multicultural, democratic and meritocracy society Meritocracy- If you try hard enough, you can reach your goals. Oprahtization – overtization of society. Oprah tells people just to keep working, and if they try hard enough they can get it too. The sociological perspective helps us to: - Look critically at the world around us – much of what we assume about the world is simply not true - Understand that our place in the world profoundly affects our daily experiences and “choices”

Often opposes “typical” explanations Sociological Perspective asserts: What is an ideology? Dominant hegemonic ideology Social Stratification hierarchy - What is a social stratification hierarchy? “List” “Ranking System” “Ladder” POWER STRUCTURE! We can rank people by occupations, education, race, etc. … CEOS POLITICANS DR LAWYER CONSTRUCTION WORKER TEACHER NURSE ETC MCJOBS NO JOB We are a Corpocracy Society Why do we believe ideology to be true?  Why do people at the top of the stratification hierarchy believe it to be true?  Why do people at the bottom believe it to be true?  Who benefits?  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/rich-country-poor-nations-11-facts-about-the- gap/videocde7a5f1-2dba-4d88-9414-f93461c56f9a/ Ideology – lens, framework, screen, “like a pair of glasses” through which we see understand and interpret our social world. Unique different frameworks! WE HAVE: Dominant hegemonic ideologies IN CANADA Dominant ideology in Canada: being catholic How is God used to interpret our social world? What’s right & wrong. Morality! Hegemonic: coined by Gramnsci, still used by Chomsky. What does it mean to say a ideology is hegemonic? Works against you but you buy into it and believe it to be true. Christianity? Most people buy into it and believe it anyways We have a Dominant Hegemonic Ideology called a liberal democracy Liberal democracy thinks Canada is the 5 things JT says. We don’t question the position of power because we believe in it. We believe they got there fairly because of liberal democracy.

o One has a sociological imagination when s/he understands her/his own experience by locating her/himself within her/his socio-historical period and becoming aware of other individuals in the same circumstance. (We should be teaching people how to use their sociological imagination) claims if we use this, we can make the world a better place. C. Wright Mills set out with the overall thesis that the individual can be understood only by locating oneself in his/her own era and understand others in the same era. This also allows for a larger historical understanding in terms of greater societal concepts and meanings. Overall – neither individual life nor societal history can be understood without understanding both. Grasping the interplay between these different situations. Think of this as a tool to enable us in society to grasp the relations between history and biography. Sociological Imagination  The Sociological Imagination enables one to distinguish between personal troubles and public/social issues  These two are often connected. An incident of personal troubles is often a result of social/structural issues or changes.  As a result- it is important to look beyond the personal realm into greater social structures. Need to understand how the categories we belong to shape our particular life experiences. Understand why some people act a certain way than others in the same society. Insiders vs outsiders. Personal troubles - These are within the individual range of immediate relations with others, and have to do with the limited areas of social life of which one is directly and personally aware of. Example – fight between two people joined together in a housing/rental/roommate situation (possibly bound by rental contract).

Public Issues - Also involves the overlapping of various social structures to form a larger structure of social and historical life. This often involves a debate over what the social value is truly about and what it is that is really threatening these values. Often involves a crisis in institutional arrangements involving contradictions Example- employment (one in 100,000 is a personal trouble but when these numbers reach the millions, it is no longer an individual’s skill levels and immediate opportunities that are to blame) We are now forced as a society to re-evaluate the economic/political institutions of our current society. Evaluating aspects of one’s social life means identifying social forces and assessing the consequences of these forces acting upon our life. History and Biography Mills argues that in order to understand social issues in our society, we need to understand the connection between the historical social structure of a society and the individualistic personal troubles a person faces. Biography/ Personal Troubles History/ Public issues Biography & History, your own story is connected to history and how it has changed. What we experience is influenced by a social historical context. YOUR HISTORY VS OVERALL HISTORY Personal Troubles & Public Issues, if someone was going through homelessness, we need to look at the housing issue and public factors that can influence. EX: Anorexia, one thing someone experienced can be a pattern. Explain why there is a pattern occurring. Why? Social Media, ED culture, peers, ideological lens, Covid, isolation or overexposure of diet culture or working out, “girl dinner”. Romanticizing barely eating. Move beyond the individual to see social structures. Application  When an Indigenous girl faces obstacles in her life such as drug addiction, some of this can be explained as her own individualistic, personal trouble.  Yet, because Indigenous people have a PATTERN of drug addiction, something is happening within the wider historical structure of society to produce this pattern or trend.  I would argue that we need to look to a history of racist and discriminatory treatment of Indigenous people to begin to explain some of the issues they face today. Examples  Divorce  Personal trouble- If 1/100 people in our society get a divorce, this can be understood as a personal trouble.  Public issue- If 50/100 marriages end in divorce, this constitutes a pattern or trend.

CW Mills Biography  History Personal troubles  Public Issues Individual = Social Structures Extensism of Youth *Adolescence is a biological time period *Inevitable stage humans have to develop from *In the past, there was no adolescence or youth MIKE 25 LIVES AT HOME Individualistic / Personal (MH) Systematic / Social Structural (MH) CEO’S Benefit from EY because there is an extended period to sell to. Youth have the most amount of spendable money. Not spending money on mortgages, children, etc. Expendable resources. What do they sell you? Selling your identity to you? TWEEN? (9-12) Tweens are all a social construct. Who created this idea? CEOS CREATED IT AND FEED IT TO US. Individualistic (mike living at home) is now a pattern or trend happening in society. We have to use our sociological imagination to understand. Must understand how its political (benefits the government and people of patterns). Current Canadian Party Leaders Justin Trudeau Leader of the Liberal Party since April 14, 2013. Erin O'Toole Leader of the Conservative Party since August 24, 2020. Jagmeet Singh Leader of the New Democratic Party since October 1, 2017. Yves-François Blanchet Leader of the Bloc Quebecois since January 17, 2019. Annamie Paul Leader of the Green Party of Canada- resigned after the election

Political Continuum Green, NDP, Liberal, P.C, PPC. Left  Communism (Marx perspective means EQUALITY )  Inverted  There is no hierarchical ranking  They want equality. They want to get rid of inequality.  UP THE TAXES (increases social services)  Example^ education & medical. We pay more taxes  Example: Cuba (the government distributes the money for everyone)  Much more capitalist than its ever been Extreme Right  Fascism  Authoritarianism  Conservative  Individualistic (you are in control of your own welfare)  Lower taxes  DECREASING THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT  Decentralization  Neoliberalism (less control from market)  You are at the bottom of the hierarchy because YOU put yourself there (blame individuals)  Economic focus, not social! Economic focus for themselves.  Maintain tradition

Different theoretical perspectives yield different ways of looking at, understanding, and explaining social phenomena. Students may find one perspective or approach very useful for answering some questions and another theory better for different ones. 3) Let’s compare the three perspectives: 1) Durkheim/Structural functionalism 2) Marx/Conflict theory 3) Weber/Symbolic Interactionism NOTE all three theories have some things in common: a) They are all perspectives that are tying to explain the world around us. b) They all have certain assumptions associated with them. c) They are trying to explain- social order, social disorder, and social change. d) Each theorist is trying to understand the role between agency and structure. 1) Emile Durkheim (1855- 1917) Germany STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM: Associated with EMILE DURKHEIM The structural functionalist paradigm or framework for building theory sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability . IDEA OF EVOLUTION Claims suicide is more related to SS rather than agency Key points to remember: a) Macro theory- structural functionalists (social structure controls agency, we have no agency) b) Conservative- right c) Society – exists (works outside of human agency) says society are interconnected institutions d) Institutions are interconnected and work together to produce harmony and equilibrium.

e) Function - Everything in society serves a function. Structural functionalism is the study of social practices or social structures in terms of how they contribute to the stability and con- tinuation of a society as a whole. f) Human body – parts of your body interconnecting g) No agency- social structure controls agency Social structure ↓ Agency Believes social structure controls agency… that we have no agency. MACROSOCIOLOGICALTHEORISTS: FOCUS ON SOC STRUCTURE h) Basic state of society is consensus and stability. (harmony, balance, equilbirum) i) Evolution – everything in society serves a function j) Equality – inequality = functional & positive (social strafticaition hierarchy is functional and serves a purpose) & claims change is natural and inevitable (racism = natural/inevitable) Durkheim is trying to discover the bases of cohesion or solidarity in society. He wants to know what keeps society from disintegrating. How do we have social order in society? He is concerned with social organization, orderly change, and the relationships among social facts- or the social values of institutions that transcend the individual. Structural functionalism – Talcott Parsons- wrote directly about the functions of education in society. Functionalists talk about the hidden curriculum of education in a positive and functional manner. Criticisms or limitations: 2) Karl Marx (1818- 1883) Germany Conflict Theory

restrict democratic participation to maintain material and ideological conditions that generate profit. 3) Max Weber (1864- 1920) Germany SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM Associated with Weber and more recently George Herbert Mead. Key points to remember: a) MICRO b) Humans have complete agency Social structure ↑ Agency c) Complete agency INDIVIDUALS HAVE COMPLETE AGENCY HAVE THEN CREATE SOCIAL STRUCTURES d) Unit of analysis is the individual e) Main concern: shared meanings f) Reality is socially constructed. (Society isn’t real [doesn’t exist] beyond the way we think of it) g) Interpretation is subjective: h) Social interactions are based on interpretations and shared meanings. Interactions and relationships create patterns and social structures. i) Symbols: meaning arises from language and symbols in society (HE IS INTERESTED IN HOW WE GIVE MEANING TO THINGS) j) Inequality: Society = capitalism

Claims no such thing as race. Biological phenomena. We gave biological characteristics meaning which we then have racism as a result. Rationalization for Weber is a process that involves science, technical knowledge, and systemic planning. It is most strongly apparent in bureaucratic organizations governed by formal rules and procedures, a hierarchy of authority, and based on formal credentialism. Interested in only how individuals give meaning to things in society. EVERYTHING is socially constructed. ***How we interact based on shared meaning*** Everything is socially constructed. It is real in the way we construct and interpret it. Criticisms or limitations: Too much emphasis on the economy We can interpret these sociologists based on how they describe change. How does Durkheim social change? Explains through evolution How does Marx explain social change? Revolution How does Weber explain social change? Agency (WE USE OUR AGENCY TO UNDERSTAND SYMBOLS) Change, ideas, the way we think about our social world. How does Durkheim explain social order? Interconnected institutions that create hierarchy How does Marx explain social order? As a result of false consciousness How does Weber explain social order? By shared meaning Marx explains disorder: comes from capitalism = SOURCE OF ALL CONFLICT. Weber explains disorder: weber we lack shared meaning Durkheim explains disorder:

 Mid 1800s indigenous education  Early 1900s public schools intro  Bureaucratization of education 1920s-1950s  Education expansion 1970s until today (not many changes in types of education being offered) Spend over 100 billion a year in education - 8% of labor force works in education (full time) Before 20th century there was no such thing as formal education in Canada - People did not have to go to school 3 Major figures in historical education development  Bishop Laval New France prominent promoter of education system and education in France  Egerton Ryerson Upper Canada  John Jessop BC  Why they pushed education?   Religion   State authority   Related to military procedure (put children into school and teach them to be one way)  Indoctrination in religion and the state (teach kids certain things about Canada, religion)  They wanted somewhere for children to go (like a formalized daycare)  Mass industrialization (family farms moved to more cities and the children on farms were working but when they moved to cities they needed some new form of “daycare”)  Industrialization happened in 1950s when woman began joining the work force, and after the baby boom  3) 1867 British North American Act - Before education became prominent, each province is in charge of its own education  Came about when Canada confederated   Vast majority of provinces were catholic based and protestant or anglican (British)  Most = Religious base   Education = religion  4) Prior to colonization  Indigenous / First Nations  Communities = varied  Education did not come about because the British North American Act  Mistakes we made during colonization made it seem that all communities were the same like First Nations - but these communities had different practises, customs, beliefs etc  All Indigenous people believe in land base education and knowledge - Based on spiritual, nature, natural land and physical surrounds versus religion teaching (Indigenous occupied different areas of Canada)  Homogenization - Indigenous people are very varied, different peoples with different ideas - education was part of their community but their education is different then settlers brought 

 Land base education - Want to be one with the land, learning about the land  You wouldn’t hear a lot of Indigenous people theorizing about philosophy because they didn't understand the relevance of it - improve the person by relationship with the land and elder (community based, intergenerational)   Indigenous does not believe in didactic learning - Its interpretative no such thing as hierarchical rating (teacher has no power over students, learner and teacher is as one, teacher is always learning from students)  Land based = based off experiences Education = applied, to improve person, story telling 5 R’s  1. Respect 2. Resilience  3. Relationships 4. Responsibility  5. Reciprocrocity  Education = hierarchical   Interconnectedness   Belonging   Relationships  Land is not a commodity - you cannot own land (land is for everyone to enjoy, nature owns it, belongs to all of us) = borrowed 5. Colonization (taking over people and their land)  Christopher Columbus & European settlers came upon Indigenous   Homogenized all Indigenous as “same” = Indians   Indian is a rather a derogatory term (socially constricted term) B) Doctrine of discovery  Terra Nullius - if you come across land that is unclaimed or uninhabited, you can claim that land as your own Indian = savage if they were savages then we can apply the doctrine of discovery (take over them and their land) Indian as problematic  Uncivilized AKA savage c) Contact and cooperation - fur trade (people came and crossed to trade fur it was European people, which then they discovered how to use the land, they then tried to get rid of Indigenous peoples) How did they try to get rid of Indigenous peoples?  Infected the fur to spread disease (small pocks)   Put them on the front lines of the war (French vs British)  Assimilation - residential schools  Sterilization  How were they tricked?  Indigenous could not read the treaty and they were threated if they did not sign it

2 main objectives of formal education 1. Schooling provides formal learning opportunities through curriculum all learners have equal access to fundamental skills and knowledge  2. Formal education contributes to moral regulations nd the shaping of peoples identities  Schools were important in terms of Canada’s nation building Obstacles 1. It was necessary to raise money to build schools and hire qualified teachers as well as operare educational schools programs 2. Promoters had to mobilize support for public schooling in the face of considerable opposition for various sources of income including religious dominations and supporters of private schools 3. There was a limited supply of trained teachers  Authoritarian Power Implaced in schools in 1990s Belt and hit you if you were in the principles office or by the teacher if they were not behaving and not paying attention Teaches children to learn efficiently  Education has become a corporation  Education is now a business Us students are products  c) Industry science and the Bureaucratic organization of schooling (1910s to 1940s) School administrators sought to ensure the success of schooling by making the education system relevant and perceived as  useful to life in industrial societies  They emphasized that students had to be trained to adapt to the changing world and coming out of school with skills and knowledge would contribute to their gainful employment  Yes buercractic organization of schooling relevant today cuz run by government but lack of preparedness. Language and minority rights Each province had language associated with it then each province had different language requirements  D) educational expansion in the post-world war two era (1940s-1970) 1. An increasing array of educational institutions, programs and curricula emerged incorporating a broad range of courses and subject areas not previously taught 2. Growing number of people enrolled in educational programs remained in them for longer periods of time. Massive increase in the enrollment and educational engagement of students since the end of World War

Formal education A. Post cold war scientific and technological advancement  B. Growth of thehad a profound impact on schooling after WW2 C. Rising credentialism - by the mid 20th century formal education gained increasing recognition as a credentialing mechanism soc 3317 exam - Definitions 10 marks - Fill in the blanks 10 marks - Short essay questions 20 marks - Multiple choice 50 marks - Essay or long answer questions 20 marks Week 5 Lowering Higher Education Allahar & Cite Lost our ways in university Most important aspects have been lost Academia used to be about thinking for yourself Taught to regurate information now – claims there is decline What kind of lessons do you learn in university? Example: Kindergarten & University Similarities - Didactic - Hierarchy - Disconnected from real world - Conformity (followed hierarchy and what our teachers told us) - Rigid Agenda - Follow the rules - Norms/socialization - Goal is good grades - Goal in university is to be ranked high - Time management If you get a degree, you are able to do all of these ^ very well. You learn how to be a good little capitalist Education is on the decline! THE MEAT OF THE EDUCATION IS ON THE DOWNFALL. What they are teaching is less valuable than what they were teaching 20 years ago.