Sociology of Education

Overview of social scientific study of education, with special focus on sociology (along with history and philosophy). Examination of contemporary sociology of education’s focus on stratification at two levels. Examination of how scholars have studied schools’ role in maintaining or altering stratification and inequality by looking at quantitative and qualitative approaches to race, class, gender, and sexuality in education. Examination of how focus on stratification can exist alongside, provide foundation for, or obfuscate other longstanding commitments in study of schooling including moral character, citizenship, ethnic nationalism, and maintenance of particular economic, racial, and sexual order. Examination of classic philosophical texts and recent sociological and historical work on how broader structures of government, culture, and social institutions affect what schools do and what actors believe they are supposed to do.

S/U or letter grading.