Sociology of Education Spring 2008

Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur
Email: marthur AT ric DOT edu

Office: South Court 113, x4219
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1-4; appointments available Tuesday and Thursday 10:30-11:30; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays after 4 pm, and other times as necessary.
Course meets Wednesday and Friday, 2:30-3:45, Ben 201

Course syllabus, in .pdf format
Service learning information at Hamilton College and information on what service learning is
Hamilton College archives
Downloadable copies of course assignments
Discussion questions to guide your reading
Images and data shown in class
Internet & bibliographic resources: the American Sociological Association Section on the Sociology of Education

People have always been educated, but over the past few centuries, formal schooling has changed from the province of elites and clergymen to an institution that boys and girls enter as toddlers and exit as teenagers or adults—in other words, one of the institutions that affects our lives and our society most significantly. This course considers how education as an institution is structured and what its effects are in contemporary, historical, and comparative perspective. It examines education as a stratifying mechanism and how education plays a role in socialization and cultural transmission. A main focus will be the intersection of race, class, gender, and other forms of inequality within the educational system. The course will cover education from the earliest grades through graduate school, as well as contentious contemporary policy issues in education.

This course aims to provide students with the skills to understand the organization, stratification, and culture of educational systems and institutions. By the end of the course, students are expected to have improved their abilities in sociological analysis, developed their sociological writing and primary research skills, come to understand their own place within educational systems and hierarchies, and become able to use their skills and abilities to debate important contemporary policy issues related to education.

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