Download religion - Introduction to Sociology and World Economic Geography

School of Business Administration
IU – VNU HCMC
BA116IU
Introduction to Social Sciences
Semester Autumn/1, 2009-2010
Instructor:
Dr. Truong Thi Kim Chuyen
USSH – VNU HCMC
10 - 12 Dinh Tien Hoang Str., Dist. 1, HCMC
Phone: (08) 8298686
Email: [email protected]
1
Chapter 13
RELIGION AND EDUCATION
Chapter Outline
•Durkheim and the Sociological Approach to Religion
•World Religions
•The Role of Religion
•Religious Behavior
•Religious Organization
•Sociological Perspectives on Education
•Schools as Formal Organizations
2
McGraw-Hill 2006 ©
Durkheim and Sociological Approach
to Religion
█Emile Durkheim perhaps first
sociologist to recognize the critical
importance of religion in human
societies
– Stressed social impact of religion
Viewed religion as collective act;
religion includes many forms of
behavior in which people interact
with others
McGraw-Hill 2006 ©
Durkheim and Sociological Approach
to Religion
█Defined religion as “unified system of
beliefs and practices relative to
sacred things”
• Religious faiths distinguish between events
that transcend the ordinary and the everyday
world:
Profane: includes the ordinary and commonplace
Sacred: includes elements that inspire awe, respect,
and fear. People become a part of the sacred by
completing some ritual
McGraw-Hill 2006 ©
World Religions
• World Religions
–About 85% of world’s population
adheres to some religion
–Christianity is largest single faith, the
second largest is Islam
Although the differences among religions are striking, they
are exceeded by variations within faiths.
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are monotheistic
Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism developed in India.
Buddhism is now primarily found in Asia.
World Religions
█ Figure 13.1: Religions of the World
World Religions
The Role of Religion
– Among its manifest (open and stated)
functions, religion defines the spiritual
world and gives meaning to the divine. It
provides an explanation for events that
are difficult to understand
– The latent functions of religion
are unintended, covert, or
hidden
The Role of Religion
█The Integrative Function of
Religion
– Religion offers people meaning and purpose for
their lives
– Religion gives people certain ultimate values and
ends to hold in common
– These values and ends help society to function as
an integrated social system
The Role of Religion
█Religion and Social Support
– Through its emphasis on the divine and the
supernatural, religion allows us to “do something”
about calamities we face.
– Religion encourages us to view personal
misfortunes as unimportant in broader
perspective of human history
The Role of Religion
█Religion and Social Change
– The Weberian Thesis
• Weber argued that followers of John Calvin, a leader of
the Protestant Reformation, emphasized a disciplined
work ethic, this-worldly concerns, and rational
orientation for life
– Became known as Protestant ethic.
• “Spirit of capitalism” has emerged as generalized
cultural trait (in U.S.)
The Role of Religion
█Religion and Social Change
– Liberation Theology: Use of
church in political effort to
eliminate poverty,
discrimination, and other
forms of injustice evident in a
secular society
The Role of Religion
█Religion and Social Control: A
Conflict View
– Marx argued religion impeded social change by
encouraging people to focus on other-worldly
concerns rather than their poverty or exploitation
– Felt religion drugged the masses into submission
by offering a consolation for their harsh lives on
earth: the hope of salvation in an ideal afterlife
Religious Behavior
█Belief
– Religious beliefs:
statements to
which members of
a particular religion
adhere
Religious Behavior
█Ritual
– Religious Rituals: practices required or
expected of members of a faith
• Experience
– Religious Experience: feeling or perception of
being in direct contact with ultimate reality or of
being overcome with religious emotion
Religious Organization
Religious Organization
█ Figure 13.2: Belief in God Worldwide
Religious Organization
█Ecclesiae
– Religious organizations claiming to include most or
all members of a society and recognized as
national or official religion
Ecclesiae are conservative, in general,
and do not challenge the leaders of a
secular government.
Religious Organization
█Denominations
– Large, organized religion not officially linked with
the state or government
• Tend to have an explicit set of beliefs, defined system of
authority, and generally respected position in society
• Usually claim large segments of population as members
Religious Organization
█Sects
– Relatively small religious group that have broken
away from some other religious organization to
renew what they consider the original vision of
the faith
Fundamentally at odds with society and do
not seek to become established national
religions
Religious Organization
█New Religious Movements or Cults
– Small secretive religious groups that represent
either a new religion or a major innovation of an
existing faith
New religious movements are similar to
sects in that they tend to be small and are
viewed as less respectable than more
established faiths.
Religious Organization
█ Figure 13.3: Largest Religious Groups in the United States by County, 2000
Religious Organization
█Comparing Forms of Religious
Organization
– Ecclesiae, denominations, sects, and new religious
movements have somewhat different
relationships to society
• Ecclesiae, denominations, and sects best viewed as
types along a continuum
• Advances in electronic communication have led to the
electronic church
Religious Organization
Case Study: Religion in India
█The Religious Tapestry in India
– Today, Muslims account for 11% of India’s
population; Hindus make up 83%
– Other popular faiths in India include Sikh and
Jainism
Case Study: Religion in India
█Religion and the State in India
– India is a secular state dominated by Hindus
– Many see religion as moving force in Indian
society, especially politics
– Religious divide in India is greater now than it has
been at any time since the partition of India and
Pakistan
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Functionalist View
– Manifest function of education is transmission of
knowledge
– Latent functions of education are transmitting
culture, promoting social and political integration,
maintaining social control, and serving as an agent
of change
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Functionalist View
– Transmitting Culture
• Exposing young people to existing beliefs,
norms, and values of their culture
– Promoting Social and Political Integration
• Transforms diverse population into a society whose
members share a common identity
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Functionalist View
– Maintaining Social Control
• Schools teach students punctuality, discipline,
scheduling, and responsible work habits, and how to
negotiate through a bureaucratic organization
– Serving as an Agent of Change
• Schools serve as meeting ground where distinctive
beliefs and traditions can be shared
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Conflict View
– Education is an instrument of
elite domination
– Schools reinforce existing social
class inequality
– Convince subordinate groups of
their inferiority
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Conflict View
– The Hidden Curriculum
• Standards of behavior deemed proper by society are
taught subtly in schools
– Credentialism
• An increase in the lowest level of education needed to
enter a field
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Conflict View
– Bestowal of Status
Tracking:
Practice of placing students in specific curriculum
groups on basis of test scores and other criteria
Correspondence Principle:
Schools promote the values expected of
individuals in each social class and perpetuate
class divisions from one generation to the next.
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Conflict View
– Treatment of Women in Education
• In the United States, the
educational system has
long been characterized by
discriminatory treatment of
women
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Conflict View
– Treatment of Women in Education
• Sexism in education shows up in many ways:
–
–
–
–
Stereotypes in textbooks
Pressure on women to study traditional women’s subjects
Unequal funding for men’s and women’s athletic programs
Employment bias for administrators and teachers
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Conflict View
– Treatment of Women in Education
• Women have made great strides in proportion of
women continuing their education
• In cultures where traditional gender roles remain as
social norms, women’s education suffers appreciably
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
█Interactionist View
– Labeling and self-fulfilling prophecy suggest if we
treat people in particular ways, they may fulfill our
expectations.
Teacher-Expectation Effect:
impact of teacher expectations and their
large role in student performance
.
Sociological Perspectives on Education
.
Schools as Formal Organizations
█Bureaucratization of Schools
– Weber noted five characteristics of bureaucracy,
all of which are evident in most schools:
•
•
•
•
•
Division of labor
Hierarchy of authority
Written rules and regulations
Impersonality
Employment based on technical qualifications
.
Schools as Formal Organizations
█ Teachers: Employees and Instructors
– The Teacher’s Conflict
• Organization follows principles of hierarchy and expects
adherence to its rules
• Professionalism demands individual responsibility of
the practitioner
• Many fewer students choose teaching as career than in
the past due to perceived low income, cost of
education, and low respect given to profession
.
Schools as Formal Organizations
█Student Subcultures
– Schools provide for students’ social and
recreational needs, and student subculture is
complex and diverse
– Research identified four ideal types of subcultures
at the college level:
–
–
–
–
Collegiate
Academic
Vocational
Nonconformist
.
Schools as Formal Organizations
█ Figure 13.5: Students at Risk: Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual
.
Schools as Formal Organizations
█Home Schooling
– More than 1.6 million students now being
educated at home
– Home schooling has increased in recent years, in
part due to concerns with:
– Poor academic quality of schools
– Peer pressure
– School violence
.
Social Policy and Religion
█Religion in the Schools
– The Issue
• Should public schools be allowed to sponsor organized
prayers or other expressions of religion in the
classroom?
– Those who object want to maintain a strict separation of
church and state.
– Who has right to decide these issues?
Social Policy and Religion
█Religion in the Schools
– The Setting
• The issues are at heart of the First Amendment’s
provisions on religious freedom
• In 1987 Supreme Court ruled that states could not
compel teaching of creationism in public schools
– Many school districts now require that teachers entertain
alternative theories to evolution
McGraw-Hill 2006 ©
Social Policy and Religion
• Religion in the Schools
– Sociological Insights
Supporters of school prayer and of creationism
feel that use of nondenominational prayer will in
no way lead to establishment of an ecclesia in the
United States
Opponents of school prayer and creationism
argue that religious majority in community might
impose religious viewpoints specific to its faith at
expense of religious minorities.
McGraw-Hill 2006 ©
Social Policy and Religion
█Religion in the Schools
– Policy Initiatives
• School education is fundamentally a local issue, though
in 2003, President Bush declared that schools with
policies that prevent school prayer are at risk to lose
government funding.
• The activism of religious fundamentalists in the nation’s
public schools raises a more general question: Whose
ideas and values deserve a hearing in classrooms?
McGraw-Hill 2006 ©
Key terms
• Correspondence principle The tendency of schools
to promote the values expected of individuals in
each social class and to prepare students for the type
of job typically held by members of their class.
• Credentialism An increase in the lowest level of
education needed to enter a field.
• Education A formal process of learning in which
some people consciously teach while others adopt
the social role of learner
Key terms
• Hidden curriculum Standards of behavior that are
deemed proper by society and are taught subtly in
schools.
• Teacher-expectancy effect The impact that a
teacher’s expectations about a student’s
performance may have on the student’s actual
achievements.
• Tracking The practice of placing students in specific
curriculum groups on the basic of their test scores
and other criteria.
SUMMARY
• The transmission of knowledge and bestowal of status are
manifest functions of education. Among the talent functions
are transmitting culture, promoting social and political
integration, maintaining social control, and serving as an
agent of social change.
• In the view of conflict theorists, education serves as an
instrument of elite domination by creating standards for entry
into occupations, bestowing status unequally, and
subordinating the role of women.
• Teacher expectations about a student’s performance can
sometimes have an impact on the student’s actual
achievements.
SUMMARY
• Today, most schools in the US are organized in a bureaucratic
fashion. Weber’s five basic characteristics of bureaucracy are
all evident in schools.
• Homeschooling has become a viable alternative to traditional
public and private schools. An estimated 1.6 million or more
American children are now educated at home.
• Today, the question of how much religion, if any, should be
permitted in the U.S. public schools is a matter of intense
debate.