American Schooling: Past,

Present, and Future

Gil Conchas
UC Irvine

Education 124
2
Jeffersons legacy--education
as the foundation of
democracy
Creative and rational thought is
democracys cornerstone
All citizens need basic literacy, the
talented need far more
The common good must be balanced
with individual liberty
Racial differences require social and
political distinction
3
Horace Manns legacy--the
common school as great
equalizer
common curriculum in a common place
knowledge and habits of citizenship, as
well as the basic literacy
the creator of wealth undreamed of--
eliminate poverty and crime
shape the destiny of a wise, productive
country.
4
Ever increasing 20th-
century expectations
1900-- cultural preservation--Americanizing immigrants
1910--workforce preparation--staffing the factories
1950--national security--beating the Russians in space
1960--the great society--eliminating poverty and
segregation
1980--economic competitiveness--beating the
Japanese; first in the world in math and science
2000--Leave No Child Behind--creating a more
literate domestic workforce in a global economy where
unskilled work can be outsourced
5
Sociological theory in the early
20th century--explaining
schools social role
Structural theories of how society works
Durkheim (functionalism)
Weber (bureaucracy and technical rationality)
Cultural beliefs, values, norms
Social Darwinism--racial inferiority
IQ--innate, immutable
An ideology of progress
Increasing social harmony
Expanding opportunity
6
Functionalist & bureaucratic ideas of a
productive & harmonious industrial
society
Society is an organic whole that requires the integration of all
of its various parts to maintain harmony & social order.
Integration and harmony require shared values
Advanced, complex societies require that technical skills be
differentiated, specialized, and coordinated into rational, goal
oriented bureaucracies
l Hierarchy of authority
l Impersonality
Written rules of conduct
Promotion based on achievement
Specialized division of labor
Efficiency

7
Functionalist & bureaucratic views of
schooling in a complex industrial
society
Social cohesion: brings together all communitys children for
a core civic education, respectful relations, solidarity
Social goal attainment: education provides differentiated
technical skills & socializes for coordination
Social fluidity: education is the means to realizing more
equitable distribution of social status and economic resources
across generations
Equal opportunity & meritocratic selection
Economic rewards follow from differences in level of technical skill and
contribution to the social whole
Arrangement supported by broad values consensus --
achievement, equal opportunity, productivity, materialism



8
James Conants peculiarly
American Comprehensive High
School


. . . it brings . . . one roof, secondary education for almost
all of the high school age children of one town or
neighborhood. It is responsible for educating the boy who
will be an atomic scientist and the girl who will marry at
eighteen; the prospective captain of a ship and the future
captain of industry. It is responsible for educating the bright
and not so bright with different vocational and professional
ambitions. It is responsible, in sum, for providing good and
appropriate education, both academic and vocational, for all
young people within a democratic environment which the
American people believe serves the principles they cherish.


John Gardner, Foreword to James Conant, The American High School Today(1959)

9
Contradictory Evidence


Assumptions remain firmly in place in the face of
contradictory evidence
Doubtful that social cohesion has increased--in
fact, persistent race and social class segregation
Increased economic inequality, even in the face of
increased school attainment
Differentiation/meritocratic selection in school has
consistently mirrored/reinforced stratification
Why no disruption of schooling patterns that seem to
contradict our democratic goals for schools?

10
Conventional Views of
Schooling Inequality
Schools structures and processes are neutral, social-class
fair, and colorblind
Ability and effort/persistence determine achievement and
success
Cultural, linguistic, community, and/or income-related
deficits/differences make school learning more difficult for
students of color and low-income students
Unequal access to high quality schooling may exacerbate
these cultural, linguistic, and poverty-related
disadvantages, and those inequalities are troublesome
Despite their problems, schools provide the route to social
and economic mobility

11
Conventional Solutions to
Inequality
Conservatives argue that stronger family
support and more school-oriented values
will help these students take advantage
of schooling opportunities
Liberals argue that these students need
to be remedied with compensatory
programs to help them overcome their
disadvantages
Progressives seek distributional policies
to level the playing field
12
Social and Cultural Reproduction
Theories
Why working class children consistently
end up in working class jobs
Structural theories (schools mirror and
reproduce the structures & practices of the
capitalist economy)
Cultural theories (schools embody the
ideology that presents the culture of the
dominant class as merit)
Structural and cultural contradictions allow
schools to play a key role in maintain and
legitimate inequality, even as they promote
an ideology of social mobility though
opportunity and fair competition
13
Bowles and Gintis
Schooling in Capitalist America (1976)
Revisit Marxist economic theory
Schools serve the needs of the capitalist
economy
legitimate technical meritocracy
fragment workers into stratified groups
socialize students to relationships of
dominance and subordination
legitimate inequality
produce ample labor to keep costs down
14
Bowles and Gintis
The Correspondence
Principle
School practices and relations mirror
those in capitalist workplaces
organization of work and power--managers
and workers
lack of control by the worker
extrinsic rewards
competition among individuals, specialization
of subjects, fragmented nature of work
legitimation of inequality
15

Bowles and Gintis
Reproduction occurs both between
& within schools

Between school differences that reflect different
values and expectations of working and middle
class communities, as well as by teachers and
administrators
Tracking differences within schools

16
Bourdieu
Cultural and Social Capital
Culture as mediating the reproduction of inequality--less
mechanistic, but still determinist
Social classes have distinct cultures that they transmit to
their children
Schools embody and reward the culture of the advantaged
classes as inborn intelligence and as educated
Cultural capital--knowledge and dispositions that can be
exchanged for economic capital
Social capital--connections with those who make advantaged
positions available
School success translates into advantaged social and
economic position
17
Bourdieus Habitus
How individuals participate in
reproducing social and economic
inequality
Reflexive relationship between structure,
aspirations, and actions--between outer reality
and inner consciousness
Aspirations and ambitions leveled by social class
experience
Whats natural for people like us
Internalized hierarchy of inequality, justified by
an ideology of cultural meritocracy
18
Basil Bernstein &
Shirley Brice Heath
Language as Central to
Culture

empirical studies in England and the US
social class differences in linguistic codes-
-restricted and elaborated
schools embody and reward mastery of
middle class codes
19
Oakes
The Mechanisms of Structural
& Cultural Inequality


Keeping Track--structural inequality and
its legitimation within schools
Multiplying Inequalities--unequal patterns
between and within schools
Matchmaking--culture, race, and class
trump merit in the competition for
schooling opportunities
20
Paul Willis
Rejection and Reproduction
students play an active role in a complex and
contradictory process of reproducing inequality
examined the day to day processes in schools with
working-class boys
the lads penetrated and rejected the achievement
ideology
meaning making and agency created an anti-school
culture
feminization of conformity to school
rejection was both transformative have a laf and
limiting--cementing their fate in lower-class jobs
21
Paulo Freire, Henry
Giroux & Peter McLaren
Critical Theory & Critical
Pedagogy
ideology and hegemony of capitalism and
inequality are powerful but not
impenetrable
resistance as rooted in political rejection
of the dominant ideology and potentially
liberating
critical pedagogy as disruptive
22
Is it Race or is it Social
Class?
The American Challenge to
Social Theory
Which matters most? Can they be untangled?
Adding race to the social class analyses of
Bowles and Gintis and Bordieu
Studies of white privilege and whiteness
Critical Race Theory questioning the very
existence of race-neutrality in American society
and institutions
23
What would social reproduction
theorists say to these explanations of
inequality?
Schools structures and processes are neutral, social-class fair,
and colorblind
Ability and effort/persistence determine achievement and
success
Cultural, linguistic, community, and/or income-related
deficits/differences make achievement more difficult for
students of color and low-income students
Unequal access to high quality schooling may exacerbate
these cultural, linguistic, and poverty-related
disadvantages,and these are troublesome
Despite their problems, schools success is the route to social
and economic mobility

24

Schooling inequality is integral to
capitalist society

Inequality is constructed through the
interplay of . . .


Social structures that advantage those with power
and wealth
Cultural ideologies that cast privilege as merit and
white as colorblind
Agency/resistance that is ultimately self-defeating for
those who challenge the dominant structures and
cultural norms
25
What would social reproduction
theorists say in response to the
most commonly offered
solutions to inequality?
Conservatives argue that stronger family
support and more school-oriented values will
help disadvantaged students take advantage of
schooling opportunities
Liberals argue that these students need to be
remedied with compensatory programs to help
them overcome their disadvantages
Progressive seek distributive policies to level
the playing field

26
Democratic equality competes with capitalist
inequality in the American culture and
rhetoric. The struggle for equality must
simultaneously . . .
Alter social structures, practices, and the distribution of resources
and opportunities
Challenge prevailing cultural ideologies (in curriculum, conceptions
of intelligence, and the norms of merit).
Engage agents (students and educators) in transformative
resistance
Look beyond schools to more equitable economic, social, and
political structures
27
Hope and struggle
around contradictory
cultural commitments

Common good as well as competitive individual
liberty
Open opportunity as well as social sorting
Merit as well as privilege
Racial equality as well as white supremacy
Political equality as well as growing economic
inequality