Sociology Chapter 14 Prepare Students Probe How Such Organizations Respond

CHAPTER 14: EDUCATION AND HEALTH CARE

BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Schooling and Society

II. Does Schooling Matter?

III. Education and Social Mobility

IV. Education and Inequality

A. Segregation and Resegregation

B. Testing and Accountability

VIII. The Sociology of Health and Illness

IX. Health Disparities and Social Inequality

A. Race, Ethnicity, and Health Care

B. Social Class and Health Care

C. Gender and Health Care

D. LGBTQ Health

E. Health and Disability

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand the role of schools in society.

2. Explain the connection between education and social mobility.

3. Outline the race and class inequalities within education.

KEY TERMS (listed in text)

achievement test (374)

Medicare (384)

KEY PEOPLE

Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray (369)

LECTURE OUTLINE

I. Schooling and Society

1. Schooling is the formal, institutionalized aspect of education. The function

of education in a society is the systematic transmission of the society’s

knowledge; it also socializes the young in society’s morals, values, and

ethics.

2. Compulsory education was established in the United States at the

beginning of the 20th century; even then, state laws regulating attendance

II. Does Schooling Matter?

Education is increasingly necessary for future opportunities.

1. Social class, or socioeconomic status (SES), is based on the amount of

A. Education and Social Mobility

1. Education is perceived as the main route to upward social mobility, but

the educational level is still affected by social class origins.

III. Education and Inequality

Education has reduced many inequalities in society: more high school diplomas are

awarded to minorities, and more minorities and women graduate from two- and four-

year colleges. However, many inequalities still exist in U.S. education.

A. Segregation and Resegregation

1. In 1964, Brown vs. the Board of Education ruled that segregation in

education was unconstitutional. The decision led to desegregation of

B. Testing and Accountabiliy

1. Education in the United States has relied heavily on the use of

standardized tests like the SAT or ACT.

2. Standardized tests have been criticized on three grounds:

a. They tend to measure only limited ranges of ability;

college grades, even for white students.

3. Overall, average scores for tests such as the SAT differ by race,

ethnicity, social class, and gender.

4. Whites score higher on standardized tests than minorities, and the higher a

person’s social class, the higher one’s test score is likely to be.

5. Herrnstein and Murray (authors of The Bell Curve) argued that there is one

7. School Tracking and Individualized Education Plans.

a. The majority of both secondary and elementary schools currently

use some kind of tracking or ability grouping. This is believed to

education requirements because they become isolated from other

students. New trends focus on individualized education

programs (IEPs), which outline specific types of learning that

target specific needs.

d. Most researchers and educators agree that not all students should be

mixed together in the same classes.

C. Education in Global Perspective

1. The United States is no longer at the top of the list for having the best

school system in the world. This decline is attributed to the enormous

2. Because students in other nations spend more time in school, an

extended school year is viewed as one of the possible solutions to

lines.

IV. Sociological Theories of Education

A. Functionalist Theory

1. In the functionalist view, education is concerned with the systematic

transmission of society’s knowledge. It serves to unify and stabilize society

while serving societal functions of:

a. socialization (includes book knowledge, morals, values, ethics,

political and religious beliefs, habits and norms).

B. Conflict Theory

1. Conflict theory emphasizes the power and inequality that are part of

education as a social institution. Inequality primarily occurs along the lines

of class, gender, and race/ethnicity. Racial differences have also produced

the so-called achievement gap. A gender gap persists in the STEM

C. Symbolic Interaction Theory

1. Symbolic interaction focuses on what arises from the interaction process

during the schooling experience. One significant finding is the teacher

expectancy effect—the effect of teacher expectations on a student’s

actual performance.

2. The concept of self-fulling prophecy describes how merely applying a

V. Educational Reform

Most programs for reform now focus on “accountability”—measured assessments of

where schools are succeeding or failing—which has resulted in high-stakes testing.

Schools that are underachieving are often threatened with budget reductions or

VI. Health Care in the United States

Health care is a social institution, just like education. Within the United States there

are differences in life expectancy, infant mortality, general health, and access to

health care along lines of race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, disability, and immigrant

status.

The U.S. health care system is among the most advanced in the world, but there are

VII. The Sociology of Health and Illness

Health and illness are socially defined. That means that what you do about it, who

treats it and how, and whether it gets treated at all must be seen in a social context.

The choices you have and how you think about your condition are shaped by

society.

Sociologists focus on the social contexts that influence health and illness, such as the

think about disease.

VIII. Health Disparities and Social Inequality

Many diseases that were once fatal can now be treated and cured. However, health

care involves different experiences for different groups of people and has various

components of social inequality. For example, research has demonstrated that the

waiting time in emergency rooms is also related to the social class of the patients,

not just the seriousness of their condition.

A. Race, Ethnicity, and Health Care

1. Racial-ethnic minorities in the United States have poorer health than Whites.

There are racial disparities in mortality, early onset of disease, and severity

and consequences of disease.

B. Social Class and Health Care

Social class has a pronounced effect on health and on the availability of health

services. Poor living conditions, elevated levels of pollution in low-income

neighborhoods, and lack of access to health care facilities contribute to the high

rate of disease among low-income people.

1. There is a correlation between stress and physical illness. The poor and

C. Gender and Health Care

1. Women in general live longer than men, but they are sick more often and

are more likely than men to suffer from chronic conditions. Women are also

D. LGBTQ Health

One’s identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender also influences

people’s health. However, there is a lack of reliable data.

1. National surveys of people’s health rarely ask about people’s sexual

E. Health and Disability

Traditionally, people with a disability were also stigmatized and their

disability was viewed as a master status (overriding all other characteristics).

The disability rights movement has changed those perceptions.

1. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed by Congress

F. Age and Health Care

Although, in general, people live longer than ever before, health care needs

increase with age. Older people’s health care needs are also linked to other social

IX. The Social Organization of Health care

The focus is on how health care systems are organized. Health care is stratified in

a way that reflects social inequalities in society. The hierarchy puts medical

doctors at the top and nursing orderlies at the bottom. The patients are also at the

bottom of this hierarchy and are sometimes treated as children. Health care is big

business and is organized in a highly bureaucratized, for-profit system that

includes:

• hospitals

• pharmaceutical companies

X. Theoretical Perspectives on Health Care

A. Functionalist Theory

Functionalist theory focuses on functions and identifies that the health

care system has both positive and negative functions.

1. Positive functions are the prevention and treatment of disease. Ideally, this

B. Conflict Theory

Conflict theory stresses the importance of social structural inequality in society

and therefore focuses on restricted access to medical care and the

bureaucratization of the health care system. Conflict theory also emphasizes

C. Symbolic Interaction Theory

Symbolic interaction theory holds that illness, wellness, and health

care are socially constructed and culturally relative.

1. People who are ill receive more sympathy and care than those who

XI. Health Care Reform

1. The cost of health care in the United States is the highest in the world—

approximately 18% of our gross domestic product. The United States is

one of few industrialized nations that doesn’t provide universal health

2. ACA is presently threatened with being repealed, and entitlement

programs such as Medicaid (for the poor) and Medicare (for the elderly)

are also the subject of political debate.

3. Sociologists have several explanations for the U.S. discrepancy in

providing health care compared to other Western nations, including:

a. many people think that the government should not force its citizens

LECTURE/DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1. Tracking/Ability Grouping. Ask students to describe some of their personal school

experiences or those of their siblings or friends with tracking, teacher expectations,

2. No Child Left Behind Act. Introduce students to the NCLB Act through the U.S.

3. Access to Higher Education. Students have a strong interest in access to higher

education, including the costs and financing of education and the issue of affirmation

action. Introduce students to research on these issues in preparation for their own

4. Educational Standards and High-Stakes Testing. The NCLB Act incorporates high-

stakes, standardized tests throughout its program, a system that has come under

5. Medicaid and Medicare. Go to the states page of the Centers for Medicare and

6. AIDS. Share information about organizations in your area working on AIDS/HIV

7. Eating Disorders and Obesity. Introduce students to federal resources like the

8. Tuskegee Alabama Syphilis Experiment. https://www.infoplease.com/tuskegee-

syphilis-experiment and other similar sites provide a good description of the 40-year

9. Mortality and Life Expectancy. Show the class some statistics and tables on life

10. Credentialism. This process of societal selection of those who hold academic

qualifications—such as high school and college degrees, titles, and awards—for entry

into the workforce is described at

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

1. Youth and Health Insurance. Assign students to write an essay or position paper on

youth and health insurance. Alternatively, assign students to write about their

2. School Funding. Have students investigate school funding in your state and the

distribution of funds by school district. They can access information through your

state’s Department of Education website. What portion of school budgets is funded by

3. Ability Grouping. Have students investigate the existence of tracking in local

schools or school districts. Most ability grouping will show up in Special Education

programs and Gifted and Talented Programs. The Education Commission on the

possibly disturbing.

4. Dropping Out (of Classes). Many students, faculty, and administrators support the

principle that a college student who is struggling with, or failing, a class should drop

5. Service-Learning: Tutoring. Encourage students to volunteer as tutors or mentors

6. Minority Health. Ask students to access the Office of Minority Health Resource

7. Universal Health Care. The organization, Physicians for a National Health Program,

has long proposed a single-payer, managed care system. Have students visit their

8. Diversity of Students and Faculty. Help students gather statistics about the ethnic,

racial, gender, and age composition of their campus student body and faculty. Then

9. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Students have a large amount of personal experience to

draw from in a classroom. They can easily understand the idea of a self-fulfilling

10. Epidemiology. Design a presentation for understanding how sociologists use medical

research to solve problems and understand health issues. In their research, have

students address diseases that affect people they know. How did the research change how the

medical community understands the disease?

11. Americans with Disabilities. Have students research the ADA and write an essay

12. Standards and High-Stakes Testing. The No Child Left Behind Act is based on a

premise of holding schools accountable through upholding standards and high-stakes

testing, a practice called into question by many researchers and educators. Go to

VIDEO SUGGESTIONS (Videos with a * next to them have corresponding activities

below.)

Waiting for “Superman” (2010, 111 min.)

Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names:

Teached (2009, a series of short films, approx. 30 to 40 min. each)

This documentary about education by a Teach for America alum looks at inequality in

education for urban, minority youths. For more information: www.teached.org

Race to Nowhere (2010, 85 min.)

Race to Nowhere is a close-up look at the pressures on today’s students, offering an

intimate view of lives packed with activities, leaving little room for down time or

family time.

discussion about the impacts of not having affordable health insurance on individuals and

society.

* Sick Around the World (2008, 60 min.)

This PBS Frontline special looks at health care systems in democracies around the

* Sick Around America (2009, 60 min.)

As the worsening economy leads to massive job losses—potentially forcing millions of

Americans to go without health insurance—Frontline travels the country examining the

nation’s broken health care system and explores the need for a fundamental overhaul.

Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge (2005, 345 min. for the total series.)

This PBS special looks at health care in a global context. Specifically, the video deals

The Meth Epidemic (2006, 60 min.)

This Frontline special is available to be viewed in full online. The program looks at the

methamphetamine epidemic in the United States and globally. It includes biological

* The War on Kids (2009, 95 min.)

This movie draws on critical sociology to address the culture around standardized testing.

It is an excellent way to introduce students to the modern education testing curriculum.

Can be used to show how No Child Left Behind shapes schools.

VIDEO ACTIVITIES

Have students view Sicko and examine “both sides” of this issue in an objective

presentation of each position. Resources for both sides abound. Students could also have a

debate subsequent to their investigation in which proponents for each side have to switch

positions, making the case for the opposite position.

INTERNET EXERCISES

1. Go to the homepage of the American Association of University Women website

3. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website (https://www.cdc.gov) has

extensive information and statistics on the full range of health-related issues from

4. The National Education Association (NEA) (http://www.nea.org) is the largest

teachers organization in the United States. Using this site, examine issues of what can

achieving the objective of increased school performance?

5. The Flexner Report of 1910 triggered much-needed reforms in the standards,

6. The Children’s Defense Fund. The State of America’s Children® 2017 helps