ELP 580SEM - Contemporary Social Theory & Education

This course will provide students with a theoretical base which they can then use as a lens to examine the social context of schooling. The course will introduce students to a number of sociological theories of education, including cultural and structural explanations, functional and conflict theories, organizational theories and social reproduction. An important goal of this course is to encourage students to consider the role of broader social contexts in schooling and how these issues play out in schools. As such, the course will focus on theories of social inequality and mobility and the social construction of race and gender, as well as touch on broader sociological theories such as symbolic interactionism that can then be applied to educational settings. Larger societal level theories and middle-range theories that seek to explain specific school-based phenomena such as race and gender gaps in achievement and social groupings will be discussed.

Credits: 3