Education, the social institution which teaches us reading, writing, critical thinking, and how to get along in our society is both a social problem and a response to a social problem. This complexity makes it challenging to make sense of. On one hand, we see that students have unequal access to education and unequal outcomes. This inequality is a characteristic of a social problem. On the other, we see that investing in education can give individuals better employment options, and sometimes contribute to economic growth in whole societies. To explain the inequality, we need to look at sociological understandings historically and today. To continue the growth, we need to look at how education has changed during COVID-19, requiring interdependent solutions to close the digital divide.

As you consider your own educational story, I hope you see the power and promise of education transforming your own life.

3.6.1 Key Terms

Achievement Gap: any significant and persistent disparity in academic performance or educational attainment between different groups of students, such as White students and students of color, for example, or students from higher-income and lower-income households.

Assimilation: the process of members in a subordinate group adopting aspects of a dominant group.

Banking model of education: the concept of education in which “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing”.

Causation: a change in one variable causes a change in another variable

Correlation: when a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, but does not necessarily indicate causation

Digital Divide: uneven access to technology due to inequalities between different social, cultural, and economic groups; often caused by location.

Discrimination: the unequal treatment of an individual or group on the basis of their statuses (e.g., age, beliefs, ethnicity, sex)

Education: a social institution through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms

Equity: the state of everyone having what they need, even if it means that some need to be given more to get there.

Genocide: the systematic and widespread extermination of a cultural, ethnic, political, racial, or religious group.

Heteronormativity: the assumption that heterosexuality is the standard for defining normal sexual behavior and that male–female differences and gender roles are the natural and immutable essentials in normal human relations.

Homophobia: the irrational fear of or prejudice against individuals who are or perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual people.

Inclusion: the laws and practices that requires that disabled students be included in mainstream classes – not separate rooms or schools

LGBTQIA+: an acronym which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex Asexual and more.

Neurodiversity: an axis of human diversity, like ethnic diversity or diversity of gender and sexual orientation, and is subject to the same sorts of social dynamics as those other forms of diversity—including the dynamics of social power inequalities, privilege, and oppression.

Pedagogy: the art, science, or profession of teaching

Prejudice a favorable or unfavorable preconceived feeling or opinion formed without knowledge, reason, or thought that prevents objective consideration of an idea, individual, group, or thing

Queer: a description for a person who does not conform to norms about sexuality and gender (particularly the ones that say that being straight is the human default and that gender and sexuality are hardwired, binary, and fixed rather than socially constructed, infinite, and fluid).

Segregation: the physical separation of two groups, particularly in residence, but also in workplace and social functions.

Social Mobility: an individual’s or group’s (e.g., family) movement through the class hierarchy due to changes in income, occupation, or wealth.

Structural Mobility: a shift in hierarchical position of an entire class of individuals over time in society.

Wealth: the total amount of money and assets an individual or group owns.

3.6.2 Discussion Questions

1. How do social identity and social location impact who learns?
2. How do the changes in models of education reflect the social problems process?
3. What is the relationship between education, poverty, and wealth?
4. How can education be an interdependent, transformative solution to social problems, particularly during this time of pandemic?