Caroline Hodges Persell

Differential Asset Conversion: Class and Gendered Pathways to Selective Colleges.

This article elaborates Bourdieus theory of cultural capital conversion by specifying a mechanism of differential asset conversion that illuminates the gendered postsecondary educational attainment of women and compares it with that posited for men in status attainment theory. Because young womens economic, cultural, and educational assets generally convert to attendance at postsecondary institutions and selective colleges at lower rates, women need to have more of these assets and to have additional assets to achieve the same attainments as men. Overall, there are major differences in the postsecondary outcomes of students who attend public and elite private boarding schools. Attending an elite private boarding school appears to minimize the gendered pathways to postsecondary institutions and selective colleges that affect public school students

Chartering and Bartering: Elite Education and Social Reproduction

The transmission of privilege is central to the reproduction of an elite class. There has been recurrent speculation about elite school influence within the structure of educational opportunity, but few researchers have had access to these schools. Based on interviews and observations at 42 private boarding schools, and on student questionnaires and school records from a sample of these schools, we find that elite boarding schools confer special “status rights.” Moreover, social networks between the schools college advisors and the admissions officers of elite colleges enable the former to lobby successfully for their students, thereby facilitating the passage of privilege.

Civil Society, Economic Distress, and Social Tolerance

The idea that civil society is declining has been much discussed recently, for example, by Fukuyama (Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: Free Press, 1995) and Putnam (The American Prospect 13 (Spring):35–42, 19937semi; Nobel Symposium, Uppsala, Sweden, August 27–30, 1994; PS: Political Science and Politics, December: 664–683:. At the same time, another stream of research suggests that racial tolerance is increasing through time (Quillian, American Journal of Sociology 101 (3):816–860, 1996; Firebaugh and Davis, American Journal of Sociology 94 (2):251–272. This paper combines ideas from several intellectual traditions to suggest that economic conditions may affect civil society, which in turn may influence social tolerance. These ideas are explored, using multivariate analysis of pooled General Social Survey data from 1972 to 1994. The results suggest that the fabric of civil society and economic conditions may contribute somewhat to espoused tolerance. Greater economic security, together with the attitudes fostered by a vibrant civil society including greater trust and less anomia, appear to increase espoused social tolerance. Period effects and the effects of other demographic factors remain strongly related to expressions of tolerance. While alternative interpretations may be offered depending on whether the interaction terms, Year × Education or Cohort × Education, are included in the analysis, the high correlation between the two suggests that these interpretations cannot be seen as oppositional. Finally and most important, the analysis reveals many parallels between espoused racial and homosexual tolerance, suggesting a more generalizable model of social tolerance.

Using Focused Web-based Discussions to Enhance Student Engagement and Deep Understanding*

To increase student engagement and enhance critical thinking and deep understanding, I supplemented weekly seminar meetings with focused Web-based discussions of issues in a “Race and Education” senior sociology seminar. These Web-based discussions were structured by specific questions and discussion roles. Before seminar, Staters posted on the course Web site the most important thing they learned from a reading, describing what was most difficult, and raising new sociological questions. After seminar, Responders replied to the questions and difficulties posted and posed further sociological questions. Two days later, Integrators synthesized and integrated what they had learned that week from others postings, readings, and seminar discussion, and raised further questions. Analysis of student postings suggests that students engagement with the ideas of others increased during the semester and their thinking became more complex. This paper discusses the processes that contributed to students learning and suggested pedagogical changes. It also raises questions for further research.

Race and Class in America's Elite Preparatory Boarding Schools: African Americans as the "Outsiders Within.".

Prior to the 1960s the social and racial composition of Americas elite college preparatory boarding schools (prep schools) was extremely homogeneous; indeed, the most prestigious prep schools were singlesex schools. According to McLachlan (1970), most prep school students were of British and Scottish American extraction, most schools had but a few Catholic or Jewish students, and very few African, Asian, Native, or Hispanic American students could be found on such campuses. Drawing their students from less than one percent of the population, Americas prep schools were considered as being primarily for the children of the upper-class, although some middle-class and a few working-class students were admitted on a scholarship basis (Mills, 1959; Baltzell, 1958, 1964; Domhoff, 1967; Levine, 1980). In 1963, with assistance from Dartmouth College and the Rockefeller Foundation, the A Better Chance (ABC) program was founded with the purpose of identifying talented minority children from predominantly inner-city families for placement in some of the countrys most selective independent preparatory schools and a few select public secondary schools (Griffin, 1990). According to Zweigenhaft and Domhoff (1987), 70% of ABCs students were African American. Since 1963 elite prep schools have continued to admit African American students, but not in numbers proportional to the percentage of African Americans in the school-age population. By the early 1980s only 4% of the students attending prep schools in the United States were African American compared to 19% of public high school students (Cookson & Persell, 1985, p. 67). Moreover, most boarding school administrators are from upper-, upper-middle, and middle-class backgrounds, and there are very few African American or other minority faculty members at the elite schools. Being African American in an upper-class academic institution is a unique experience. African American prep school students have the

Digital technologies and the scholarship of teaching and learning in sociology

In this paper we synthesize the knowledge available and identify the knowledge needed about ways that new digital technologies may affect student learning, particularly in sociology. We propose that a sociologically-informed Scholarship of Teaching and Learning requires awareness of how social contexts and relationships affect and are affected by the use of digital technologies. The paper suggests that sociological perspectives can inform the structural and cultural contexts that shape key aspects of teaching and learning with digital technologies. Specifically, we examine computer-mediated pedagogy, the use of multimedia in classrooms, access and the digital divide, student and instructor self-concepts, learning styles, and institutional contexts

Gender, Rewards and Research in Education

Under the “merit” ideology of academic research, the criteria for academic rewards are quality and quantity of research publications. Do men and women receive equal rewards for equal performance in educational and social research? This question is addressed with a sample of 901 authors of research on education, 14% of whom were women. Gross differences emerge between men and women regarding levels of income. Lesser differences appear in research resources and rank, and no variations occur in departmental prestige. A sample of 390 of their research papers were anonymously rated by a national panel of 39 judges, revealing no difference in the quality of work done by men and women. Women, however, are less productive than men, and consequently less frequently cited. But the criteria of quality and quantity of publications are not related to rewards in the same way for women and men. Quantity counts more heavily for women than for men, although important for both. Hence, performance criteria are selectively applied by gender in ways that affect women detrimentally.

Teaching social science reasoning and quantitative literacy: The role of collaborative groups

In this paper, we discuss ways collaborative research groups can be used and what students appear to learn about social science reasoning and quantitative literacy from such groups. Data are from field observations, pre- and post-semester surveys in both collaborative and traditional courses, end of the semester student comments, and student work on semester-long group-based projects. The findings illuminate teaching and learning processes, cognitive and personal learning outcomes, and remaining challenges. Students resist having to work in groups, while simultaneously becoming attached to their group and acknowledging its importance. In the end, many students see the importance of both social science reasoning and quantitative skills and demonstrate the ability to articulate key components of both. Challenges that remain include more specific measures of particular skills, potential group conflicts, and active learning within a culture of consumerism and entitlement.

Bringing PCs into Introductory Sociology Courses: First Steps, Missteps, and Future Prospects

Can microcomputers enhance the goals of teaching and learning in sociology? This paper attempts to answer this question. Aiming primarily at nonusers, the author first outlines the negatives and positives of using PCs. Negatives include expense, hassle, and uncertainty. The positives arise from the functional strengths of PCs and from the fact that they are interactive, customizable, efficient, and open-ended. Next the author describes her experiences using a PC in an introductory sociology classroom: toprepare and present visual materials, to teach basic concepts and analytic strategies, to illustrate analytical storylines, and to engage students in posing sociological questions and hypotheses explored instantaneously in class. The author concludes by suggesting additional applications and by reflecting on issues raised by the experience.

School and the Social Order.

In wondering the things that you should do, reading can be a new choice of you in making new things. Its always said that reading will always help you to overcome something to better. Yeah, school and the social order is one that we always offer. Even we share again and again about the books, whats your conception? If you are one of the people love reading as a manner, you can find school and the social order as your reading material.