Chapter VI: Sociology of Education

Abstract

The selection of material for this review reflects the judgment of the reviewers concerning the appropriateness and significance of the books and articles of which we were cognizant. In general, the studies included were restricted to actual research reports centrally concerned with the school and its processes and confined primarily to the American society. If one examines many journals dealing with educational problems, he will find a considerable number of essays, exhortations, and programmatic statements. These statements undoubtedly serve a function, but whether that function promotes valid understanding of the school and its role is questionable. Another type of work not reviewed here is a general review of areas of research. Such reviews are valuable, but unless some original research was part of the review it was not included.This review will, for the most part, ignore the comparative studies of the American school and various foreign systems. The insight derived from such studies may be considerable, but it might fit under other categories more readily. A final limitation was to restrict the review to studies dealing directly with the school as an institution. This restriction excludes studies which use school populations only as a ready source of subjects; only in those instances where an aspect of the school population was used that might be generalized to other school populations was the study included. A related restriction was applied to studies using variables that might affect school relationships but were not specifically tested in relation to school characteristics. Examples of this type are the sociometric and social class studies which abound in the literature. Undoubtedly, studies dealing with such variables as sociometry and social class have school relevance; however, if the study did not deal directly with the relation of variables and the school system, the article was ignored.The following review does not attempt to analyze critically all aspects of the studies. Their inclusion here indicates that a reasonable design was evident and conclusions were based on data presented. Some studies dealing with small samples were included because numerous studies along similar lines with similar findings indicate a finding of some generality. The inclusion of a study thus hopefully indicates a reasonable contribution to understanding the school from a sociological point of view. However, inclusion here does not mean that the studies are above criticism.The studies selected for review may be divided into two main categories of (a) social system considerations and (b) the impact or contribution of "outside" variables. This taxonomy is intended to convey the main orienta-74 at MOUNT ALLISON UNIV on June 13, 2015 http://rer.aera.net Downloaded from