07B:210

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE

SYLLABUS

FALL 2005

MONDAYS: 4:30 P.M. - 6:30 P.M.

Class Location: 302 LC

Instructor: David Bills

Office: N446 LC

Office Phone: (319) 335-5366

e-mail: david-bills@uiowa.edu

This course focuses on the relationships between education and schooling and a variety of social, institutional, economic, and cultural changes. We will consider how broader trends affect the structure and purpose of educational systems, how changes within education affect the wider society, how systems of schooling themselves change, and the prospects for planned change within systems of schooling.

Class activities will vary from day to day, ranging from lectures to open discussions to panel discussions to student presentations. Students will be active participants in the course. Students are encouraged and expected to ask questions, raise issues, and otherwise contribute to classroom discussion.

For the class to work effectively, all of the reading must be done on time. The reading load will vary somewhat from week to week, but regardless of the volume you should read everything carefully and critically.

Your grade will be based mainly on several short (usually 3-5 pages) written assignments. I will also take into account the quality of your overall participation.  The instructor is under no obligation to accept late assignments, but will accept serious attempts to rewrite papers with no penalty.  I encourage you to submit your papers electronically.

In the papers, you should demonstrate that you understand the major issues at stake in the particular area.  Your paper should be significantly more than simply a summary of the reading.  The papers should be critical and analytical, searching for points of contention or agreement among different authors, identifying crucial theoretical and empirical points, and discussing the broader implications.  I will talk more about this in class.

Your research paper should be presented in a style suitable for submission to a scholarly journal. It should follow the general format and structure of a research paper in your field, including a title page, abstract, and bibliography. A one-page proposal of your research paper is due on September 19th. We will also reserve a time for you to present your paper to the class. I will talk about all of this more in class.

You should purchase the following books from the Iowa Memorial Union Book Store or at www.amazon.com:

Arum, Richard. 2003. Judging School Discipline: The Crisis of Moral Authority. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bell, Daniel. 1999. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New York: Basic Books.

Schneider, Barbara and David Stevenson. 1999. The Ambitious Generation: America’s Teenagers, Motivated But Directionless. Hew Haven: Yale University Press.

Young, Michael. 1994. The Rise of the Meritocracy. Transaction Publishers.

There will also be several required articles for the course (see below in syllabus schedule).

I have also listed several recommended readings on the syllabus. I think many of these will be useful to you as you prepare your research projects, and I encourage you to pursue some of them. Please note that the syllabus is always subject to change depending on the size and composition of the class.

This course is given by the College of Education.  This means that class policies on matters such as requirements, grading, and sanctions for academic dishonesty are governed by the College of Education. Students wishing to add or drop this course after the official deadline must receive the approval of the Dean of the College of Education. Details of the University policy of cross enrollments may be found at: http://www.uiowa.edu/~provost/deos/crossenroll.doc

Again, please feel free to stop in or call anytime throughout the semester if you need additional assistance or instruction.

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TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

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RECOMMENDED READINGS

Arthur, W. Brian. 1989. "Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events." Economic Journal 99: 116-131.

Cornbleth, Catherine. 1998. "An American Curriculum?" Teachers College Record 99: 622-646.

Krueger, Alan B. 1998. "Reassessing the View that American Schools are Broken." Working Paper #395, Industrial Relations Center, Princeton University.

Metcalf, Kim K. and Polly A. Tait. 1999. "Free Market Policies and Public Education: What Is the Cost of Choice?" Phi Delta Kappan, 81: 65-75. Also at: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kmet9909.htm.

Rury, John L. 2002. Education and Social Change: Themes in the History of American Schooling. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Saporito, Salvatore and Annette Lareau. 1999. "School Selection as a Process: The Multiple Dimensions of Race in Framing Educational Choice." Social Problems 46: 418-439.

Viteritti, Joseph P. 1999. "A Way Out: School Choice and Educational Opportunity." Brookings Review, Fall 36-39.

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Theoretical Orientations and Empirical Generalizations on Social Change

Baker, Therese L. and William Velez. 1996. "Access to and Opportunity in Postsecondary Education in the United States: A Review." Sociology of Education extra issue: 82-101.

Bernhardt, Annette, Martina Morris, Mark Handcock, and Marc Scott. 1998. "Work and Opportunity in the Post-Industrial Labor Market." IEE Information Brief #19.

Brown, David K. 1995. Degrees of Control: A Sociology of Educational Expansion and Occupational Credentialism. New York: Teachers College Press.

Collins, Randall. 1995. Four Sociological Traditions. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cookson, Peter and Caroline Hodges Persell. 1985. Preparing for Power: America’s Elite Boarding Schools. New York: Basic.

Dore, Ronald P. 1976. The Diploma Disease. Berkeley: California.

Hallinan, Maureen T. 1995. "Tracking and Detracking Practices: Relevance for Learning." pp. 35-55 in Peter W. Cookson, Jr. and Barbara Schneider (eds.). 1995. Transforming Schools. Garland Reference Library.

Healy, Kieran. 1998. "Social Change: Mechanisms and Metaphors." Unpublished manuscript, Princeton University Department of Sociology.

Hoffer, Thomas B. 1995. "High School Curriculum Differentiation and Postsecondary Outcomes." pp. 371-402 in Peter W. Cookson, Jr. and Barbara Schneider (eds.). 1995. Transforming Schools. Garland Reference Library.

Jacobs, Jerry A. 1995. "Gender and Academic Specialties: Trends among Recipients of College Degrees in the 1980s." Sociology of Education 68: 81-98.

Kalmijn, Matthijs and Gerbert Kraaykamp. 1996. "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling: An Analysis of Trends in the United States." Sociology of Education 69: 22-34.

Kang, Suk and John Bishop. 1986. "Effects of Curriculum on Labor Market Success Immediately After High School." Journal of Industrial Teacher Education 4: 15-29.

McDonough, Patricia M. 1997. Choosing Colleges: How Social Class and Schools Structure Opportunity. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Metz, Mary H. 1978. Classrooms and Corridors. Berkeley: California.

Morgan, Stephen L. 1996. "Trends in Black-White Differences in Educational Expectations: 1980-92. Sociology of Education 69: 308-319.

Pallas, Aaron M. 1995. "Schooling, Achievement, and Mobility." pp. 11-33 in Peter W. Cookson, Jr. and Barbara Schneider (eds.). 1995. Transforming Schools. Garland Reference Library.

Rubinson, Richard and J. Ralph. 1986. "Methodological Issues in the Study of Educational Change." Pp. 275-304 in J.G. Richardson (ed), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood.

Shavit, Yossi and Hans-Peter Blossfeld (eds). 1992. Persisting Barriers: A Comparative Study of Educational Inequality in Fourteen Countries. Boulder CO: Westview.

Schienstock, Gerd, Gotthard Bechmann, Jorg Flecker, Ursula Huws, Geert van Hootegum, Maria Luisa Mirabile, Antonio Brandao Moniz, and Sean O. Siochru. 1999. "Information Society, Work and the Generation of New Forms of Social Exclusion (SOWING)." First Interim Report, Tempere. 

Sweetland, Scott R. 1996. "Human Capital Theory: Foundations of a Field of Inquiry." Review of Educational Research 66: 1-19.

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Fass, Paula S. 1989. Outside In: Minorities and the Transformation of American Education. New York: Oxford University Press.

Goldin, Claudia. 1998. "America's Graduation from High School: The Evolution and Spread of Secondary Schooling in the Twentieth Century." Journal of Economic History 58: 345-374.

Meyer, John W., Francisco O Ramirez, Richard Rubinson, and John Boli-Bennett. 1977. "The World Educational Revolution, 1950-1970. Sociology of Education 50: 242-258.

Labaree, David F. 1997. How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning: The Credentials Race in American Education. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Richardson, James G. 1980. "Variation in Date of Enactment of Compulsory School Attendance Laws." Sociology of Education 53: 163-163

Richardson, James G. 1984. "Settlement Patterns and the Governing Structure of Nineteenth-Century School Systems." American Journal of Education 92: 178-206

Richardson James G. 1984. "The American States and the Age of School Systems." American Journal of Education 92: 473-502

Richardson, James G. 1986. "Historical Sequences and the Origins of Common Schooling in the American States." Pp. 35-63 in Richardson James G. Richardson (ed), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood.

Richardson, James G. 1987. "Town vs. Countryside and Systems of Common Schooling." Social Science History 2: 401-432

Rubinson, Richard . 1986. "Class Formation, Politics, and Institutions: Schooling in the United States." American Journal of Sociology 92: 519-548

Rubinson, Richard and J. Ralph. 1984. "Technical Change and the Expansion of Schooling in the United States, 1890-1970." Sociology of Education 57: 134-152

Trow, Martin. 1961. "The Second Transformation of American Secondary Education." International Journal of Comparative Sociology 2: 144-166

Turner, Ralph H. 1960. "Sponsored and Contest Mobility and the School System." American Sociological Review 25: 855-867

Walters, Pamela B. 1986. "Sex and Institutional Differences in Labor Market Effects on the Expansion of Higher Education." Sociology of Education 59: 199-211

Walters, Pamela B. 1991. "Who Should Be Schooled? The Politics of Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the Turn-of-the-Century U.S." In Bruce Fuller and Richard Rubinson (eds), The State, School Expansion, and Economic Growth. New York: Praeger.

Walters, Pamela B. and C. M. Briggs. 1993. "Child Labor and Schooling in the Early Twentieth Century South." American Sociological Review 58: 163-181

Walters, Pamela B. and D. R. James 1992. "Child Labor, Race, and School Enrollment in the Early 20th-Century South." American Journal of Sociology 57: 635-650

Walters, Pamela B., H. J. McCammon, and D. R. James. 1990. "Schooling or Working: Public Education, Racial Politics, and the Organization of Production in 1910." Sociology of Education 63: 1-26

Walters, Pamela B. and P. J. O'Connell. 1988. "The Family Economy, Work, and Educational Participation in the United States, 1890-1940." American Journal of Sociology 93: 1116-1152

Walters, Pamela B. and P. J. O'Connell. 1990. "Post World War II Higher Educational Expansion, the Organization of Work, and Changes in Labor Productivity in the United States." In Ronald G. Corwin (ed), Research in Sociology of Education and Socialization: Historical Approaches (v 9). Greenwich CT: JAI: 1-23

Walters, Pamela B. and Richard Rubinson. 1983. "Educational Expansion and Economic Output in the United States, 1890-1969." American Sociological Review 48: 480-493

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The Changing Demographic Landscape

Bumpass, Larry L. 1990. "What's Happening to the Family? Interactions Between Demographic and Institutional Change." Demography 27: 483-498

Coleman, James S. 1987. "Families and Schools." Educational Researcher 16: 32-38

Conger, Rand D. and Glen H. Elder Jr. 1994. Families in Troubled Times: Adapting to Change in Rural America. Aldine De Gruyter.

Elder, Glen H. 1974. Children of the Great Depression. Chicago: Chicago.

Hughes, James W. Hughes and Joseph J. Seneca (eds.). 1999. America's Demographic Tapestry: Baseline for the New Millennium. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

MacLeod, Jay. 1987. Ain’t No Makin’ It: Leveled Aspirations in a Low-Income Neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Modell, John. 1989. Into One's Own: From Youth to Adulthood in the United States 1920-1975. Berkeley: California.

Pallas, Aaron M. 1993. "Schooling in the Course of Human Lives: The Social Context of Education and the Transition to Adulthood in Industrial Society." Review of Educational Research 63: 409-447.

Rindfuss, Ronald R. 1991. "The Young Adult Years: Diversity, Structural Change, and Fertility." Demography 28: 493-512.

Rindfuss, Ronald R., C. G. Swicegood, and Rachel Rosenfeld. 1987. "Disorder in the Life Course: How Common and Does It Matter?" American Sociological Review 52: 785-801

Santi, Lawrence L. 1988. "The Demographic Context of Recent Change in the Structure of American Households." Demography 25: 509-519.

Waller, Willard. 1961. The Sociology of Teaching. New York: Russell and Russell.

Zhou, Min. 1998. "America Becoming: Contemporary Immigration and the Dynamics of Race and Ethnicity." Paper presented at the Research Conference on Racial Trends in the United States, National Research Council, Washington DC, October 15-16, 1998.

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American Youth in the ‘00s

Powell, Arthur G., Eleanor Farrar, and David K. Cohen. 1985. The Shopping Mall High School: Winners and Losers in the Educational Marketplace. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Venezia, Andrea, Michael W. Kirst, and Anthony L. Antonio. 2003. “Betraying the College Dream: How Disconnected K-12 and Postsecondary Education Systems Undermine Student Aspirations.” Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research.

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Campanella, Tommaso. 1982. The City of the Sun: A Poetical Dialogue. Daniel J. Donno (Editor). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Cappel, Constance. 1999. Utopian Colleges. Peter Lang Publishing.

Daugherty, Kevin J. 1994. The Contradictory College: The Conflicting Origins, Impacts, and Future of the Community College. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Levine, Arthur. 1997. "How the Academic Profession is Changing." Daedalus 126 (4): 1-20.

Turner, Frederick. 19xx. "Design for a New Academy: An End to Division by Department." Harper’s Magazine.

Tyack, David. 1974. The One Best System. Cambridge: Harvard.

Veblen, Thorstein. 1918. The Higher Learning in America. New York: Huebsch.

Wong, Kenneth K. 1995. "Can the Big-City School System Be Governed?" Pp. 457-488 in Peter W. Cookson, Jr. and Barbara Schneider (eds.). 1995. Transforming Schools. Garland Reference Library.

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