Sociology 320

Sociology 320: Sociology of Education

I took Sociology 320 with Dr. Bidwell during my spring semester in 2020. Prior to this class, I had never taken a sociology class or even a class that focused on sociology for a portion of the semester. I found this class very interesting because I was able to look at the field of education from a new perspective that I have never explored before.

Throughout this class, I learned about a variety of aspects of the field of education. For example, we looked at how schools are funded and how student achievement or attendance can affect funding for schools. We also looked at different sociological theories while applied to different aspects of education. One topic that I found interesting was related to the self-fulfilling prophecy. In schools, certain students may be treated differently, such as being seated in the back of the classroom verses next to the teacher or simply being given answers instead of being guided to the correct answer. This differences can be because of a variety of things such as a student’s race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, academic achievement or skills, and other aspects. Because of this differences in how students are treated, students may believe or even be told that they are not as smart as other students. Constantly being told or put in groups that support this could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy as students will start to believe what they are being told about themselves. I found this topic interesting because it is something that I have not thought of before and have not explicitly noticed in classrooms that I have been in before. This topic is also something that many teachers or individuals do not notice that they are doing. From this class, I was able to learn about these topics and practices that I may not have noticed or realized I was doing in my future classroom that could potentially be hurting the students in my class. By learning about these topics in this class, I have learned to be more aware and conscientious of what I say or do in my future classroom to make sure that all students are being treated equally and equitably.

For one assignment in this class, everyone had to find one source that related to inequality in education, specifically how to solve inequality in education. Individually, everyone wrote an entry for an annotated bibliography for their source and then we put them together to form a collaborative annotated bibliography focused on inequality in education. My entry for the collaborative annotated bibliography is attached below. My article The Experiences of Low-SES Students in Higher Education: Psychological Barriers to Success and Interventions to Reduce Social-Class Inequality looks at psychological barriers that low-SES students face in higher education and proposes interventions or ways that the achievement gap between low and high-SES students.

Overall, I found this class very interesting because I was able to explore the field of education from a sociological perspective. I was able to reflect on my own experiences in education as well as learn certain practices that are hurting students throughout their time in school. Because of what I learned, I am now more aware of these practices and can actively work to not use these practices in my classroom.