Question

Describe some of the inequities present in the American public education system. Use a conflict-oriented perspective to explain why these inequalities exist. Apply a functionalist perspective to explain why these inequalities persist. (How is educational inequality functional?)

Answer 1

Inequities present in the American public education system are :
1. Equal opportunity is not provided to learn the essential content, skills, problem solving, and reasoning abilities.
2. Reformers too often miss the core of schooling: the instruction of academic content by teachers to students.
3. Race and caste is one of the many reasons of inquity present.

Conflict-oriented perspective:

The conflict perspective focuses on the tensions and conflicts among system parts. Particularly, conflict theorists examine the changes that ensue from tension and conflict. Rather than study the needs met by the economy of a society, for example, conflict sociologists would study how those who control education system to those who merely work in factories and corporate bureaucracies, They would analyze how such opposed interests produce tension, overt conflict, and eventual change in the relations between owner and students.

Functionalist perspective:
As in the functional perspective, the social world is viewed as a system of parts. As with functionalism also, the goal is to analyze the impact of certain processes on the overall system.
One example of this process involves the function of social placement. This is why the inequality persist. When most schools begin tracking their students in grade school, the students thought by their teachers to be bright are placed in the faster tracks (especially in reading and arithmetic), while the slower students are placed in the slower tracks. Students are seggregated on the basis of their functioning of mind which lessen their confidence.