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SOC 8

Chapter summary and response to the prompt. see attachments

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 1

Sociology: The
Essentials, 

10e
Chapter 14: Education and

Health Care

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 2

Icebreaker: Your Education Experiences  
(10 minutes)

• Working in pairs, have students share their experience with elementary,
secondary, or post-secondary education thus far.
−Some topics to consider include:
▪Did you attend private, public, or homeschool?
▪What did diversity look like at your schools?
▪Did you experience tracking?
▪Why are you attending college (post-secondary education)?
▪What tests did you have to take to get into college?

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 3

Chapter Objectives (1 of 2)

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Understand the role of schools in society.
• Explain the connection between education and social mobility.
• Outline the race and class inequalities within education.
• Compare and contrast theoretical perspectives on education.
• Summarize the principal ideas guiding debates about educational reform.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 4

Chapter Objectives (2 of 2)

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Explain what it means to say that health and illness are conditioned by social

factors.
• Report the factors that influence health disparities in the United States.
• Describe the social organization of health care in the United States.
• Compare and contrast theoretical perspectives on health care.
• Summarize the principal ideas regarding contemporary health care reform.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 5

Schooling and Society

• Education in any society is about the transmission of the society’s knowledge.
− In hi-tech societies like the United States, education is increasingly necessary

for future employment opportunities.
• In the 19th century, many states didn’t require education for everyone.
• Until the early 20th century, girls were not expected to get an education past

primary school.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 6

The Structure of Education

• There are three types of education in the United States:
• Public education (including charter schools)
• Private education
• Homeschooling

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 7

Does Schooling Matter?

• Sociologists can measure social class by a person’s amount of schooling,
income, and type of occupation.
• In the general population, there is a strong relationship between formal

education and occupation.
−The higher a person’s occupational status, the more formal education they

are likely to have received.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 8

Education and Social Mobility

• Those with more education do have
higher earnings, better jobs, and more
perceived social worth.
• The effect of education on a person’s

eventual job and income greatly
depends on the social class that the
person was born into.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 9

Education and Inequality (1 of 3)

• The U.S. education system relies heavily upon the idea that intelligence can be
gauged by standardized tests.
−Whites score higher on average than minorities, and the higher a person’s

social class, the higher their test score is likely to be.
• Criticisms

−The tests tend to measure only limited ranges of abilities.
−The tests possess at least some degree of cultural and gender bias—and

also a strong social class bias.
−SATs actually do not predict school performance very well for all groups.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 10

Education and Inequality (2 of 3)

• Tracking is the separating of students within schools according to some
measure of ability.
− It has existed for more than 70 years.

• As early as first grade, children are divided into high-track, middle-track, and
lower-track groups.
−Students in the higher tracks obtain positive effects, but the lower-track

students suffer negative effects.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 11

Education and Inequality (3 of 3)

Image: Greatstock/Alamy Stock Photo

• Racial segregation increasingly
affects schools in the United
States.

• Schools are now more racially
segregated in every part of the
country for both African
Americans and Latinx than in
the 1980s.

Image: Hero Images Inc./Alamy Stock
Photo

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 12

Education in Global Perspective

• The United States spends more on students from higher socioeconomic
backgrounds.
−This leaves those in poor and racially segregated schools disadvantaged in

educational achievement.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 13

Theoretical Perspectives of Education 
(1 of 3)

• Functionalist theory argues that education accomplishes the following
consequences, or functions, for a society:
−Socialization
−Occupational training
−Social control

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 14

Theoretical Perspectives of Education 
(2 of 3)

• Conflict theory emphasizes the power and inequality that are part of education
as a social institution.
• Inequality in education occurs along numerous lines, with class, race, and

gender among the most influential.
−Thus, the higher one’s social class, the more likely one will have higher

educational attainment.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 15

Theoretical Perspectives of Education 
(3 of 3)

• Symbolic interaction theory focuses on how people interpret social interaction.
• When students and teachers interact, certain expectations arise on the part of

both.
−Teacher expectancy effect is the effect on student’s actual performance.

• Symbolic interaction theory states that the meaning attributed to a behavior can
be a powerful predictor of what a person becomes.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 16

Collaborative Activity  
(20 minutes)

• Divide the class into three groups to discuss separately one of the theoretical
perspectives of education.
• Have groups prepare pros and cons for their theoretical perspective.
• Remember to include issues of race and ethnicity, gender, age, and socio-

economic stratification.
• Identify a speaker who will present the group’s findings to the rest of the class.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 17

Educational Reform

• A major reform in public education has been the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
Act.
−The goal was to narrow the achievement and test score gaps between white

students and students of color in U.S. public schools.
− It emphasized accountability in schools, largely through testing. This has

resulted in high-stakes testing.
• Under the Obama administration: the “Race to the Top” plan, states compete for

large sums of money to assist them in school reform.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 18

Discussion Activity  
(30 minutes)

• Help students gather statistics about the ethnic, racial, gender, and age
composition of their campus student body and faculty.
• Then invite students to discuss whether there is an even or uneven number of

faculty with similar diversity characteristics to represent the student population.
• Have students then prepare a list of recommendations they might make to the

academic senate if appropriate.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 19

Health Care in the United States

• U.S. citizens are fairly healthy in relation to the rest of the world.
−The nation’s health care is some of the best in the world.
−However, there are great discrepancies in terms of health, health insurance,

and people’s access to health care.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 20

Health Disparities and Social Inequality  
(1 of 3)

• Prominent problem areas in the U.S. health care system include the following.
−Unequal distribution of health care by race or ethnicity, social class, gender,

and LGBTQ status.
−Unequal distribution of health care by region.
− Inadequate health education and health care for inner-city and rural

residents.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 21

Health Disparities and Social Inequality  
(2 of 3)

• Racial disparities in health mean that Black Americans are more likely than
whites to get various diseases including:
−Cancer
−Hypertension and heart disease
−Stroke
−Diabetes

• Latinx contract tuberculosis at a rate seven times that of whites.
• The lower the social class status of a person or family, the less access is

available to adequate health care.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 22

Health Disparities and Social Inequality  
(3 of 3)

• Gender
−Although women live longer on average than men, statistics show that they

are sick more often and are likely to suffer more from chronic conditions
compared to men.

• Disability is understood as a social identity that exists in relationship to other
social identities and systems of social power. It is not simply a medical/physical
condition.
−One of the most significant achievements of the Disability Rights Movement

is the Americans with Disabilities Act. This law prohibits discrimination against
disabled persons.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 23

Age and Health Care

• Medicare provides medical insurance and other forms of medical care for all
individuals aged 65 or older.
−Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) are now a large share

of this population.
−Many wonder if Medicare can be sustained in the near future.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 24

Discussion Activity  
(10 minutes)

• Show the class some statistics and tables on life expectancy and mortality. You
can find some at the CDC website.
• Lead a class discussion about how specific social conditions and demographic

factors impact these key health indicators.

Andersen, Sociology: The Essentials, 10th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 25

The Social Organization of Health Care

• The United States is one of the few industrialized nations that does not entirely
provide universal health care.
• Some want to keep government from meddling with doctors and patients.

−However, giant companies and the government already stand between
patients and their health care providers.

• The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to address the problem of too many
uninsured Americans.

Theoretical Perspectives on Health Care  
(1 of 3)

• Functionalism
−The positive functions of the health care system are the prevention and

treatment of disease.
−As a social institution, health care is also one of the nation’s largest

employers and is thus integrally tied to systems of work and the economy.

Theoretical Perspectives on Health Care  
(2 of 3)

• Conflict theory
−The inequality inherent in our society is responsible for the unequal access to

medical care.
−Minorities, the lower classes, and older adults, particularly older women, have

less access to the health care system than whites, the middle and upper
classes, and the middle-aged.

Theoretical Perspectives on Health Care  
(3 of 3)

• Symbolic interaction
−Symbolic interactionists hold that illness is partly socially constructed.
−The definitions of illness and wellness are culturally relative—sickness in one

culture may be wellness in another.
−Focuses on the roles of patients and medical professionals in a cultural

context. Also, an emphasis that illness can become an identity.

Health Care Reform (1 of 2)

• The U.S. spends more than any other country per person for health care—18%
of the gross domestic product (GD).
• Soaring costs of health care—discussions on who should pay for it.
• Health care is the nation’s leading industry.
• Health insurance is expensive.
• Pharmaceutical companies also add to the high cost of health care.

Health Care Reform (2 of 2)

• Is health care a private matter, one best left in the hands of individuals, or is it a
social right, one that should be socially regulated?
• Struggles over such questions highlight the fact that health is also a social

reality.

Scenario Activity  
(10 minutes)

• A student gets very sick the day before an exam and (thanks to a doctor’s note)
is allowed to take the test later.
• Have students discuss Talcott Parson’s “sick role” relating to this scenario.
• How do the role’s rights and obligations help explain this example?

Assessment 1

The term that sociologists use to refer to the formal, institutionalized aspects of
education is __________.
A. Schooling
B. Tracking
C. Social mobility
D. Occupational preparedness

Assessment 1 Answer

A. Schooling

Assessment 2

According to the __________ perspective, schools are hierarchical institutions
reflecting power relations in society.
A. Functionalist
B. Conflict theory
C. Symbolic interactionist
D. Social-constructionist

Assessment 2 Answer

B. Conflict Theory

Assessment 3

Under the Obama Administration, what was the common name for the new health
care law?
A. The Universal Care Act
B. The Medicaid Act
C. The Medicare Act
D. The Affordable Care Act

Assessment 3 Answer

D. The Affordable Care Act (also known as “Obamacare”)

Summary

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Link to Objectives

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