Week 13 — Social Institutions: Education & Religion

Why this matters

A teacher's aide choosing a child's reading group and a hospital chaplain serving people of many faiths and none both meet this week's ideas.

In plain language

Most of us spent more than a decade in school, and many people belong to a faith or grew up around one. This week treats both as institutions (lasting, organized arrangements a society builds to meet shared needs). You will ask what schools do besides teach, including the lessons nobody writes down. You will see how advantage can travel through a school from parents to children. Then you will meet three classic ways of reading religion (a shared system of beliefs and practices about sacred things), sort religious groups into types, and read a real survey of religious identity, step by step.

• Already covered: Weeks 1 to 12 built the perspectives, the four data questions, socialization, and the family as an institution.
• This week: what schools do, how advantage travels through them, three classic readings of religion, and a survey of religious identity.
• How they connect: Week 12's three lenses now read two more institutions.
• Where we're going next: Week 14, Social Institutions: Economy, Work & Politics.

Focus

What do schools and religions do for a society besides their stated jobs, and how do you read a survey of religious identity?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] sort an effect of schooling as manifest or latent
• [ ] explain tracking, credentialism, and cultural capital
• [ ] place Durkheim, Weber, and Marx with their readings of religion
• [ ] read the religious-affiliation figures in percentage points and percent

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 13 (about 40 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
3. Do the Sociology in Action Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
4. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: explain why the rise from 16% to 29% unaffiliated is 13 percentage points, and why it is not a count of atheists.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if you get stuck.

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