Schools and Societies

by Steven Brint

Schools and Societies provides a synthesis of key issues in the sociology of education, focusing on American schools while offering a global, comparative context. Already a standard text in its first edition, this fully revised and updated second edition offers a broader sweep and stronger theoretical foundation, and takes into consideration key developments in education policy and scholarship since the late 1990s.

The book is distinguished from others in the field by its breadth of coverage, compelling institutional history, and lively prose style. It opens with a chapter on schooling as a social institution. Subsequent chapters examine and compare schooling in industrialized and developing countries, and discuss the major purposes of transmitting culture, socializing young people, and sorting youth for class and occupations. Materials from different educational systems are interwoven throughout the book. The concluding chapter looks at school reform efforts and the future possibilities of schooling.

Genres: Education, Sociology

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 1998

Reviews

[Cami Franchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book read for the course “Global social inequalities”. I didn’t really get the general structure at first but then i slowly started to grasp the concepts of the author. In general i believe that much of what’s written is quite immediate and almost obvious, there’s too many repetitions and stuff that it’s just explained in a bit too complex way.

[Ken Rideout · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good overview of education and its role in society (reading this one for class), but the writing is nothing to recommend it - very textbook-like. Breadth over depth.