The Schooled Society: The Educational Transformation of Global Culture

by David P. Baker

Only 150 years ago, the majority of the world's population was largely illiterate. Today, not only do most people over fifteen have basic reading and writing skills, but 20 percent of the population attends some form of higher education. What are the effects of such radical, large-scale change? David Baker argues that the education revolution has transformed our world into a schooled society―that is, a society that is actively created and defined by education. Drawing on neo-institutionalism, The Schooled Society shows how mass education interjects itself and its ideologies into culture at from the dynamics of social mobility, to how we measure intelligence, to the values we promote. The proposition that education is a primary rather than a "reactive" institution is then tested by examining the degree to which education has influenced other large-scale social forces, such as the economy, politics, and religion. Rich, groundbreaking, and globally-oriented, The Schooled Society sheds light on how mass education has dramatically altered the face of society and human life.

Genres: Education, Sociology

360 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2014

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

In contrast to some other reviews of this book on Goodreads, I don't think this is uncritical, nor unpersuasive. It draws on and ties together several decades of education research spread over numerous subfields into a central thesis (taking a neoinstitutional approach) which proposes that education (mainly through the university) is a primary institution rather than a secondary one. As such, it is responsible for many of the social and economic transformations that are usually labelled under various headings (new economies, different aspects of globalisation, even the individualism which is often bemoaned as a pernicious effect of "neoliberalism").
This notion of education as a primary institution allows Baker to draw out problems with and contradictions inherent to other theories of education as a secondary institution, which asserts education's essential function is re-productive, rather than primarily productive as Baker argues.
The weakest part of the book is probably the chapter on education and religion, as it relies on the American context, and generalises to the rest of the world from that (when it comes to the sociology of religion, a good rule of thumb is never to generalise from the USA to the rest of the world). Another issue with the book itself (rather than its content) is the index, which is dreadful. Still, best book on education I have read in years.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really unpersuasive, uncritical look at the a global "education transformation." Some interesting ideas, but a very weird attempt to give education a causal historical agency outside politics or economics.