Education in a Sociological Sense: Article Summaries Essay -- Sociolog

I have chosen two articles in relation to education. The first article determines whether education plays a vital role in religion in Scotland, whereas the second article attempts to present a connection between educational attainment and cultural capital. This assignment will summarise the articles I have chosen to read, which will provide me with a wider understanding of education in a sociological sense as opposed to my original common sense. The first article I will examine concerns educations role in religion within Scotland. ‘The relationship among religion, education and opportunity has been a recurrent theme in debates about Scottish social policy since the 1920’s’ (Paterson 2006). The article commences by addressing a certain aspect of this frequent debate, if and to what extent certain religious groups have experienced social mobility and educations role within this experience. Paterson goes onto explain that to back up this theory she will analyse the results of the Scottish Household Survey conducted in 2001 to ascertain if ‘social mobility differs between the three largest groups in Scotland, and what, if any the role of education might be in that’. The three largest groups to which she refers are, ‘no religion’, ‘Church of Scotland’ and ‘Roman Catholic’. She attempts to uncover religious differences in mobility patterns, the role of educat ion and if these conclusions are somehow varied by gender. Paterson moves on to outline the surveys process and to illustrate the questions asked within the survey. She attempts to point out minor faults within the survey that may alter the reliance of specific results, ‘the survey asked all respondents only about their current religion, not about their religion of upbringing’. ... ... GCSE attainment’. In conclusion, from reading the two articles my knowledge on education when looking at it in a sociological sense has deepened and I am now more aware of the role that education plays in topics I never paired it with. For example, prior to reading the article involving religion and education, I had never thought of religion aiding my educational credentials. I had also never looked at cultural capital and how that the lack of awareness of certain aspects of culture may hinder my educational credentials and therefore my occupational desires. Works Cited Paterson, L & Iannelli, C (2006) Religion, social mobility and education in Scotland. The British Journal of Sociology. Vol 57, No.1, pp353-375 Sullivan, A (2001) Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment. The Journal of The British Sociological Association. Vol 35, No.4, pp893-911