Sorting Machines: Technology and Inequality in Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Scholarship shows that schools contribute to social stratification, functioning as “sorting machines” that funnel students through educational systems to unequal ends. Yet, less understood is how the categorization of technologies—as academic or vocational—also matters for inequality. In this symposium, a panel of authors will discuss their recent books on how technologies are implicated in educational sorting and social stratification. Drawing on scholarship from education, sociology, and science and technology studies, these panelists show how educational institutions shape the value and meaning of technologies to reify existing social hierarchies and benefit advantaged racial, gender, and socioeconomic groups. The session will illustrate how education scholars can view technologies as part of school sorting processes, with implications for inequality.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Sociology of Education

Chair

• Ariam Mogos, Stanford University

Papers

• Digital Divisions: How Schools Create Inequality in the Tech Era - Matthew Rafalow, Google Inc

• Redefining Geek: Bias and the Five Hidden Habits of Tech-Savvy Teens - Cassidy Puckett, Emory University

• The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop per Child - Morgan G. Ames, University of California - Berkeley

Discussant

• Ariam Mogos, Stanford University