Reproduction and Refraction in the Sociology of Education

• In Event: 4451 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 2: Teaching and Administrative Practice

Abstract

The sociology of education has been dominated over the past five decades by reproduction theory, which argues that schools reward students inculcated by their families with high-status cultural capital, while punishing students who lack the cultural knowledge they demand but do not teach. Systems in the schoolhouse are thus understood to result in the intergenerational reproduction of class-based inequalities. Recent empirical evidence challenges this line of thinking. If schools’ role in perpetuating inequality is more complex than suggested by reproduction theory, then schools should instead be considered as sites that “refract” inequality (Downey & Condron 2016). This perspective acknowledges that schools can simultaneously act up multiple inequalities – continuing certain patterns of inequality, while lessening others, and exacerbating yet others. In this essay, I argue that sociologists of education should turn their attention to refraction theory, exploring the ways in which schools simultaneously perpetuate, amplify, and mitigate multiple forms of inequality. I contend that projects positioning schools only as responsible for the reproduction of inequality overlook how they shape and are shaped by the people within them. Rather than treating schools as uniformly responsible for stratification, I argue that sociologists of education should examine how individuals and groups within schools work to extend, magnify, and challenge various forms of inequality.

Author

• Karlyn Gorski, University of Chicago