Stranz Wolfgramm
Sociology 1010
Kristina Gale
Sociological Perspectives
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Black and Latino students in
America are explained through the 3 main sociological perspectives that are:
Symbolic Interactionism, Functionalism, and the Conflict Theory. Education goes
beyond the numbers, learning the alphabet, and how to write. But it teaches other
significant things such as ethics, morals, and values. Most importantly, it teaches the
young generation how to socialize and interact with others. It’ll focus more on the
micro-level. When schools have different teaching methods, how will that affect the
students as a body, but more importantly how will that affect the individual
student?
Symbolic InteractionismBlacks and Latinos in an academic environment are most likely to be inferior
to those who are white. An interaction between a teacher and student is very
important. If a teacher who is White supposes a black student to get a lower than
average grade in their class, you may find the teacher to start acting in ways that
will help that student earn a low grade in that class. This is an example George
Herbert Mead’s argument he made in a book titled, George Herbert Mead: A Unifying
Theory for Sociology by John D. Baldwin. Expectations made by schoolteachers about
students’ behaviors or achievements will tend to come true even though the original
expectations may have been false. In the classroom situation the self-fulfilling
prophecy concept works this way: The teacher predicts the student will get a low
grade then labels the student as an under-achiever. During the learning process, the
teacher treats the student as labeled. The child develops that he is an underachiever and the teacher believes that the prophecy from the start was right. If the
teacher treats the pupil to be a failure, then it’s most likely that that student will fail
and vice versa if he were treated to succeed. [1]
Primary labeling is sometimes easy to see with the black and Latino student
athletes. They may be known as or called “under-achievers”, “lazy” or “stupid”
when it comes to schoolwork. Or told to at least get a 2.0 or 2.5 GPA to be ruled
academically eligible to participate in athletics. Then they’ll start to act “stupid” or
“lazy” because they are acting according to what they were labeled from the start.
The black and Latino people can represent many symbols in different ways.
A main symbol that we may all have seen growing up are results of their test scores
and grades. Low tests scores tell us that these kids probably come from low-income
families, the neighborhood that they live in may be gang affiliated. And they may be
raised in a household where “just getting by” is okay. That the importance of
education or to prepare for the long run is not emphasized.
FunctionalismA classic study by sociologist James Coleman done in 1966, known as the
“Coleman Report” looked at the performance of over 150,000 students and found
that student background and socioeconomic status were much more important in
determining educational outcomes than were differences in school resources, such
as per pupil spending. He also found that socially disadvantaged black students
benefited and did better in school when they were in racially mixed classrooms
rather than black only classrooms. [2]
Unintended negative consequences that many of these black and Latino
students face is the environment they grow up in. They live in lower class
environments that they were born into. They couldn’t control the outcome of their
beginning. Being raised in a family where education is not important. So they didn’t
form those habits of working hard academically to prepare for a better future
because they were never taught from an early age. In New York City, the nation’s
largest school system, on average student outcomes and their opportunity to learn
are more determined by the neighborhood where a child lives, than his or her
abilities.
Karl Marx believes that educational achievement is greatly influenced by an
individual’s social class background. With this being said, we can see that education
channels ruling class ideology.
“An example of “Positivistism” would be ‘The Black Report’, which after
research concluded that members of the working class had a greater chance of dying
earlier when compared to the middle and upper classes.” [3]
Conflict TheoryA new Schott Foundation for Public Education report, “A Rotting Apple:
Education Redlining in New York City,” reveals that the communities where most of
the city’s poor, black and Hispanic students live suffer from New York policies and
practices that give their schools the fewest resources and their students the least
experienced teachers. In contrast, the best-funded schools with the highest
percentage of experienced teachers are most often located in the most economically
advantaged neighborhoods. [4]
By the end of high school, in fact, African American and Latino students have
abilities in both mathematics and reading that are the same as those of white
students in 8th grade.

In the 18 to 24 year old group, about 90 percent of whites and 94 percent of
Asians have either completed high school or earned a GED. Among African
Americans, the rare drops to 81 percent among Latinos, 63 percent.


Approximately 76 percent of white graduates and 86 percent of Asian
graduates go directly to college, compared to 71 percent of African American
and 71 percent of Latino graduates.
Young African Americans are only about half as likely as white students to
earn a bachelor’s degree by age 29; young Latinos are only one-third as likely
as whites to earn a college degree [5]
The Conflict Theory best fits the topic on how Blacks and Latino students are
seen through the 3 main sociological perspectives. As we can see from the facts
shown, there exist much inequality for not only the students, but mainly for the
schools they’re being educated at. It’s clear that Black and Latino are the ones in
conflict, and the results will stay the same if the flaws in the educational system are
not corrected.
From an adult’s viewpoint, they make comments like, “Their parents don’t
care” or “they’re too poor.” From a student’s viewpoint, they may say, “their
teachers are not qualified to teach the subject their assigned.” My cousin’s friend
who’s from Chicago felt the same about his teachers. He said, “The teachers were
never motivating at all, they’d give us assignment after assignment with a lot of
times no explanation on how to do the assignment.” He continues, “I would go my
counselor(s) who I thought would help me, but they underestimated my potential
and placed me in lower-level courses.” [6]
One of the major problems is that many school systems are taking those who
already have less than others and putting them in educational programs that give
them less. We can see this through both research and many of us may have
experienced seen this first hand, but what schools do matter greatly in the outcome
of an individual.
“To increase the achievement levels of minority and low-income students, we
need to focus on what really matters: high standards, a challenging curriculum, and
good teachers.” [7]
Work Cited
[2] Angrist, J. D., & Kevin, L. (2004). Does school integration generate peer effects?
Evidence from Boston's Metco Program. American Economic Review, 94(5),
1613-1634. Retrieved November 11, 2012
[1] Baldwin, J. D. (2004). George Herbert Mead: A Unifying Theory of Sociology. N.p.:
Kendall Hunt. Retrieved November 12, 2012
[3] Bryant, L. (n.d.). Functionalism and Education. In History Learning Site. Retrieved
November 14, 2012, from
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/functionalsim_education.htm
[4] Jackson, D. H., & Noguera, D. (2011). Why Education Inequality Persist- And How
To Fix It. The Washing Post. Retrieved November 16, 2012, from
http://schottfoundation.org/drupal/media-center/why-education-inequalitypersists-and-how-to-fix-it
[7] Haycock, K. (2006). HELPING ALL STUDENTS ACHIEVE: CLOSING THE
ACHIEVEMENT GAP. In Center for Development and Learning. Retrieved
November 17, 2012, from
http://www.cdl.org/resourcelibrary/articles/achieve_gap.php
[5] U.S. Census Bureau. (1998). Educational Attainment Detailed Tables, October
CPS. Retrieved November 13, 2012 from,
http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/achieve_gap.php
[6] Interview of Akol Stevens. Retrieved November 4, 2012. Salt Lake City, UT.