SOC 356-Schools & Society: Home

This guide will help you to use the resources and services provided by Monsignor William Barry Memorial Library.  If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns please feel free to contact me at mnembhard@barry.edu, or 305-899-4051.

Education deals with the most fundamental human need: how to influence children to become competent adults. In this regard, "the sociology of education is perhaps one of the broadest fields within sociology itself," as Saha observes (1997a:1). He notes that one reason for such broadness is that almost everyone engages in some form of education...Read More.

The term alternative schooling has always referred to nontraditional public and private educational approaches available by choice to parents and students. These programs, ranging from actual schools to programs within schools to single classrooms, began to evolve during the late 1960s and grew from a few isolated innovations in local communities into an educational reform...Read More.

Charter schools are public schools that are allowed greater autonomy than traditional public schools in exchange for increased accountability for meeting specific educational goals. Individual states' charter school laws vary tremendously, but charter schools generally operate as deregulated public schools, using public funds to support programs founded by parents, educators,...Read More.

A home school is defined as any learning situation occurring where the parent or guardian has assumed direct responsibility for the education of the child. Those who homeschool have enjoyed increased media exposure and attention, but the practice is not a new or revolutionary method. There are families who do not want the outside world to influence their children in any way ...Read More.

There are private schools in most countries of the world, although many of them are religious schools. Most have curricula that parallel those of state-controlled schools, and are under some form of government regulation, although their private status allows them greater flexibility in programs and personnel. Unlike most public schools, the parents of private-school students must pay for their...Read More.

Despite several decades of reform, public education in the United States is criticized by some as not teaching all children effectively. Consistently poor test results and low graduation rates attest to this. As a result, many taxpayers criticize public schools and demand better results. At the same time, many Americans express a deep faith in the ability of public education to address the...Read More.

Distance learning occurs when instructors and learners are separated by space and possibly time. Distance learning is part of a system of learning, teaching, communication, design, and management. The learning is interactive and may happen synchronously with instruction or asynchronously. The interaction among instructors, learners, and information is mediated by one or more...Read More.

Online learning is delivered via the Internet. Courses or learning experiences are designed to take advantage of being online and having a range of tools and options not available in the same ways within a traditional classroom. It offers a rich potential to students, and this potential is beginning to be tapped by school leaders...Read More.

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