Essential Concepts in Education and Sociological Theory

Core Concepts in Educational Sociology

Lifelong Learning

Learning that takes place throughout the life of people, producing a continuum between early education and job training.

Elaborated Codes (Developed Codes)

A formal language and communication mode often associated with families of high social status. These codes offer more universal guidance, being more targeted toward generalization, formalization, and the apprehension of structures. (Concept developed by Basil Bernstein.)

Restricted Codes

The common language used, especially in the social interaction of lower-class families, characterized by a cognitive orientation that is more particularistic and dependent on the actual content of the present situation. (Concept developed by Basil Bernstein.)

Passive Consumer

A concept developed by Ivan Illich, referring to the student's acceptance of the existing social order.

Credentialing Activities

The practice of evaluating a person's ability based on their academic qualifications (credentials).

Explicit Curriculum

The set of objectives, content, teaching methods, and evaluation criteria of the educational system that guides educational practice.

Hidden Curriculum

The set of values, attitudes, or underlying principles (implicit or latent) that students learn through school organization or transmission, often contrasting with the explicit or manifest curriculum.

Societal and Institutional Definitions

Education

A social institution that allows the transmission of knowledge, labor qualifications (skills), standards, and values.

Intercultural Education

A process involving communication and cultural exchange.

Habitus (Bourdieu)

A concept developed by Pierre Bourdieu, defined as a system of schemes of perception and appreciation—cognitive and evaluative structures that agents acquire through the experience of a position in the social world.

Educational Policy

Any political action aimed at establishing and developing the education system of a society.

Cultural Reproduction

The process by which a society transmits the dominant mode of knowledge from one generation to the next.

Educational Measurement Rates

Gross Enrollment Rate

The relationship between the percentage of enrollment in a course or educational area and the population of a given age group.

Schooling Rate (Escolarización Rate)

The proportion of people pursuing studies relative to the total population.

Specified Rate of Schooling

The relationship between the percentage of students enrolled at each age and the estimated population of that specific age.