This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. Preface

KEY TAKEAWAYS

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  According to the functional perspective, education helps socialize children and prepare them for their eventual entrance into the larger society as adults.
  
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  The conflict perspective emphasizes that education reinforces inequality in the larger society.
  
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  The symbolic interactionist perspective focuses on social interaction in the classroom, on school playgrounds, and at other school-related venues. Social interaction contributes to gender-role socialization, and teachers’ expectations may affect their students’ performance.