Schools and Society

Jeanne H. Ballantine is Emerita Professor of Sociology at Wright State University, a state university of about 17,000 students in Ohio. She has also taught at several 4-year colleges, including an “alternative” college and a traditionally Black college, and at international programs in universities abroad. She has been teaching introductory sociology for more than 30 years with a mission to introduce the uninitiated to the field and to help students see the usefulness and value in sociology. She has been active in the teaching movement, shaping curriculum, writing and presenting research on teaching, and offering workshops and consulting in regional, national, and international forums. She is a Fulbright Senior Scholar and serves as a Departmental Resources Group consultant and evaluator. Jeanne has written several textbooks, all with the goal of reaching the student audience. As the original director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Wright State University, she scoured the literature on student learning and served as a mentor to teachers in a wide variety of disciplines. Local, regional, and national organizations have honored her for her teaching and for her contributions to helping others become effective teachers. In 1986, the American Sociological Association’s Section on Undergraduate Education (now called the Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology) recognized her with the Hans O. Mauksch Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching of Sociology. In 2004, she was honored by the American Sociological Association with its Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award. In 2010, the North Central Sociological Association awarded her the J. Milton Yinger Award for Distinguished Career in Sociology. Joan Z. Spade is professor emerita of sociology at The College at Brockport, State University of New York, in Brockport, New York. She received her MA from the University of Rochester and her PhD from the University of Buffalo. She has been teaching and writing in the field for more than 30 years, including a semester teaching in Budapest, Hungary, as a Fulbright Scholar; she is coeditor of implementing Educational Reform: Sociological perspectives on Educational Policy and coauthor of articles in sociology of education on stratification and grouping practices in education. She publishes in other areas, including gender and family, and is coeditor with Catherine G. Valentine of The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities. She is a member of the ASA, including the ASA Section on Sociology of Education, the Eastern Sociological Society, and Sociologists for Women in Society.

What Is Sociology of Education? Theoretical Perspectives
Studying Schools: Research Methods in Education
Schooling in a Social Context: Educational Environments
Schools as Organizations: Formal and Informal Education
Roles and Responsibilities: Administrators, Teachers and Students
What We Teach in Schools: Knowledge for What and for Whom?
Who Gets Ahead? Race, Class and Gender in Education
Education and Opportunity: Attempts at Equality and Equity in Education
Higher Education
Globalization and Education: Comparing Global Systems
Can Schools Change? Educational Reform and Change