What question did this study set out to answer?

To explore how schools function as social sorting machines that create categories leading to inequalities.

May 5, 2017Annual Review of Sociology288 citationsOpen Access

Categorical Inequality: Schools As Sorting Machines

TDThurston DominaUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill APAndrew M. PennerUniversity of California, Irvine EPEmily K. PennerIrvine University

Key Points

To explore how schools function as social sorting machines that create categories leading to inequalities.
Review of literature on categorical inequality in education
Analysis of contemporary American schools
Discussion on mechanisms reinforcing social categories within schools
Schools create and reinforce social categories that contribute to systemic inequalities
The concept of categorical inequality bridges understanding of educational and social disparities
Schools can operate as both egalitarian institutions and reinforcing agents of inequality

Abstract

Despite their egalitarian ethos, schools are social sorting machines, creating categories that serve as the foundation of later life inequalities. In this review, we apply the theory of categorical inequality to education, focusing particularly on contemporary American schools. We discuss the range of categories that schools create, adopt, and reinforce, as well as the mechanisms through which these categories contribute to production of inequalities within schools and beyond. We argue that this categorical inequality frame helps to resolve a fundamental tension in the sociology of education and inequality, shedding light on how schools can-at once-be egalitarian institutions and agents of inequality. By applying the notion of categorical inequality to schools, we provide a set of conceptual tools that can help researchers understand, measure, and evaluate the ways in which schools structure social inequality.

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