MySearchLab provides students with a complete understanding of the research process so they can complete research projects confidently and efficiently. Students and instructors with an internet connection can visit www.MySearchLab.com and receive immediate access to thousands of full articles from the EBSCO ContentSelect database. In addition, MySearchLab offers extensive content on the research process itself--including tips on how to navigate and maximize time in the campus library, a step-by-step guide on writing a research paper, and instructions on how to finish an academic assignment with endnotes and bibliography. Comprehensive, contemporary, and cross-cultural in perspective, this book provides a sociological approach to education-- from several theoretical approaches and their practical application, to current educational issues, to the structure and processes that make education systems work. Using an open systems model as a framework, it shows the formal organization of schools with structure, goals and processes; the informal organization with hidden curriculum, organization climate, etc.; the external environment that influences what goes on in the school, including financing, parent(s), community interest groups, etc.; processes such as stratification and change; higher education. Diagrams show interrelationships between topics. For educators and anyone interested in the sociology of education and schools.