Structuralism is a philosophy that views society as composed of structures such as class and race that shape our lives, making it challenging for all individuals to have access to equal opportunities. Thus, it is focuses on exposing these structures and investigating power -- who has it and who doesn’t -- and what we can do to change this, often by way of advocacy, actions, and campaigns, and striving for social change (J. Poole, personal communication, September 13, 2017).
Coach Carter is a sports drama based on a real life experience of a former Richmond High alumni and basketball coach, Ken Carter, who became known in 1999 for benching his undefeated basketball team, due to poor academic standing (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.). It is through this film I will illustrate my understanding of structuralism, with a special focus on the “lockout” that occurs, as it demonstrates power imbalances addressed by advocacy and social action (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.).
In the film, Coach Carter initiates a lockout after learning some members of his team failed to uphold the academic requirements mutually agreed to between the Coach and the players in a signed contract (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.). In place of practice, the players were confronted by a sign on the gym door asking that they meet the Coach in the library (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.). Going forward, practices were cancelled and the team was forced to forfeit games they demonstrated an improvement in their grades (Watch Coach
Structural Functionalism aims to understand society in an objective way. It views society as an entity that is “objectively real”. It emphasizes the unity of society, and how individuals perform roles and how these roles are vital in meeting the needs of the collective whole. For instance, because every society has stratification, stratification must have certain functions and these functions can contribute to the survival of the social system as a whole. Furthermore, structural
Ken Carter displayed the most leadership in the film Coach Carter. He broke rules and explored boundary’s that helped turn an adversity basketball team into a dream team. Coach Carter Transformational leadership factor was Intellectual Stimulation. This factor includes leadership that stimulates followers to be creative and innovative, by challenging their own beliefs and values as well as those of the leader. The Richmond high Oilers had to develop new approaches and innovative ways of thinking in order to become a winning basketball team. The first thing Coach Carter made them do was run. He told them that their problem was not being able to shoot baskets but that they were tired running up and down the court. After getting there stamina
Structural functionalism is based on the thought that society operates with the expectation of everyone serves a purpose. In order to operate effectively, each individual has a function that provides a role that others are dependent on. The responsibility of society is shared by the involvement of all institutions. Poverty in society is view by functionalists as purposeful. It provides society with jobs as social service providers. The social service providers are dependent on various institutions to provide the necessary sufficiency to sustain their role in society. This revolving dependence is crucial to structural functionalism.
Coach Carter is a movie inspired by a true story where Samuel L. Jackson plays the role of Ken Carter. Ken Carter attended Richmond High for his high school career where he set the high standards for basketball. After being considered one of the best athlete’s to attend the school he was asked to come back and coach the men’s basketball team. Richmond High is unlike most high schools due to the fact of the poverty surrounding the school. Carter accepted the coaching position so he could help the student athletes with their basketball skills, but most importantly their education.
If states are the laboratories of democracy, then sports are the arena in which it is tested. This book serves as a review of racial integration and the changing dynamics in sports from 1890 - 1980. Charles Martin aims for the reader to understand why it was common place for white southerners to compete against “non-black” ethnic minorities (E.G. Native Americans, Chinese), but an issue when even a single African American was on an opposing team. Benching Jim Crow explains to the reader that the persistence of segregation lay with overarching cultural mentalities left over from the Civil War, but shifts in position came from external (financial), and internal (students and players). Though offering little insight into the legal and political impacts of Jim Crow itself, Martin paints a detailed, but redundant, narrative of the rise and fall of Jim Crow in athletics.
According to the film, Hickory, Indiana is a place where “basketball players are treated like gods”. The town takes basketball very seriously, it is literally a way of life for them. The Hickory Huskers may not be the best team in the area, but the community is very supportive of the team. Every week the whole town comes together for the games to cheer on the Hickory Huskers and the townspeople have meeting to try coming up with solutions to help better their performance. However, the towns approach is aggressive and their strategies to win are different from Coach Dales. For example, a group of men from the town barge into one of the team’s practices and criticize Coach Dale that they should be practicing with the ball instead of doing strength exercises. Coach Dale believed that for the team to improve he needed to
Structural Functionalism is defined as, “a society which is a whole unit made up of interrelated parts that work together” and “ its society as a living organism/ machine that has multiple organs and parts and people to fulfill their individual functions; working together to make it happen ” (Henslin 2015, Smith 2017).
His teaching styles were very unintentional but you could tell what he was doing. Since he had experienced a similar situation when he was once on a team, he had wanted to give his team a different form of coaching that they wouldn’t have had expected at Richmond High School. Coach Carter did a very exquisite job at portraying these learning styles, knowing that there could have been consequences to a certain amount. It was gratifying to see that Coach Carter would do anything for his team, win or lose, he wanted them to come out successful and at least learn something even if it was a
There has been a lot of controversy on whether colleges should be paying the paying their athletes. Brian Frederick, a board member of Sports Fan Coalition and an adjunct professor for Georgetown University’s Sport Industry Management Program, believes colleges have a broken system when it comes to athletes. Frederick’s contemptuous tone discredits sports fan, who believe college athletes already get paid enough with their education, by stating “If a student athlete is hurt or unsuccessful, the coaches and administrators suddenly discard the noble ideals of “education” and a player is left with nothing.” With the use of metaphors and similes, Frederick convinces sport fans to take action and make the calls in order to continue college athletics
Coach Carter is a 2005 movie which was based upon a true story. The movie underlines the social structure and stratification of life in the American ghetto. The theme of the movie is the outcome of such societal boundaries on this group of students who play basketball; how it outlines their life, affects their social life and also their life goals. The movie depicts a Structural-functionalist of society
Structure and agency are two theoretical terms used to explain the capacity at which we as people are able to be individuals, and to what extent those influences limit our individuality. Structure refers to the ways in which a society is organized. Agency refers to the behaviors and actions of the individuals within the social structure. Agency is limited by the structure due to cultural barriers and inequalities within the structure. In this essay, I will present an overview of why critical theorists are concerned with those inequalities, and I will further identify the problems within the system contributing to the unequal access to the public sphere, relating specifically to class and gender inequalities.
Ken Carter was a former student of Richmond High, California. He returned in 1999 to coach a high school basketball team. This film is a sports drama film that talks about the value of respect, teamwork, and education. Respect is essential to strengthen a good relationship with others. In the movie, Coach Carter is implementing the term of respect by calling each other a “Sir” and not using the word "nigger" but one member of the team failed to do so which is Timo Cruz.
Structural functionalism is a macro level approach to study sociology (Browning, 2015). Structural functionalists believe social consensus is what holds society together; social consensus being a condition in which most members of the society agree on what would be good for everyone. Structural functionalists view society as a web of social structures, each structure being functional to fulfill it’s own needs, but dependent on all other structures for survival (Vago, 2012).
Coach Ken Carter takes a job to coach the Richmond High School basketball team, where he makes his players sign a contract stating they will maintain an average of a C, attend all their classes and sit in the front row, and wear a tie to every game. Carter cancels every game and practice until his players improve their academic results. Coach Carter is a determined leader that strives to improve the social and academic lives of his players. Richmond High School is in an inner city, it has the lowest rating in academic performance and the students have a 50% graduation rate. Coach Carter immediately demands his players to mutually refer to him as “Sir”, to teach them about mutual respect.
Basically, Structuralism was firstly set up in Europe by Ferdinand de Saussure, a structural linguist. It is a kind of methodology which discusses hat elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure. It works to uncover the structures that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. In fact, structuralism is aimed to find the inner structure logic behind millions of words. In literary, structuralism the narrative dimension of literary texts because Structuralism Criticism deals mainly with narrative.(Tyson, 219)