INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF EDUCATION

Origin of Sociology of Education

 The sociology of education is the study of how social institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcome.
 It is relatively a new branch and two great sociologists Emile Durkheim and Max Weber were the father of sociology of education. Emile Durkheim’s work
on moral education as a basis for social solidarity is considered the beginning of sociology of education.
 Sociologists see education as one of the major instituitons that constitutes society. While theories guide research and policy formulation in the sociology
of education. Thistheories help sociologists understand educational systems.

Sociology – the word Sociology originates from Latin prefix: socious, “companion” ; and the suffix –ology, “the study of”, from Greek logos, “knowledge”.

- Sociology is the systematic study of society. Sociology encompasses all the elements of society ie. Social relation, social stratification, social interaction,
culture.

Society – people in general thought of as living together in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values.
- The people of particular country, area, time, etc. thought of especially as an organized community.

Education – is a broad concept, referring to all the experience in which learners can learn something.
- It is a social endeavour designed to get the maximum from the liability of each of the member of the society. Education covers both the teaching, learning
of knowledge and values.
- Education consists of systematic instruction, teaching and training by professional teachers.,
THEORIES

The Proponents of Consensus and Conflict Sociological and Social Theories

 Karl Marx
 Emile Durkheim
 Max Weber
 Talcott Parsons & Robert Merton
 Louis Althusser & Ralph Dahrendorf
 Herbert Mead & Herbert Blumer

Karl Marx

Marx’s class theory rests on the premise that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. According to this view, ever since human
society emerged from its primitive and relatively undifferentiated state it has remained fundamentally divided between classes who clash in the pursuit of class
interests.

Emile Durkheim

Durheim discusses how modern society is held together by a division of labor that makes individuals dependent upon one another because they specialize in
different types of work. Durkheim is particularly concerned about how the division of labor changes the way that individuals feel they are part of society as a whole.

Max Weber

Max Weber believed that it was social actions that should be the focus of study in sociology. To Weber, a “social action” was an action carried out by an individual to
which an individual attached a meaning. Therefore, an action that a person does not think about cannot be a social action.

Conflict Theory – emphasizes the role of coercion and power in producing social order. This perspective is derived from the works of Karl Marx, who saw society as
fragmented into groups that compete for social and economic resources.

- According to conflict theory, inequality exists because those in control of a disproportionate share of society’s resources actively defend their advantages.

Social Structures produce patterns of inequality in the

distribution of scarce resources.

Conflict

Reorganization and Change

THE CONFLICT MODEL

Consensus Theory – is a social theory that states that social change should occur in institutions that are provided by a political or economic system, which is fair. The
theory also states that the absence of conflict within a society is the state of equilibrium.

- It is being considered in these theories that the social order in society should be maintained, based upon the accepted norms, values, roles or regulations
that are accepted by the social in general.

Consensus – is a general or widespread agreement among all members of a particular society.

Conflict – is a clash between ideas, principles and people.

Consensus Theories Conflict Theories

Shared norms and values as fundamental to society Emphasize the dominance of some social groups by others
Focus on social order based on tacit agreements See social order as based on manipulation and control by dominant
groups
View social change as occurring in a slow and orderly fashion View social change as occurring rapidly in a disorderly fashion as
subordinate groups overthrow dominant groups
Structural Functionalism – states that society is made up of various institutions that work together in cooperation.

Parsons’ Structural Functionalism (AGIL)

1. Adaptation: a system must cope with external situational exigencies.

2. Goal Attainment: a system must define and achieve its primary goals.
3. Integration: a system must regulate the interrelationship of its component parts.
4. Latency (pattern maintenance): a system must furnish, maintain, and renew both the motivation of individuals and the cultural patterns that create and
sustain the motivation.

Structure of the General Action System (Ritzer 2000)

 Action system – the behavioral organism that handles the adaptation function by adjusting to and transforming the external world.
 Personality system – performs the goal-attainment function by defining system goals and mobilizing resources to attain them.
 Social System – copes with the integration function by controlling its component parts.
 Cultural System – performs the latency function by providing actors with the norms and values that motivate them for action.

Parsons’ Sets of Assumption

1. Systems have the property of order and interdependence of parts

2. Systems tend toward self-maintaining order, or equilibrium
3. The system may be static or involved in an ordered process of change
4. The nature of one part of the system has an impact on the form the other parts can take
5. System maintain boundaries with their environments
6. Allocation and integration are two fundamental processes
7. System tends toward self-maintenance involving the maintenance of the relationship of pars of the whole, control of environment variations, and control
of tendencies to change the system from within.

Functional Requisites of a Social System (Talcott Parsons)

1. Social system must be structured so that they operate compatibility with other systems.
2. To survive, the social system must have the requisite from other systems.
3. The system must need a significant proportion of the needs of its actors.
4. The system must elicit adequate participation from its members.
5. It must have at least a minimum of control over potentially disruptive behavior.
6. If conflict becomes sufficiently disruptive, it must be controlled.
7. Finally, a social system requires a language in order to survive.

Key Principles of the Functionalist Theory

1. Interdependency. This means that every part of society is dependent to some extent on other parts of the society, so that what happens at one place in
society has important effects elsewhere.
2. Functions of Social Structure and Culture. Closely related to interdependency is the idea that each part of the social system exists because it serves some
function.
3. Consensus and cooperation. Societies have a tendency toward consensus; that is to have certain basic values that nearly everyone in the society agrees
upon.
4. Equilibrium. Once a society has achieved the form that is best adapted to its situation, it has reached a state of balance or equilibrium, and it will remain in
that condition until it is forced to change by some new condition.

Social Culture – refers to the organization of society, including its institutions, its positions, and its distribution of resources.

Culture – refers to a set of beliefs, language, rules, values, and knowledge held in common by members of a society.
 The Component Parts of a Social Structure

1. Families 3. Associations 5. Churches 7. Countries

2. Neighbors 4. Schools 6. Banks

The structural functional model addresses the question of social organization and how it is maintained. This theoretical perspective is the legacy of Dukheim and
Spencer.

Structural functionalism – puts emphasis on social order and social stability not on conflict. It provides that society is made up of different institutions or organization
that work together in cooperation to achieve their orderly relationship and to maintain social order and social stability.

Interactionist Theories – the relation of school and society are critiques and extensions of the functionalist and conflict perspectives.

Symbolic Interactionism – interactionist theory has its origin in the social psychology of early twentieth century sociologists George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton
Cooley. Mead and Cooley examined the ways in which the individual is related to society through ongoing social interactions.

Basic forms of Social Interaction.

*Non-symbolic interaction which does not involve thinking. *Symbolic interaction which require mental processes.

PRINCIPLES OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

1. Human beings unlike lower animals, are endowed with a capacity for thought.
2. The capacity for thought is shaped by social interaction.
3. In social interaction, people learn the meanings and the symbols that allow them to exercise their distinctively capacity for human thought.
4. Meanings and symbols allow people to carry on distinctively human action and interaction.
5. People are able to modify or alter meanings and symbols that they use in action and interaction on the basis of their interpretation of the situation.
6. People are able to make these modifications and alterations because, in part, of their ability to interact with themselves, which allows them to examine possible
courses of action, assess their relative advantages and disadvantages, and then choose one.
7. The intertwined patterns of action and interaction make up groups and societies.

Non – Symbolic Interactionism

*The first, non-symbolic interaction – Mead’s conversation of gestures does not involve thinking.
*The second symbolic interaction does not require mental processes (Ritzer,2000).

Mead’s approach to symbolic interaction rested on three basic premises

1. The first is that people act toward the things they encounter on the basis of what those things mean to them. (Things, in this context, refer not just to
objects, but also to people, activities, and situation.
2. Second, we learn what things are by observing how other people respond to them, that is through social interaction.
3. Third, as a result of ongoing interaction, the sounds (or words), gestures, facial expressions, and body postures we use in dealing with others acquire
symbolic meanings that are shared by people who belong to the same culture.The meaning of a symbolic gesture extends beyond the act itself. A
handshake, for instance, is a symbolic gesture of greeting among Filipinos. As such, it conveys more than just a mutual grasping of fingers and palms. It
expresses both parties shared understanding that a social interaction is beginning. In other cultures, such as Japan, willingness to interact is expressed or
symbolized in a bow ( Calhoun et al., 1994).

The importance of thinking to symbolic interactionists is reflected in their views on objects.

Blumer differentiates among three types of objects:

1. Physical objects – such as a chair or a tree

2. Social objects – such as a student or a mother
3. Abstract objects – such as an idea or a moral principle.

Another important concept that has long been used by symbolic interactionist is the “looking-glass self”.

Looking Glass “ We see ourselves as other see us” by Charles Cooley.