INTRODUCTION

The man is born in society and has to develop his personality in the society. According
to Ross "Individuality is of one value and personality is a meaningless apart from
social environment. In the social environment individual interact with forces which
influences him and he also influence the society. An individual can learn very little by
himself. In his learning society contribute very significantly. Man lives in the society,
acquires socialization through his contact with family, his relatives, friends. He learns
basic things with mutual behavior through this contact. If individual is left alone
without any companions and society then his learning will not take place, therefore for
education the presence of other people, means society is very necessary. Education
and society are interdependent and complimentary to each other. No educational
system can be understood without looking at the canvass of society. Society can never
progress without the sound system of education. Education should enable the pupil to
be a useful member of society.

The nature and scope of sociology of education

Educational sociology is not limited to specific nature or specific period. Its nature is
of universal type. Educational sociology is not merely theoretical .it does not merely
study the forces of interaction between the individual and a society or group but it is
also practical because besides studying interacting forces it tries to regulate and
control the interacting forces. Role of educational of sociology is to find out ways and
means to manipulate the educational process to achieved better personality
development and thus obtain better social control. The society has made some rules to
have continuity in society to maintain stability, to protect the things that help working
and to establish discipline. for preserving traditions values and customs educational
sociology is necessary. Educational sociology is the subject of constant and dynamic
interaction of the individual and his cultural environment, it enables us to understand
the child from the point of view of social milieu. Educational sociology evolved as a
discipline designed to prepare educator for their future tasks. It uses the results of
sociological research in planning educational activities and in developing effective
methods of realizing these plans.

 It helps in understanding the cultural, economic, social and political trends in

relation to formal and informal agencies of education.
 Educational sociology aims to develop a curriculum that will adequately
socialize each individual student.
 It tries to find out what would best contribute towards the child's personality
development and control the educative process to achieve personality
development of each single child.
 Educational sociology studies the various types of social relationships and their
impact on individual development.

THE DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN SOCIOLOGY OF

EDUCATION.

Within most scientific disciplines there are hundreds of thinkers writing hundreds of
books on hundreds of topics. Without a framework to classify these thinkers it’s
difficult to link the theories proposed or effectively evaluate them. It is also difficult
then to contrast their teammates or opponents in thought. One of the solutions to this
plethora of ideas is to note the connections between thinkers and lump them into
Schools of Thought. For example, when studying Psychology one of the most famous
schools of thought is Psychoanalysis, originally developed by Freud, but perpetuated
by many thinkers after him. Also important to note, not all thinkers within the schools
hold all of the same beliefs, some even disagree with each other on some principles,
others elaborate on minor themes of the original founders. However, they do hold to
the basic theories of the school of thought. As I’ve set out to study Sociology I’ve
learned so far there are four contemporary schools of thought, which I will briefly
outline below, along with some of their notable contributors.
Structural Functionalism. This school views the world as a structure made of a
series of interrelated parts. What are these structures? Well, these sociological
thinkers (namely Talcott Parsons (1902-1979)) looked at social institutions likes
schools and governments as the structures, and what they provided as their functions.
Another sociologist, Robert Merton (1910-2003), observed their functions and
observed that they had some intended and some unintended consequences from their
actions. Both of these men built their work on the back of Emile Durkheim (1858-
1917), who’s kind of a big deal in the world of social sciences for his work on social
facts, order, integration, and anomie. All three emphasize the how structures
contribute to orderliness and stability.

Conflict Theory: This school is born out of the other two earliest contributors to the
field Max Weber (1864-1920) and Karl Marx (1818-1883), and continued on
particularly in the Chicago School of thought, notably Wright Mills (1916-1962).
These thinkers all held that there will inevitably be struggles between the powerful and
the powerless. Society, they say, is characterized by its struggles of inequality, which
will give rise to conflict.

Symbolic Interactionism: Symbolic Interactionists are all about the details. They
study the symbols (which include the mighty words that we use every day) that people
use and the way that they are given meaning. To them, socialization is extremely
important to study. Some of their great thinkers include GH Mead (1863 – 1931) and
his work on communication and his disciple Herbert Blumer (1900-1987).

Feminist Theory: This theory aims to study the inequalities that women have
historically faced, and in this way is related to conflict theory. It studies the
interaction also between the structures and the gender of people and how gender can
affect perceptions and treatment, in this way it is very like the structural functionalist.
Feminist theory hardly seeks to undermine the work that the Dead White Males have
done, but addresses their thoughts and then draws attention to their oversights.
Feminist theory does not focus solely on women’s issues, but points out that our
symbolic interactions with the world are all inherently gendered. At this time, I don’t
know enough to note here who might be classified as a woman sociologist, or a
feminist sociologist. However, the life of Jane Addams (1860-1935) has always
fascinated me, and I intend to read some of the works of Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
and Carol Gilligan (1936-) hoping that they will fall into this category.

THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH

EDUCATION.

Culture can be defined as a social heritage of an organized community or society

which is a pattern of responses that have been discovered and invented when the group
has interacted which is a combination of beliefs, customs, religions, and arts while
education is the process of imparting knowledge or acquiring knowledge. Cultures can
potentially have a great impact on education as well as education has also an impact of
cultures of a society.

The society at large have a wide range of culture that exists with them this is because a
larger society is composed of very many small societies with different culture.
Stability of the culture will depend on how similar the society is. Having said that, you
will realize that the culture of one society may value education that is your success in
life will depend on how well educated you are. This might be very different from
some cultures as they might not value education so much and education might have a
very low impact.

It is true that education can have a very big impact on the culture of an organization.
One good example is when a society that has a major problem and have find a way to
live with it. when one of their own is well educated can come up with a means to solve
the problem in a much easier way and better the living standard of the community in
the long run. This is because they have learned other ways in tackling the same
problem through interacting and education. This is rather the opposite when a society
is completely closed to anyone from outside their culture they will not be able to
benefit from the education.

As mentioned earlier both education and culture do influence each other in the
following manner

 When you want to take care of the culture and preserve it, it can be witnessed in
most of them as they a have distinct culture which they try as much as possible
to preserve it for the generation to come and this can only be achieved by
education.
 Education plays a major role in transmission of culture, this is achieved when
preservation is done form one generation to another. Education here is a tool
used to transmit social values and ideas to the young and upcoming generations.
 The culture that is famous from one society to the other can be developed
through education. That is bringing the desirable change in both the cultural and
values for the progress and development of the society
 Another way in which education connects very well with culture is through the
process of removing the cultural lag. You have realized that in the recent year’s
material cultural are developing in such a speed because of the new innovation
and technology and the best way to bridge the gap between the cultural norms
with the developing technology is through education.

THE INFLUENCE OF VARIOUS FACTORS ON LEARNING PROCESSES

1. Intelligence: There is no commonly recognized definition of intelligence. So,

intelligence is defined in terms of operations. It is the ability to solve problems,
think, reason, relate to others, deal with emotions, develop interests, have a
sense of right and wrong, and live in line with our circumstances. The capacity
 to solve problems and create commodities that society values is characterized as
intelligence. It is argued that people have several bits of intelligence that operate
from different areas of the brain and that the idea of a single intellect is thus
erroneous. He also contended that different persons possessed varying
combinations of the various bits of intelligence.
2. Aptitude: Aptitude is a person’s innate ability to perform a task. Some
youngsters are naturally gifted in mathematics, while others must put in a lot of
effort to succeed. Some youngsters are born with the capacity to sketch and
paint, while others excel in sports and activities. An aptitude test is used to
assess a person’s ability to do a certain profession. Aptitude tests are also used
to determine a child’s capacity to execute numerical crunching, verbal thinking,
and spatial abilities, and to determine which of these he or she will acquire
readily.

3. Goals: Setting objectives will help us find our way. Our motivation is
influenced by the sort of goals we establish. If we set urgent goals, such as
passing an exam, our learning is only transient, and we quickly forget
everything after the exam. Setting long-term ambitions, such as becoming a
doctor or an IAS officer, can help a student achieve new heights and contribute
positively to life. Goals are proportionate to improvements in learning and
performance. It assists in directing our attention to the learning at hand,
increasing our persistence in the learning at hand, and assisting us in adopting
new and alternative tactics when old strategies fail. There are three sorts of goal
orientations that will assist us in understanding student learning and
performance. They are learning objectives, performance objectives, and work
avoidance objectives. A person with a learning goal will have the intention to
understand a concept or issue regardless of performance, which means that
mistakes are irrelevant because the intention is to learn or improve. The primary
goal of the performance is to appear competent in the eyes of others. Learners
 who create performance objectives are continuously striving to win, to be the
best, and to outwit their peers. There will be pupils who do not want to study or
outperform their peers; instead, they wish to avoid effort. These pupils finish
their courses swiftly and with little effort. These pupils are focusing on their
avoidance skills.
4. Self-Concept (also known as self-esteem, self-image, and self-efficacy): Self
Esteem refers to a person’s entire subjective assessment of his value. The
importance that a person place on themselves. Self-Image: This relates to one’s
own opinions of oneself — one’s strengths and talents, as well as one’s faults
and limits. “I’m brilliant in math and English but terrible at geography,” for
example. Self-esteem: this is a self-evaluation that a person forms after
engaging with the subject for some time. Self-Efficacy: This is a person’s belief
in their ability to do tasks. This is about a person’s confidence in his capacity to
achieve or complete a task.
5. Motivation: Motivation is an internal condition that stimulates and sustains
conduct. Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are the two forms of
motivation. Motivating an adolescent entails encouraging him or her to use his
or her inner resources, feeling of competence, self-esteem, and autonomy.

6. Locus of control: The locus of control is a person’s belief about what causes
good or negative outcomes in their life. Example: A student with a high internal
locus of control feels that their work and talents influence their grades.
As they learn about their weaknesses, these pupils alter their study techniques.
A student with a strong external locus of control feels that their exam outcomes
are mostly determined by fate or chance.

7. Maturation and readiness to learn: There is always a suitable period for each

individual to efficiently learn a certain ability. This proper period happens only
when a person’s physical and intellectual development has evolved sufficiently
to allow them to notice and deal with an issue. For example, if a teenager is
 given project management skills, he may be unable to retain the information
since his mental development has not progressed sufficiently. Maturity is
defined as a semi-permanent change in an individual caused by biological
aging, whether cognitive, emotional, or physical.
8. Aspirational Level: The lever of aspiration relates to how far and where
individuals set their attainment objectives and targets. It is decided by our
previous successes and failures. For instance, if success or failure is ascribed to
internal sources, success would result in pride, desire, and learning.
Failure results in a low degree of desire and learning. If a person believes he has
control over his learning, he is considered to have a high level of ambition
because he chooses to pursue more challenging activities and exerts more effort.

EDUCATION, SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT

Social stratification or socioeconomic status has created a societal phenomenon where

those with greater economic resources have access to more opportunities than those of
lesser financial means. Research has identified that those with more opportunities
succeed at higher levels in academia than students on lower levels of the class-based
system. This understanding of the educational achievement gap between classes has
created a wealth of research with which to investigate the impact of and potentially
rectify factors for wealth disparity in education. Educational practitioners and
researchers alike have long asserted, the ethical imperative of education is to help all
students achieve at high levels. Therefore, educational researchers have extensively
sought to comprehend the achievement gap and how poverty impacts school
performance. The field of curriculum and instruction is vast and all inclusive.
Education and curriculum and instruction is an industry of serving, motivating and
educating human individuals, the field incorporates and investigates through the
perspectives of economics, biology, psychology and sociology.
 The biological perspective offers some added insight into the phenomena of low
academic achievement for economically disadvantaged students. found growing up in
poverty was associated with structural differences in the brain. Impoverished students
had reduced gray matter in the frontal and temporal lobes as well as the hippocampus,
when compared with economically stable students. The volumes of gray matter were
further reduced when disaggregated by the amount of poverty the child endured.
Students whose economic means equated to 1.5 times the federal poverty level had a
three to four-point reduction in gray matter. This reduction was more than double for
students living below the federal poverty level.

Impoverished students were more likely to engage in problem behaviors when

they had faced poverty for long periods during development. In addition, Mazza,
Lambert, Zunzunegui, Tremblay, Boivin, and Cote, asserted students were at greater
risk for physical aggression throughout their lives when they lived in poverty between
the ages of birth to three years. These increased behavioral occurrences also have a
negative impact on student performance. Students with greater behavioral occurrences
spend more in-school time, outside the classroom, as educators seek corrective action
such as sending students to the principal’s office, detention and even school
suspensions. Continued negative interactions between teachers and student problem
behaviors also have a negative impact on the student-teacher relationship. These
relationships have been found to be essential to fostering a sense of belonging and
student motivation.

Erikson emphasized that relationships help foster healthy development for all

students. However, the trend in research has been to explore only facets of
psychosocial development rather than to explore the application of psychosocial
development and its relationship to student achievement. Erikson  identified all
individuals develop through specific stages starting in infancy. At each state of
psychosocial development an individual is faced with a dilemma they must master to
develop on to the next stage. The stages from infancy to school age are Trust versus
Mistrusts, which occurs in infancy, and Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt which
develops during the toddler period. The preschool stage is devoted to the development
of Initiative versus Guilt, and finally school age children must learn Industry over
Inferiority. Failure to attain in one stage leads the individual to face an identity crisis
and causes impairments in the subsequent stages. Previous research has found that
through proper stage attainment individuals gain emotional, social and mental well-
being. Stages are either attained or unsuccessful through the dynamic push and pull of
interpersonal relationships and psychological developments, hence the term
“psychosocial development”. Caregivers must consistently meet physiological needs
such as feeding and changing early in development and then encourage autonomous
actions such as walking, changing, and toileting. These feats help children to develop
security in their ability and pursue social and academic activities. Successful
relationships have been shown to improve and even predict academic performance. 

THE SCHOOL AS A FORMAL ORGANIZATION

School is an institution or building in which children, youth and adults receive

education. In order to convey the intended education, lessons are taught. Usually
school lessons require that the person ‘s previous knowledge be adjusted to his or her
knowledge of the school lesson. What happens in a particular lesson then becomes
part of the participant ‘s knowledge? Students in contemporarily societies ordinarily
have their lives organized by those who are deemed to have already achieved
competence and they see them as their forbearers or models (Wood, 2012; Hope,
2012). In a school environment, these models are school teachers. Teachers, as
education service professionals expand their purview of their teaching activities
(Nsamenang & Tchombe, 2011), they are more specialized in their understanding and
treatment of students, and base their work on available research about students and
their learning difficulties and needs (Ololube, 2011). 41 Teachers make decisions
about the level and type of instruction received by students (Austin, Dwyer &
Freebody, 2005). These decisions are guided by the school‘s curriculum. The
information and lessons that students learn in the school are set out in the school
curriculum. Curriculum can be defined as the totality of experiences, which the school
offers to its students. These experiences should be systematically planned to produce
positive behaviour changes in students and it helps them to fit into and contribute to
the society in which they live and grow. At the same time, a school‘s curriculum is
always a reflection of what people think, feel, believe and do in a given culture
(Ololube, 2009). Governments exercise authority and regulate schools activities
through rules, regulations, policies, and administration. These measures exist to ensure
effectiveness and accountability in school activities that are consistency across schools
globally (Masters, Rowley, Ainley & Khoo, 2008; Carothers & Brechenmacher,
2014). In addition to the policy structures and administrative mechanisms, schools
cannot function effectively without facilities like, chairs, desk, computers, boards,
books and above all the buildings where teaching and learning take place (Fareo &
Ojo, 2013). In addition to be available infrastructures, school facilities and equipment
must be well-maintained (Asiyai, 2012; Ekundayo, 2012). It is the
administrators‘responsibility to guarantee that resources are preserved and
functional and are used economically and flexibly too (Amanchukwu & Ololube,
2015). A question needs to be asked, what are the purposes of school and schooling?
In answering this question, one must critically evaluate the diverse functions of school
with reference to recent changes in school policies and reforms around the world.
Essentially, school functions as a means of education and social control; it is a place
where teaching and learning takes place. It helps to inspire and reassure the young to
develop into good citizens and prepares them for employment and productive
contributors to society (Ololube & Egbezor, 2012). It is a way of reducing social
differences and inequality or a way of breeding social inequalities. If schools are
effective and excellently executed, it benefits the individuals who acquire the
knowledge (Norviewu-Mortty, 2012), the society they live and the economy of the
country (Serageldin, 2013). According to Ololube et al. (2012), schooling in its
extensive sense is any act, experience, skill, understanding or knowledge that has a
formative effect on the mind, character, and physical ability or capability of an
individual (for example, a child is educated by the school environment through
interaction with teachers and peers). Schooling is an entire range of experiences in
life through which individuals learn something new (Adeyinka, 2015). In a
practical sense, schooling is the process through which society purposefully
transmits its knowledge, values, and skills from one generation to the next through
teaching and learning (Dienye & Iwele, 2011; Ololube, 2012). Teachers in schools
direct the learning of students and draw on many subjects, including reading, writing,
mathematics, science, history, etc. (Dienye & Iwele, 2011). Such teaching denotes the
actions of an instructor to impart knowledge to students. Learning in this context
refers to the processes that equip students with definite knowledge, skills and abilities
that are made functional upon completion. In the context of the compulsory
education of youth, this technical process is sometimes called schooling
(Hunner-Kreisel & Bohne, 2016). Given the centrality of formal schooling across the
world, education has become a powerful instrument of social progress without which
no individual can attain professional development (Ololube, 2011).

The school board acts as an agent of wider community. the school is a complex
web of social interactions with various types of interactions taking place
simultaneously, each affecting the whole, and having at least an indirect influence
upon the child. The future of mankind depends upon the education imparted in
schools.

SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN

EDUCATION

Teacher Training
Schools face the difficult issue of measuring teacher effectiveness. For example, most
high school teachers perceive students as being prepared for college, while most
college professors do not see those same students as prepared for the rigors of
collegiate study. Some feel that this is due to primary and secondary-level (i.e., high
school) teachers being unprepared to teach, as many teachers in the United States
teach subjects that are outside their own field of study. This is not the case in many
European and Asian countries. Only eight percent of United States fourth-grade math
teachers majored or minored in math, compared with 48 percent of math teachers in
Singapore. Further, students in disadvantaged American schools are 77 percent more
likely to be educated by a teacher who didn’t specialize in the subject matter than
students who attend schools in affluent neighborhoods (Holt, McGrath, and Seastrom
2006). Consequently, there are two broad structural problems in regards to teacher
training in the United States: first, teachers are, according to some, underprepared to
teach students due to a discrepancy between their academic preparation and their
professional expectations; second, better-prepared teachers are more likely to be found
in wealthier neighborhoods, further contributing to already existing educational
inequality.

Social Promotion

Social promotion is another issue identified by sociologists. This is the concept of

passing students to the next grade regardless of whether they’ve met the standards for
that grade. Critics of this practice argue that students should never move to the next
grade if they have not mastered the skills required to “graduate” from the previous
grade. Proponents of the practice question what a school is to do with a student who is
three to four years older than other students in his or her grade, saying this creates
more pressing issues than the practice of social promotion. Others are more concerned
about the social consequences of holding students back, and about the social
development of older students who would be surrounded by younger students.

Affirmative Action
Affirmative action has been a subject of debate, primarily as it relates to the
admittance of college students. Opponents suggest that, under affirmative action,
minority students are given greater weighted priorities for admittance. Supporters of
affirmative action point to the way in which it grants opportunities to students who are
traditionally done a disservice in the college admission process.

Accountability in Global Perspective

Systems of educational accountability have been in existence for centuries, but the
mode in which they are currently being used is distinctive from past patterns. Early
accountability systems held principally the students and applicants accountable for
their learning through the use of graded examinations. The exams were high-stakes in
that they had significant consequences for the candidates who took them, but rarely
did they call into question the viability and efficacy of the agencies of education. In
the early years of the 20th century the use of testing of students served another
function — as a diagnostic to inform teachers of student deficiencies that were in need
of remediation or enhanced instruction. While these earlier roles for accountability
persist, new purposes emerged during the last few decades of the 20th century and
these coincide with significant changes in economic and political relations among
nations. Testing in its current usage frequently serves as an indicator of the quality of
the educational system and its professional practitioners. Test score outcomes are
used to judge whether to close schools and replace personnel. They may also serve to
judge the adequacy of a national workforce.

Adult Education and Life-Long Learning

Adult education is not a universal institution but very widespread within its diversity.
It has a long history related to civil society and social movements in particular. In the
20th century adult education has also become a matter of state policy (Torres 2006.).
Esping-Andersen (1990) has proposed a well-known classification of ideal types of
welfare states. His point of departure is the concept of “decommodification”, i.e. “the
degree to which they (welfare states) permit people to make their living standards
independent of pure market forces. It is in this sense that social rights diminish
citizens’ status as ‘commodities’” (Ibid., 3). In both liberal welfare capitalism and in
the conservative or corporative model, social rights are restricted and the rate of
decommodification is low. The third regime cluster, the Nordic model, includes “those
countries in which the principles of universalism and decommodification of social
rights were extended also to the new middle classes.”