Introduction to Social Dimension of Education

Sociologist see education as one of the major institution that constitutes society.

Sociology – the scientific study of human social behavior. As the study of humans
in their collective aspect, sociology is concerned with all group activities:
economics, social, political and religious.

Social science theories guide research and policy formulation while providing logical
explanations for why things happen the way they do.

Social Science is a major category of academic disciplines, concerned with society

and the relationships among individuals within a society.

Social science as a whole has many branches, each of which is considered a social
science. The social sciences include, but are not limited to: anthropology,
archaeology, communication studies, economics, history, human geography,
jurisprudence, linguistics, political science, psychology, public health, and
sociology.

These theories help sociologist understand educational system.

Discussion:

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

society.

Conflict is a clash between ideas and principles and people.

Consensus Theories Conflict Theories

See shared norms and values as
fundamental to society
Focus on social order based on tacit
agreements
View social change as occurring in a
slow and orderly fashion
Emphasize the dominance of some
social groups by others
See social order as based on
manipulation and control by dominant
groups.
View social change as occurring rapidly
in a disorderly fashion as subordinate
groups overthrow dominant groups

Consensus Theorist – examine value integration in society.

Conflict Theorist – examine conflicts of interest and the coercion that holds society
together in the face of these stresses.

Society cannot exist without both conflict and consensus, which are prerequisites
of each other. Thus, we cannot have conflict unless there is some prior consensus.
CONFLICT THEORY

What is the impact of conflict theory in the Philippines education system?

 Schools contribute to the unequal distribution of people into jobs in society.
 Powerful members-best positions
 Less powerful groups (minority, ethnic, racial, women) – lowest rank

What is the role of education in assuming the conflict theory?

 Education plays in maintaining the prestige, power, and economic and social
position of the dominant group in society.

How do people or an organization settle a conflict?

 Conflict theory assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of
conflict or tensions between competing groups.
 Conflict need not be violent; it can take the form of labor negotiations, party
politics, and competition between religious groups.
The Conflict Theory
 A struggle between social classes and class conflicts between the powerful
and less powerful groups occur.
 Groups which have vested interest and power work for rules and laws,
particularly those that serve their own interest, to be passed to the
exclusion of other. – ex. Group protest

Conflict theorists are interested in how society’s institutions – the family,

government, religion, education, and the media-may help to maintain the
privileges of some groups and keep others in subservient position.

Emphasis on social change and redistribution of resources makes conflict theories

more “radical” and “activist”.

The Conflict Model – is concerned with the stresses and conflicts that emerge in
society because of competitions over scarce resources. It focuses on the inequalities
that are built into social structures rather than on those that emerge because of
personal characteristics.
[Social structures produce patterns of inequality in the distribution of scare
resources]  [Conflict]  [Reorganization and Change]

“Conflict is the origin of everything”

The discourse of conflict theories is on the emergence of conflict and what causes
conflict within a particular human society.
Summary:

Conflict theory deals

with the incompatble
aspects of society.
Conflict theory emerged
out of the sociology of
conflict crisis and social
change.

CONSENSUS THEORY

Concerned with the maintenance or continuation of social order in society, in

relation to accepted norms, values, rules, and regulations as widely accepted or
collectively by the society – o within a particular society itself. [ex. Gender equality]

The consensus and conflict theories are reflected in the works of certain dominant
social theorist such as:

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 interest.

EMILE DURKHEIM – Durkheim 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 conc1erned about how
the division of labor changes the way that individual feel they are part of society as
a whole.

Max Weber – 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.

TALCOTT PARSONS

ROBERT MERTON

LOUIS ALTHUSSER

RALF DHARENDORF
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY

HERBERT BLUMER

The works of Marx in his early years was interpreted by some social theorist as
emphasizing the role of human beings in social conflict. They explained change as
emerging from the crisis between human beings and their society.

They argued that Marx’s theory was the theory characterized by class conflicts or
the conflict between the bourgeoisie (rich owners) and the proletariat (poor
workers)

Max Weber argues that schools teach and maintain particular “status cultures”,
that is groups in society with similar interests and positions in the status hierarchy

Located in neighborhoods, schools are often rather homogenous in their students

bodies and teach to that constituency, thus perpetuating that status culture.

Education system may train individuals in specialties to fill needed positions to

prepare “cultivated individuals”, those who stand above the others because of
their superior knowledge and reasoning abilities.
Individuals who had access to this type of education in early China were from the
educated elite, thus perpetuating their family status culture.

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
Structural Functionalism states that society is made up of various institution that
work together in cooperation.

Parsons’ structural functionalism has four functional imperatives also known as AGIL
scheme.

Parson’s Structural – Functional Model of Society – Institutional Interaction

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM - AGIL

1. ADAPTATION – a system must cope with external situational exigencies. It
must adapt to its environment and adapt environment to its needs.
2. GOAL ATTAINMENT – a system must define and achieve its primary goals.
 3. INTEGRATION – a system must regulate the interrelationship of its component
parts. It must also manage the relationship among the other three functional
imperatives (AGL)
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)

Parson’s answer to the problem of order in Structural Functionalism

1. Property of order and interdependence of parts
2. Self-maintaining order or equilibrium
3. Maybe static or involved
4. Nature of one part has an impact on the forms that the other parts can take.
5. Maintain boundaries with their environments.
6. Allocation and integration are two fundamental process necessary for a given
equilibrium
7. Self-maintenance involving the maintenance of relationships of parts to whole

Parson’s social system begins at the micro level with interaction between the ego
and alter – ego, defined as the most elementary form of the social system. He was
interested in such a large-scale components of social systems as collectiveness,
norms and values. Parsons was not simply a structuralist but also a FUNCTIONALIST.
Functional Requisites of a social system
1. Social system must be structured so that they operate compatibly with other
systems.
2. To survive, the social system must have requisite from other systems.
3. The system must meet 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.
-Talcott Parsons

The functionalist perspective is primarily concerned with why society assumes a

particular form. It assumes that any society takes its particular form because
that form works well for the society given its particular situation. Societies exist
under a wide range of environmental situations.

Key principles of the functionalist theory by Farley 1990.

1. Interdependency – every part of society is dependent to some extent on the
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 Social Structure refers to the
organization of society, including its institutions, its social positions and
distribution of resources. Culture refers to a set of beliefs, language, rules,
values, and knowledge held in common by members of a society.
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. Society tends toward consensus to achieve cooperation.
4. Equilibrium is a characteristic of a society when it has achieved the form that
is best adapted to its situation. New technology, a change in climate, or contact
with an outside society are all conditions to which a society might have to adapt.
The component parts of social structure: • Families • Neighbors • Associations •
Schools • Churches • Banks • Countries

• Parsons believes that education is a vital part of modern society, a society

that differs considerably from all previous societies.

• Schooling performs an important function in the development and

maintenance of a modern, democratic society, especially with regard to
equality of opportunity for all citizens.
• Thus, in modern societies education becomes the key institution in a
meritocratic selection process.

• Education also plays a significant function in the maintenance of the modern

democratic and technocratic society.

• Schools teach work skills and teach students how to learn so they may adapt
to new work roles and requirements.

Interactionist Theories
• Interactionist theories are critiques and extensions of the functionalist and
conflict perspectives.
• This level of analysis helps us to understand education in the “big picture”.
• Interactionist theories attempt to make the “commonplace strange” by turning
on their heads everyday taken-for-granted behaviors and interactions in schools.
• Symbolic Interactionism views the self as socially constructed in relation to
social forces and social structures and the product of ongoing negotiations of
meanings.
• Thus, the social self is an active product of human agency rather than a
deterministic product of social structure.
• Symbolic Interactionists are not only interested in socialization but also in
interaction in general which is of “vital importance in its own right”.
• Interaction is the process in which the ability to think is both developed and
expressed.
Principles of Symbolic Interactionism
1. Human beings are endowed with the capacity for thought.
2. The capacity for thought us shaped by social interaction
3. In social interaction, people learn the meanings and the symbols that allow
them to exercise their distinctively human capacity for 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.
Mead’s differentiation between the basic forms of Social Interaction are:
1. Non-Symbolic Interactionism does not involve thinking.
2. Symbolic Interactionism requires mental processes

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

1. People act toward the things they encounter on the basis of what those
things mean to them.
2. We learn what things are by observing how other people respond to them
through social interaction.
3. The result of ongoing interaction we use in dealing with others acquire
symbolic meanings that are shared by the people who belong to the same
culture.
The importance of thinking to symbolic interactionists is reflected in their views on
objects. Blumer differentiates among three types of objects:
1. Physical objects- chairs, trees
2. Social objects - student, mother, teacher
3. Abstract objects- idea or a moral principle Objects are seen simply as things, the
greatest significance is the way they are defined by actors.

Charles Horton Cooley developed a concept that has long been used by symbolic
interactionist and it is the LOOKING- GLASS-SELF it means “that we see ourselves
as others see us” We come to develop a self – image on the basis of the
messages we get from others, as we understand them.

Schools play a significant role in educating the Filipino citizens . It is our duty as
teachers to really inculcate the value of fairness and honesty to our students.
We also need to teach them how to learn, so they may be able to adapt in any
situations/events that they will be presented. The looking –glass-self simply tells
us that we must be cautious in giving remarks to others. Let us all be generous in
giving positive comments and lessen the words that will hurt others.