Education is the most important part of a person’s life. According to Vissing, social institutions impact educational structures, processes, and outcomes (Vissing, 2011). Education help people gain knowledge and skills to function in everyday life. Educational institutions are designed to transmit information, provide skills, shape attitudes and beliefs, and instill norms and values (Vissing, 2011). Education is important in the functioning of state and local governments. Functionalism, conflict, and interactionalism are sociological theories that are important for people to know. These theories are important in helping to understand education and why education is important.
Vissing states, “Some people feel that schools are falling behind and failing in their
mission to adequately educate students to compete in an international economic sphere,
while others allege that schools teach more creatively and provide more detailed infor-
mation than ever before to more students.” (Vissing, 2011)
The truth to those points depends on how a person looks at it. In this paper the three major theories will be analyzed, compared, and contrasted to show the impact each one has on education.
Functionalist theory focuses on the ways that universal education serves the needs of society (www.uwosh.edu). There is a variety of manifest and latent reasons schools are functional for society. They are socialization agents that teach students culturally relevant core values and norms in what Durkeim called a moral education that would help create a more cohesive social structure (Vissing, 2011). “Moral Education” helped form a more cohesive social structure by bringing people together from diverse backgrounds. Individualism is the mos...
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... attends may influence later educational opportunities (Vissing, 2011).
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Parsons, T. (1951). The social system. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Puri, Usha. Education: Theory and Practice. Delhi, IND: Global Media, 2006. p156
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Rosenthal, R. & Jacobson, L. (1992). Pygmalion in the classroom (Expanded ed.). New York:
Irvington
www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff Sociology: Theories of Education. Cliffnotes.com
http://www.cliffnotes.com/study_guide
Vissing, Y (2011). Introduction to Sociology. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint
Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu
One of the sociological theories is conflict theory. The conflict theory deals with people's level on wealth, or class. The conflict theory says that social change is beneficial, contrary to focuses on social order. In the story of the woman and her children, the conflict theory plays a big role on the situation. Police of higher class are threatening the homeless woman. The conflict theory is a constant struggle of people of higher class over powering people of lower class, or the weaker. The police are trying to over power the woman by telling her to leave. Even though the woman and her children were doing nothing wrong, the police used their power to tell her to leave. Also the people of the area showed their conflict theory by telling the police officers to come. They must have felt embarrassed to have a woman of such lower class to be around them. They used their power of class to have the woman removed from their community. The woman wants to be there because she has no home and it is a good community to be in, but the people look at it as an embarrassment to them because it makes their area look bad for someone of such lower class to be around them. The conflict theory is unique to all other theories because it separates people into categories determined by their wealth and standards. Their status is the element that categorizes them, weather it is class, race, or gender. The conflict theory do not always use class, race, and gender all at once. In this situation race and gender is not a main issue, although gender could be a reason, but it would fall under the feminist theory. This story is mainly dealing with class. Through all this conflict the woman feels over powered and domina...
In a broad sense, the field of social foundations of education entails beliefs and values in school and society, the political economy in schools and society, and the culture of the school. There are a magnitude of social forces that affect educational policies on a daily basis such as; government, religion, family and the economy. Each of these social structures influences one another which results in many conflicts in regards to a “democratic education.” The social foundations of education do not meet the criteria of a democratic education because of certain laws or rules that are established. For example, the delegation of funds in schools is solely based on the property taxes of a specific community. Therefore, the schools in poor communities receive less funding than the schools in wealthy areas. When young people have no say in the regulations that they are bound by, then they cannot be said to live in a democratic environment or understand what it truly means to be “democratically educated.”
1 Most sociologists interpret social life from one of three major theoretical frameworks or theories: symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, or conflict theory. Describe the major points and key concepts of each framework. List at least one sociologist who is identified with each of these three frameworks.
Not one single person on earth can explain why they are where they are in life in a single sentence. I used to think that I would just take a year off of school after I graduated from college. Maybe I would explore or just work a lot and save up some money so I could have a little more freedom in life. Whatever it was, I was not quite sure yet, I just really did not want to be in school for a while. Well, my plans changed when everyone I knew was telling me not to do that because I would most likely not go back. I also saw friends that were older than I was take that break, and then regret it when all of their friends were graduating without them. I changed my mind pretty quickly after hearing about and witnessing their mistakes and decided to go to college right out of high school after all. But after attending Shasta College for just a few weeks, I realized that I actually liked going to school. I found a whole new love for learning. I actually enjoyed soaking up information and learning from my professors. Looking back on my life, I'm so glad that my little idea of not going to college for a while was out weighed by all of the reasons that did cause me to go. My primary group which consists of my family and my boyfriend, the way I view myself, and the values that I hold close to me all greatly affected my decision to attend Shasta College.
Sociological Theory To be able to evaluate Functionalism, Marxism and Interactionism we must first look at the strengths and weaknesses in each. There are many variations and interpretations of each of these theories, therefore for the sake of simplicity only the key ideals will be discussed. Functionalism looks at society as an organized structure of inter-related institutions; and the various ways these institutions interact together within a social structure. Examples of these 'institutions' are the family, work, education and religion.
The functionalist perspective views society as “a stable, orderly system” (Kendall, 2014, p. 16). Within the functionalist ideology, there are set beliefs and values within the system in which matters must respond accordingly. Functionalists believe that, in order to achieve the epitome of societal stability, the different races and ethnic groups should assimilate to the dominant culture of that area (Kendall, 2014, p. 270). An example from my personal experiences would be when I transferred to South Sioux City Middle School and aligned myself with the other Mexican students. Due to the fact that I am a part of the Mexican ethnic group, I was clustered with the other students most similar to me. For most of my middle school and high school career, every individual had their own group where they best fit. Functionalists also think that coexisting amongst the different racial and ethnic groups are vital to society. This is also referred to as, ethnic pluralism (Kendall, 2014, p. 271). For instance, within the South Sioux City school system, the school’s administration allowed Muslim students of Islamic faith to take time out of class to go pray during a set time. The administration allowed the activity, due to a certain period of time being significant to their ethnic culture, which required them to pray periodically throughout the day in peace. The students who practiced this religion successfully coexisted with other students of different faiths and the school administration accepted these types of practices amongst the students. Under the functionalist viewpoint, people must integrate and synchronize effectively with people of other
Macrosociological Theory is the analysis of the organization and structure of society and its ability to create an environment that is conducive to criminal activity. In other words, “Is the whole of society interrelated or interdependent, if so, how does it affect crime?” or “Does society influence crime?”
There are many distinct institutions which correspond to the different roles that appear in society. As time change, it seem that certain institutions stand out from the rest, and in this case education serves as an essential component in society. Educational institutions play an important role in influencing the choices of individuals from their early childhood; presenting people with the objectives and values that are instilled by society. Education impacts individuals, groups, and society, whether it’s a positive or negative one. The Conflict Theory by Karl Marx will serve as tool to explain the points in this paper.
The Contribution of Functionalist Sociology to an Understanding of the Role of Education in Society
Education is generally seen as a formal process of instruction, based on a theory of teaching, to impart formal knowledge to one or more students (Cogburn, n.d.). Henceforth, individuals seek to acquire some form of schooling from pre-school through secondary school while others may go on to tertiary to better him or her in some way. A definition of education according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is that education is “a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges, to improve knowledge and develop skills.” Where education in the common parlance has become a process of adding layers of one’s store of knowledge, the true aim of education is to call forth that which is essential to the individual (White, 2006). Furthermore, and according to Coombs and Ahmed 1974, education is a continuing process, spanning the years from earliest infancy through adulthood and necessarily involving a great variety of methods and sources. Education also involves inculcating in students distinct bits of knowledge; therefore education is an additive process (White, 2006). It adds to an individual as well as it adds to a country through the individuals who are and would have been or are being educated. According to a study conducted by Olaniyan and Okemakinde 2008, education creates improved citizens and helps to upgrade the general standard of living in a society. Furthermore, education plays a key role in the ability of a developing country to absorb modern technology and to develop the capacity for self-sustaining growth and development (Todaro and Smith, 2012).
Specifically, functionalists argue that school performs two key functions that contribute to social cohesion: assimilation and political socialization. The education system serves as a means by which to instill the norms of a specific group (usually a dominant group) through a wide array of mechanisms ranging from medium-of-instruction policies to the hidden curriculum, thus producing a set of individuals with the same cultural and linguistic norms, a cohesive social unit. Likewise, political socialization expands on this notion of group identity, applying it as a loyalty not only to one’s own group, but to the nation as a whole. Through reciting the pledge of allegiance and teaching students about traditional political values in required U.S. history and government classes, the education system instills in students a loyalty to the nation as a whole. Assimilation and political socialization, as argued from the functionalist perspective, serve to socialize individuals in ways that enable them to adapt to the larger social world of mass society. These ideals, when paired with the meritocratic role differentiation system described above, form the
When it comes to comprehending or understanding any concept to why individuals may do some of the things they do, there are social theories out there to help better explain those actions. Sociological theories help to focus more on the aspect of social life, as well as explain behaviors that can be driven by passion, tradition, self-interest, religion, and the laws we have set out today in stone. “Unlike scientific theories, social theories tend to be more evaluative and critical than the theories in the natural sciences” (Appelrouth A. S.; Edles D. L 2012) Today, an analytical frame is used to help guide the comparing and contrasting of the several theoretical perspectives and traditions. In simpler terms, this four way frame is basically used to help compare and contrast theorist better. There are four main cells that make up this analytical frame which include, individual-rational, individual-nonrational, collective-rational, and collective-nonrational. Also included into this basic theoretical orientation or framework, are the core classical theorists. Those influential theorists included into the framework are Mead, who falls into the individual-nonrational side, Durkheim whom falls into the collective-nonrational side, Weber whom falls into the collective-rational side, and Marx who is also included into the collective-rational side.
One can gain insight through participation and observations of lectures. The concepts that I grasped are based on the individuality and interest of various topics and how I perceive them. Through taking the course of Sociology of Education I have been able to read and conceptualize how prominent education is in the United States; therefore projecting that education is an important tool the modern world correlates with success. Individuals that subject themselves to receiving an education through research validate that they can reach their optimal potential. Sociology of Education covered vast areas of vital informations which put educations and its functions into perspectives by stages.
Education is a vital part of society. It serves the beneficial purpose of educating our children and getting them ready to be productive adults in today's society. But, the social institution of education is not without its problems. Continual efforts to modify and improve the system need to be made, if we are to reap the highest benefits that education has to offer to our children and our society as a whole.
Education is man’s most valuable possession: it is the concept through which one’s love for learning stems, and the equipment used to pave an individual’s path to success. Although easily influenced by the opinions of others, education is one of the few concepts that neither internal nor external stress can strip from our being. The future of our society lies in the hands of our educators; the values and morals instilled by such figures govern the actions of the earth’s people.